Take me fishing

A Brook Trout gets a
new home

This past weekend I organized the Candlewood Valley TU chapter's Youth Education Day. Around twenty kids and their parents spent the day learning to cast, tie flies and identify bugs (also known as riffle dwelling benthic macroinvertebrates). We also released about forty or so trout into a small stream so now they all know more than they need to about trout.

Hopefully we've infected a few more kids and parents with a desire to get outside and maybe even think about the environment in a new way. I was so tuckered out by the end of the day I couldn't even muster the energy to go cast to uneducated fish.

Or maybe it was the tick on my leg sucking my lifeblood.

Trolling about the intertubes this evening I stumbled on post over on the Outdoor Blogger Network that asked a question "How do you plan to celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week?"

My answer, "Fish-a-boat-a-what?"

Okay, so I'm a little uninformed on this whole thing given that I'd have missed it if Blogger hadn't gone down for a while and they extended the deadline. But it turns out that the folks over at Take Me Fishing (run by the Recreation Boating and Fishing Foundation) have declared June 4-12, 2011 as National Fishing and Boating Week.

So, back to those folks on OBN.

Now that I have some awareness of this industry event, how do I plan to celebrate the week? Well, pretty much like I celebrate every week. By fishing a bit. And by taking my kids fishing whenever I can. And maybe helping other kids learn about the sport, too.

The boys and I will continue to fish for Bluegills down at the pond until they're out of the shallows. We'll float the Deerfield with Dan and Tom. We'll cast for trout around Yosemite in July and we'll hope for decent summer flows for bass on the Housy. Maybe we'll even fish the salt (once I figure out what that's all about).

I hope you'll all join me in celebrating our sport by passing along your passion to the next generation. To your kids or grandkids. Or by volunteering with your local fishing club to get other kids excited about the sport. And if I'm showered with Take Me Fishing gifts I'll share our summer antics directly with you.

Well, that's only a half-truth (or a half-lie). I'm going to share our summer antics with you regardless. Pictures. Videos. Word craft (such as it is). But if I win I'll share our summer antics with shameless placement of logos.

Who knew I could be bought so cheap?

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This is my National Fishing and Boating Week contest entry sponsored by Take Me Fishing and the Outdoor Blogger Network.