Shimano Take A Kid Fishing Day At Belwood Lake
Teaching kids to fish – what could be more rewarding? As I found out on Saturday, not much.
Saturday was Shimano Take A Kid Fishing day at Belwood Lake Conservation Area. After seeing a post about the event from Derek Strub on NationalProStaff.com, I decided to volunteer myself and Darrell to help at the kids fishing pond.
Shimano Take A Kid Fishing Day is an annual event at the conservation area, and this year saw over 200 participants pre-registered. Kids came for either the morning or afternoon session, and were able to take part in various activities such as an introduction to archery, a look at biology, and actually fishing at the pond. The kids walked away with tackle packages, and knowledge that will serve them well over the years.
The kids pond at Belwood Lake is for children 13 and under and stocked with rainbow trout. It’s an excellent destination for anyone looking to get their kids into fishing.
At the fishing pond we had an abundance of fishing rods, all supplied by the OFAH TackleShare program. Having a large amount of rods turned out to be very useful. As worms were eaten off hooks and line got twisted, we were able to hand off a new rod so the kids could keep on fishing. This also resulted in a nearly continuous effort to re-bait hooks and get the rods back in working shape for the next group.
While I had been unsure how the day would progress, we quickly settled into a rhythm – make sure all the rods were rigged and ready to go for the start of a session, hand off rods to kids as they showed up, teach kids how to cast if they hadn’t fished before, and help release fish.
During our first session I was struck by the thought that I had never seen so many bobbers in the water at one time – there were bobbers everywhere and we had surprisingly few tangles.
I immediately got my chance to teach some kids to fish, which I was quite nervous about because casting has become second-nature and I wasn’t sure I could explain it. I shouldn’t have worried. The kids were all brilliant and somehow understand my garbled instructions. In no time they were casting like seasoned pros. Not long after, one of the boys landed the first fish of the day – a tiny sunfish. I know he had wanted to catch a big trout, but he couldn’t help a big smile from breaking out when I unhooked the fish and put it in his hands for him to release. That, in turn, made me smile.
The day started with small catches, but each kid was more than happy to catch a minnow. One girl I was helping managed to catch two minnows, which was two fish more than her brother. She thought that was awesome. So did I.
Eventually the trout started to bite and that was a riot. Whenever a trout was landed most of the people standing around the pond broke into applause. I can almost guarantee that the kids who were catching trout will go out fishing again. So will many of the others.
During one session I tried my hardest to help a little boy catch some fish. His mother told me how much he had been looking forward to the day and going fishing. We moved around the pond to a couple of locations, and though he just missed a decent trout, I couldn’t even get him a minnow. I felt awful. I hope he had enough fun that he will go out again. He certainly got good at casting.
As the beautiful day stretched on, we were all kept busy helping kids fish and tending to rods. The fishing pond was by far the kids favorite destination and I noticed a few kids who never left the shore.
To hear the kids get excited as they watched their bobbers move, calling out to their parents that they almost had a fish, was a blast. All of them left with a smile, whether or not they caught something. The more experienced anglers in the bunch seemed to have already figured out that you can’t catch them every day.
It was a great day. The kids were incredibly polite, saying thank you for almost everything we did. The only downer on the day was that when I took a few casts, I didn’t hook into anything! The kids definitely showed me up. However, I’d be more than happy to go the day without catching anything, and be able to introduce a new generation to the wonderful sport of fishing.
argosgirl
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