Today (in about 1.5 hours) I am taking my fly tying club fly fishing for bass! I have 30 kids that are going (they are 7th and 8th graders) and they are excited. Some people were out at the pond yesterday and said that the bass were going crazy - so it is looking to be a good day of fishing - if the weather would just hold (NOAA is predicting a 40% chance of rain). We’re going to end the day with a BBQ!
I want to thank all of you who donated to our club - without your help, this day wouldn’t have happened! I’ll post some pics later!
(allan, not nuts … probably easier than taking out 30 of us old dawgs on an outing )
Watch out for fatigue and HUNGER. The kids’ll be excited and forget to eat and drink. A “cranky” kid is probably getting hungry (and doesn’t know it). Keep their blood sugar up with complex carbs like granola bars, nuts etc without too much sugar (watch out for peanuts vs allergies).
Have fun.
I take out the 8th graders here (group of 30-45 students) and some of them are starting to bring THEIR PARENTS fishing a couple times per year.
Kathy has it right ! Let us know what tips you have for organizing/supervising 30 kids. I have a herd of kittens that need rounding up…
My first thought is about safety of the students - somehow 30 lines in the water at the same time sounds more like an ambulance should be stationed nearby. But glasses , hat , sunscreen soulnd like the minimum requirements.
My second thought is a division of labor issue - useing three students as a team:
one flycaster ( an accident waiting to happen),
one ghillie (to command the net, measure, and release the fish)
one spotter ( to locate the fish, and choose the fly)
This would encourage teamwork, limit the number of lines in the water at the same time , and be easier to supervise 10 teams instead of 30 individuals. And then , as a team , they would all rotate job responsibilities ; thus they would all learn different responsibilities . And encourage parent participation - as this is a wonderful shareing and learning opportunity, …and the kids will need transportation if they want to go fishing in the future .
Just remember - "A mind is a terrible thing to lose " - use Zoloft !!
Just my museings…
Please do let us know how you fared todays activities - and what changes you might suggest. Please send photos !!!
1: Way to go, Ranchwife!!
2: Hope you listened to JC!!
3: Dad, you have some excellant thoug-----------Team-building? Never thought of that!! What a way to get people to work together!!
4: Pictures would be great!!
Oh what fun we had!!! This club was truly a gift from God and we ended the year on a great note! NOAA was predicting a 40% chance of precipitation before we left. We arrived at the pond and were only out there 10 minutes before it started to SNOW!! Kids scrambled to get into warmer clothes, chaparones started dishing out extra coates, and then the chaparones (two USFS employees) built two bon fires for the kids to be able to get warm, and another USFS father showed up with more wood later inthe day. We got the kids situated and they all hit the water. The pond was large enough (about 5 acres) that they kids spread out and no one got hurt. There were also no trees around the pond so kids didn’t get hung up. We smashed all the barbs before we left for the trip, but luckly, no one got hooked.
If first snowed for about 45 minutes, then the storm broke for about 1.5 hours. All but 2 kids and myself caught bass. They had so much fun! It was such a joy to listen to their excitement when they caught a fish on the fly that they tied! About 3:30, another storm rolled in and this one didn’t go away. The storm managed to dump about 1 inch of very wet snow on us before we left (it was 33 degrees when we pulled out). We didn’t leave, however, till we had our hamburger BBQ and got cleaned up. There were some die hard kids that were out fishing in the snow. I got some great pictures which I will try to post hopefully tomorrow! As much as I didn’t want to leave, I decided to end the trip 3 hours early because the kids were cold and wet and I didn’t want anything to happen to them. They all had an absolute wonderful time and are so excited for next year! I want to thank all of you again for your donations - I couldn’t have done this without you all!
Way to go Ranchwife!!
I’m going to be doing it with about 24 teenage girls on the 25th of June. Most of them have never fly fished, just practiced in the gym or on the lawn!! I visited the pond today with Glen Weaver (their supervisor/instructor) and he was delighted with what he saw. Plenty of room for casting practice and fishing.
He’s going to have them start tying spiders tonight.
I’m going to pounce the team concept from dadflyer off them. I like it! As they will be catching a fish on just about every cast I was wondering about how to keep up with the measuring, recording and photographing.
I hope that we just need plenty of Sun Screen!!
Lots of good ideas and advice here.
dadflyer; I see you don’t have an email address so I hope you see this.
I like the “Team” idea. It would sure make the event more managable. What do you think of having the spotter also take a picture and record the persons name, fish size, etc.? This event is sponsored by our Evart Moose Lodge and I have the funds to buy several disposable cameras. I know what happens when you give a youngster a camera!! Ground, sky, pond, thumbs, etc. Hmmmmm! Maybe have the chaperones take pictures!?
Anyway how to pick the teams?
If you catch this send me an email.
So cool.Those kids will remember this for many many years, and hopefully some of them will continue to fly fish and tie. And just think, if you hadn’t taken on the responsibility they may never have even given it a try. I congratulate you…
These are the idle thoughts that posses a man’s mind when he’s not able to fish.
Sounds awesome, Ranchwife. Snow? How cool! There’s nothing like both an awesome trip AND a good story together… they’ll remember it for a long time.
Dadflyer - great ideas!
Jack (and Glen) - good luck! I’ll look forward to hearing the tale when I get “home” in July!
Here’s a thought… all of the fly fishing shows have gear threads and travel threads, and even offerings where they teach fly fishing, etc. I wish there was a chance for people who teach kids fly fishing to get together and share ideas. Thanks to FAOL for providing us with the virtual opportunity, anyway
… probably easier than taking out 30 of us old dawgs on an outing 