Volunteer Mike Sapp teaches fly tying to nature center visitors
Bennett Spring State Park volunteer Mike Sapp enjoys teaching fly tying to children at the park’s nature center. He has made and taught special flies for the United States of America’s 250th birthday.
Having been a nature center volunteer and campground host for the last three years, Sapp said in May he has learned a lot about the park and met people with a variety of backgrounds.
Sapp would be volunteering usual days of Fridays-Sundays through the end of June, he said that month, and would be back August 1.
A retired Missouri Capitol Police officer and code enforcement officer, for the last three years he has been teaching how to tie flies on and off in addition to meeting people, answering their questions and working on general maintenance.
He and his wife, Cynthia Morris-Sapp, began going to Bennett Spring State Park much earlier. He started volunteering in the fall of 2023 under previous Senior Naturalist and Resource Interpreter Patricia Chambers.
When asked what he liked about Bennett Spring, Sapp said he liked the park’s beauty.
Senior Naturalist and Resource Interpreter Sam Grove wrote to the Record that Sapp was reliable, welcoming to guests, and knew trout fishing well. She enjoyed having reliable volunteers in the nature center when she was not there since she knew things were in good hands.
As part of the park’s program USA 250, which the park announced on Facebook, the park planned to teach visitors how to tie special flies for the 250th birthday of the United States of America Friday-Sunday in June.
Sapp had several varieties on display when the Record visited in June and was still making some varieties at the time of writing. He said there would be a limited supply of flies left at the nature center after he left.
June 30, 2026 Update: Grove said June 27 that Sapp would stay through July and continue his fly tying for the park’s USA 250 program. According to Grove, the previous host was unable to volunteer in July due to an emergency. We included a variation of this update in the July 1 issue of the Laclede County Record.
