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
Sad but true here as well. This is why I am dead set against our state charging any fees for minors under age 16 to fish here in Pa. Our hunters have been impacted as well. We now have about 1.5 million licensed, resident hunters but that is about half of what we had years ago!
Hooray for Madeline and her dad! There are few things that can top the excitement of a child with their first fish!
When I was in junior high in Eugene, I could ride my bike to a couple of large ponds with carp, bluegill and trout in them. When I was a junior and senior in highschool I would trade work hours with my Theater teacher, I would skip class one day and put in twice the hours the next. He was wise enough to know that If my mind was on fishing it wasn’t on building sets.
I can’t imagine the law suit that would happen today if a teacher made a deal like that and the kid drowned or somthing else happened. If that didn’t happen some do gooder would complain beceause their kid had to be miserable so I should be also.
Beyound that the ponds I fished now have developments around them and i’m sure kids arn’t allowed to fish from the lawns.
Kids are the same today and yesterday, they just have to be given the chance. If we want kids to fish we have to make a safe secure easy place for them to fish and make sure there are fish to catch. And yes we have to make it affordable.
Perhaps the tackle companies need to start campagns reaching out to parents to cut the summer soccer etc and start fishing
Eric,
That is a very good point about kids taking the summer off from sports and being normal kids.
The odds that they will get a scholarship or be pros is almost nil, so the long term solution is to fish, since that is a life skill.
Doug
yeah, it is pretty sad how few people fish anymore. i have one friend my age who fishes and i dont know anyone my age that fly fishes. and it seems like pretty much the only people who fish around here in no. va. is these dang “white bucketeers” who throw out huge rapallas, have a horrible attitude, huge ego, and keep whatever they catch no matter how small or if its legal(however thankfully they catch very few.) but leave a mess all over the place with beercans and such. we need some of you guys from FAOL to come over here and replace some of these nuissance people.
Chris,
I’ve been in a ‘Bored’ Meeting all day at FAOL with all the other members and we have decided to ADOPT YOU!!!
Since NO ONE your age flyfishes, we may as well take you under our wing. Your a flyfishing Orphan, so it’s our responsibility to see you grow up right!
No allowance
No Car Keys
No worms
Girls (OFF LIMITS!)
NO Association with the ‘Worm Guys’
You’ll be getting a FAOL Orphan Packet in the Mail (1,000 pages) Read all the pages and stand by for further instructions!
