This past Saturday and Sunday, 20 young men from the Bay City and Essexville Boy's Club participated in Trout Unlimited's local fishing program at Camp Fish Tales Local Copeland Trout Unlimited Chapter Takes Kids Fishing
|
||||||||||
| Printer Friendly Story View |
Special to MyBayCity -- Wade B. Lodewyk
This past Saturday and Sunday, 20 young men from the Bay City and Essexville Boy's Club participated in Trout Unlimited's local fishing program. The program, sponsored by Bay City's Arnold J. Copeland chapter of Trout Unlimited, introduces participants to both spin cast and fly fishing techniques. For the first time, this year the participants also had an opportunity to go fishing to practice their new skills.
"This program has been in existence for several years, " said chapter President Starland Smith of Essexville. "But in the past we spent the day teaching the kids how to cast with a fly rod and then sent them on their way without ever casting to a fish. We thought it was important to put these kids in a situation to actually catch fish."
As a result, the chapters officers decided to expand the program from a single day to two days, including an over night stay in a fishing camp. The boys boarded a bus early Saturday morning for the ride up to Pinconning and Camp Fish Tales. After arranging their bunks in one of the bunkhouse cabins the boys were assembled in the main lodge for some instruction. Each participant was given a spinning rod and reel combination and tackle box to keep.
Among other things, instruction included learning how to tie the fishing knots, how to safely cast and adjusting the drag on the reel. There were also fly fishing combos for the new fisherman to experiment with. There were a lot of excited young men as they realized the fishing gear they were learning to use was theirs to keep.
But nothing could match the excitement generated when the group finally headed out to a large pond to actually fish. "Holy cow it was nuts," laughed the chapter's Vice President Greg Szilagui of Pinconning. "There was a lot of hootin' and hollering once these guys discovered there were plenty of fish and they were willing to bite. Every single kid caught fish the first time we went out, and there was some pretty furious fishing action." Sunfish and blue gill and made up the bulk of the catch.
The barbs of hooks the fishermen were using had been removed so that the youngsters could practice good conservation by releasing all the fish they caught. Bullhead and perch were also caught but the most excitement was generated when several of the boys landed some lunker largemouth bass.
"This is so cool," exclaimed Trae Donaldson of Bay City, the son of Brian and Jeanne Donaldson. "I can't even count how many fish I caught, it's like almost every cast! And I even had a bald eagle fly right over me!" Although the bulk of the time was used for fishing, the boys were also allowed to play basketball, hike the nature trails and use the camp's game room. After a full day of activities the group enjoyed a hot dog and hamburger barbecue and the boys really put away the food. The activities were closed out with a camp fire and the kids learning another age old tradition; Telling fish stories. And the guys caught on quickly with each story and fish caught being a little bigger than the last.
"This is a great program," said Ray Garcia of Bay City and volunteer chaperon from the Boy's Club. "Some of these guys have never caught a fish in their life and this sure gives them a great opportunity." Sunday morning the plan was to get up, eat breakfast and get back on the bus for Bay City. The boys had other ideas however and pleaded for one more chance to fish the pond. So bitten with the fishing bug some of them were willing to get up at 5:00am for one last fishing opportunity. It was a good thing they did. Without the hot summer brightly shining yet, the big fish were on the prowl and the guys landed some truly huge bass. As the bus headed back to Bay City the newly hooked fisherman were excited about going fishing soon and participating again next year. Starland Smith is hopeful that the program can grow. "Our annual banquet provides enough funds to do this," commented Smith. "Where we need help is volunteers. Greg, Ray, Wade (Lodewyk, the chapters treasurer) and myself probably can't handle anymore kids than we had this week end." Smith said that anyone that is interested in the conservation of our cold water resources or would like to see our communities youth become more conservation minded or just likes fishing to join Trout Unlimited and get involved. "We would love to meet you and get you involved in our program," Smith said.
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
(MyBayCity Photo by Trout Unlimited)
| Printer Friendly Story View |
|
|
O. J. Cunningham |
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Story View
0200 Nd: 04-15-2024 d 4 cpr 0
12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm
SPONSORED LINKS
12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm