The Lake Gogebic Chapter of Walleyes For Tomorrow and the NPAA teamed up to hold the 1st Annual Youth Fishing Clinic
Category: npaa
Sep 21st, 2011 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Sep 21st, 2011 at 12:00 AM
The Lake Gogebic Chapter of Walleyes For Tomorrow and the NPAA teamed up to hold the
1st Annual Youth Fishing Clinic
The Clinic was held on August 6th at the Bergland Centennial Park In Michigan Western U.P. located on the north end of Lake Gogebic, Upper Peninsula’s largest lake.
NPAA member #615 Tim Long started this chapter of Walleyes For Tomorrow about 2 ½ yrs. Ago, shortly after moving to the U.P. when Tim and his wife Sarah purchased The Timbers Resort on Lake Gogebic.
The first contacts Tim made after deciding to do a youth fishing clinic on Lake Gogebic was Greg Karch. Greg is from Oshkosh, Wi., and a member of the N.P.A.A. # 138. This year Greg was involved with 16 youth fishing clinic’s that he did with support from the N.P.A.A. with that kind experience Greg was very helpful in developing the outline that we used for our event.
At this event we had 88 youths from the ages of 5 to 17 and their parents attending. We had six different learning stations; How to fillet a fish, Fish identification, Knot tying, how to rig a rod, fishing baits and tackle, along with Safety/ regulations.
After the kids and their parents participated in each of these learning stations they were treated to a lunch that was put on by the W.F.T. Lake Gogebic Chapter volunteer members. At the conclusion of the lunch each child was given a brand new fishing rod and reel that was all spooled up and rigged with a plastic weighted fish plug for them to practice their casting. Instructors helped the kids with their casting skills by casting at targets that were set up for the kids on the baseball field.
All in all our first youth fishing clinic was a huge success. We had a lot of positive feedback from both the parents and the children. The event was designed to get our youth involved in the outdoors and give them the opportunity to continue enjoying the outdoors after the event was over.
We feel;
“By giving each child their own rod and reel they will now be able to go fishing by themselves, with a parent, or friend. Where if we would have only had loaner equipment they may never get the chance to go fishing again because they possibly would not have the equipment to do so. Now they can!”