The Sunday Oregonian, 7-8-07
If fishing doesn't catch on with more families and kids, an Oregon outdoor tradition will keep fading away.

Madeline is 5, and she has a fish on. She stands in a green rowboat on a lake in Oregon's Coast Range. She's reeling furiously, and soon the 9 inch cutthroat trout is at hand. Madeline shouts to her father, her excitied voice carrying across the water, "Daddy, I caught a fish!"
It's a first for Madeline--and it might also turn out to be a important catch for Oregon. Another child seems hooked on a declining tradition that can't seem to get a nibble from a growing number of Oregon families.
Over the next half hour, Madeline will catch and release another 3 trout. As her new fishing buddy rows the boat ashore, he gives the little girl one last tip. When people ask how many fish she caught, he says, to tell them, "Too many to count."
When it comes to Oregon kids and fishing, the actual numbers don't look good. The state's population has doubled over the past 50 yrs, but fewer Oregonians bought fishing licenses last year than any year since 1969.
Thirty years ago, on a hot summer weekend like this one, kids would be fishing lakes and streams all over Oregon. But today, fewer than one in five Oregonians ever goes fishing. And look around: The vast majority of them are old enough to be Madeline's grandparents.
There are lots of reasons that fishing is no longer luring Oregon families: Three- quarters of Oregon's population lives in urban areas, often distant from fishing opportunities. Fewer parents, especially working and single parents, seem to have time to get their kids into the outdoors. The costs of fishing and hunting keep rising.
The Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife is trying to woo more families and children back outdoors. The department has a an 'Easy Angling Oregon" program, offering hands-on fishing advice and detailed information on 34 lakes, ponds, rivers and reservoirs identified as ideal for families.
The agency also sponsors dozens of fishing events throughout the state aimed at encouraging kids to give fishing a try. The department anually stocks 50,000 trout in lakes and ponds to provide excitement for young anglers. Information about all these events is available on the agency's Web site, www.dfw.state.or.us/easy_angling/index.asp
If you have a chance, take a kid fishing. As Madeline can tell you, an hour or two on an Oregon lake, or a evening spent on one of the state's productive fishing ponds, is great fun.
After Madeline had just stepped off the rowboat, and her dad was unbuckling her lifejacket, somebody asked the little girl how many fish she'd caught.
The 5 yr old smiled and set the hook: "Too many to count."
Author; Rick Attig