Cast & Connect: The Fishe Files Podcast
Heather Harkavy on Fishing, Service, and the Next Generation
A week on the water can change a life. Heather Harkavy has spent years watching that transformation happen through Fish for Change.
In this episode of Cast & Connect, Heather joins Fishe founder Linda Leary to talk about youth fly-fishing scholarships, conservation, cultural exchange, lifelong friendships, and the women who helped shape her path.
Watch Heather Harkavy on Cast & Connect
Watch Linda and Heather’s complete conversation about expanding access to fly fishing and turning travel into meaningful education, service, and connection.
In This Episode
Why You Should Trust This Article
This story is based on the recorded conversation between Heather Harkavy and Fishe founder Linda Leary. Heather describes Fish for Change’s programs, scholarship model, student experiences, and her own fishing history in her own words.
Meet Heather Harkavy
Heather Harkavy is the Executive Director of Fish for Change, a nonprofit that uses fly fishing as a platform for youth education, conservation, service, and cultural exchange.
She began building the organization in her early twenties. Eight years later, she describes herself as an extension of the mission and the global student community surrounding it.
“Fishing is this platform for all this positive change.”
Heather’s work begins with fishing but intentionally reaches beyond it. Students do not simply travel to catch fish. They learn how to enter a community with curiosity, contribute to local projects, and build relationships that continue after the trip ends.
How Fish for Change Turns Fishing Camps Into Something Bigger
Fish for Change runs seven-day programs in Honduras, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Students typically spend part of each day fishing and the remaining time participating in conservation projects and community activities.
The environmental work changes with each location. Heather describes students planting mangroves, fragmenting coral, removing invasive lionfish, setting wildlife cameras, and collecting permit fin samples for research.
One week is a starting point, not a complete solution. The purpose is to give young people a hands-on relationship with science, place, and responsibility.
Fishing
Students build casting skills, learn to read water, and discover new species and fisheries.
Conservation
Local partners guide projects shaped by the needs of each ecosystem and community.
Cultural Exchange
Students spend meaningful time with guides, families, local scholarship recipients, and village leaders.
Opening the Door Through Scholarships
Heather explains that 40% of Fish for Change participants generally attend through need-based scholarships. In the season discussed during the podcast, strong fundraising allowed roughly half of the students to participate with scholarship support.
Some scholarship students come from the countries hosting the programs. Others apply from communities around the world and may be taking their first flight or seeing the ocean for the first time.
Access changes who gets to imagine a future in fishing. It can also create a pathway toward guiding, conservation, hospitality, outdoor education, or another career connected to the water.
The scholarship application itself asks students to write, record a short video, and complete an interview. Heather sees that process as valuable even for applicants who are not selected.
Cultural Exchange Is Built Into the Week
Fish for Change programs begin with local participation rather than treating the community as scenery. Scholarship students from the host country join the group and help create a natural exchange among young anglers.
Participants play local sports, investigate questions about the village, complete scavenger hunts, meet families, and share meals in guides’ homes. Staff members also bring their children onto the boats for a special family day.
The intention is to understand life beyond the fishing lodge. Heather wants students to leave feeling that they have relationships, context, and a home they can return to—not only photographs of fish.
Why Experiential Education Feels So Powerful
Heather eventually recognized that the program she had built was a form of experiential education. The learning happens through action, observation, conversation, responsibility, and reflection rather than a traditional classroom.
Every evening, students gather at sunset for a guided conversation. Topics can include perspective, curiosity, servant leadership, confidence, and careers within fishing.
Reflection helps turn an exciting day into a lasting lesson. Heather describes groups of teenagers who begin the week cautiously and soon become eager to talk about what they noticed, learned, and felt.
“Seven days feels like a year. All the strangers from day one are family.”
The Ripple Effect Can Continue for Years
One story in the episode follows a quiet student from Hungary who joined Fish for Change after learning about fly fishing through YouTube during the pandemic.
During his first interview, he gave short answers and said he had not found his voice. Heather believed the experience could help him grow, so he attended through a scholarship.
When she interviewed him again the following year, he led the conversation. He had applied for an international exchange program and was living in Iowa.
“Fish for Change taught me how to use my voice.”
The story captures what Heather means by a ripple effect. A fishing trip can become a first step toward confidence, friendship, travel, education, and choices a student had not previously imagined.
Heather’s Own Fishing Story Began With Her Dad
Heather grew up in South Florida and fished saltwater with her father. Their time together included flats fishing, offshore fishing, diving, lobstering, and travel.
She remains deeply grateful for that access and mentorship. At the same time, she remembers missing friends her own age who shared her love of being outside.
Fish for Change grew partly from those missing pieces. Heather wanted young anglers to have community, meaningful travel, conservation experience, and a clearer sense that fishing could belong to them.
What Joan Wulff Taught Heather About the Perfect Cast
When Heather was young, she attended Joan Wulff’s fly-fishing school. The experience began a relationship that later included annual fishing trips in the Florida Keys.
Heather remembers fishing with Joan when Joan was in her nineties. Despite the physical care needed to board the boat, Joan picked up a fly rod and delivered precise casts without overpowering them.
That memory still shapes the way Heather teaches young anglers. When students try to force the cast, she reminds them that technique—not brute strength—is what sends a fly accurately across the water.
At 94, Joan Wulff still showed what a lifetime of refined technique could do.
Girls Week Became a Lifelong Community
Fish for Change held its first girls week in 2019. Heather was close in age to some of the college participants, and the group formed friendships that continued long after the trip.
Years later, alumni from that week remained central to one another’s lives. One participant became Heather’s best friend, and Fish for Change alumni later gathered around her wedding.
The program did more than introduce young women to fishing. It gave them people who understood their interests, celebrated their growth, and stayed connected as they moved into adulthood.
Fishing Can Be the Beginning, Not the Finish Line
Heather Harkavy’s story shows what can happen when a fishing program is designed around access, relationships, service, and reflection.
The fish matter. So do the cast, the new water, and the challenge. But the larger outcome may be a young person discovering a voice, a community, a future career, or a wider understanding of the world.
Watch the complete Cast & Connect episode to hear Heather and Linda discuss scholarships, conservation, teenage confidence, Joan Wulff, girls week, and the community growing around Fish for Change.
Connect With Heather Harkavy and Fish for Change
Learn about upcoming programs, scholarships, conservation work, and ways to support student participation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Heather Harkavy?
Heather Harkavy is the Executive Director of Fish for Change, a nonprofit that combines youth fly fishing, conservation, service, education, and cultural exchange.
What does Fish for Change do?
Fish for Change leads week-long international fly-fishing programs for high-school and college-aged students. Trips combine fishing with conservation projects, community involvement, cultural exchange, and guided reflection.
Does Fish for Change offer scholarships?
Yes. Heather explains in the episode that 40% of participants generally attend through need-based scholarships, with both international applicants and students from host communities represented.
Where does Fish for Change run programs?
Heather discusses programs in Honduras, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Locations and availability can change, so current details should be confirmed directly with Fish for Change.
How did Joan Wulff influence Heather Harkavy?
Heather attended Joan Wulff’s fly-fishing school as a child and later fished with her in the Florida Keys. Joan’s precise casting became an enduring example of why technique matters more than force.
Where can I watch Heather Harkavy on Cast & Connect?
The complete YouTube episode is embedded near the top of this article and is also available through the Watch the Podcast button.
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