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| Me sporting my Engel gear and Salt Armour face shield. |
This past Saturday I put my new found Boy Scout training to the
test. A few weeks back I was blessed enough to attend a BSA Certified Angling
Instructor course. As part of the course BSA encourages their instructors to
teach fishing, fly-fishing and fish and wildlife management merit badges as a
way for Scouts to earn their Complete
Angler Award.
On Saturday I headed up to a local farm pond to teach my first leg
of the award, fishing merit badge. I was accompanied by our former Scoutmaster, Colonel Billy Noland, who was teaching fly-fishing merit badge. While Colonel Noland taught those
fine young men how to roll-cast and deliver a fly I set about occupying my time
by fishing my way around the pond.
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| Me with the only catfish of the day. |
It was mid-day and even using nightcrawlers I was finding it hard
to get a bite. I was first able to land a rather large size bluegill which
promptly got returned to the pond. I managed to hook into what I thought was a
nice largemouth, only to have it break off my leader after wrapping itself
around a downed tree. I kept at it and managed to hook a decent size flathead catfish, which upon further inspection was the fish I assumed was the
largemouth that broke me off. Needless
to say the catfish went into the cooler as the farmer wants them removed from
the pond.
We broke for lunch and shortly thereafter I set about instructing
the young men on the finer points of the fishing merit badge. We talked tackle,
rod and reels, knots and even demonstrated proper hook removal (from an orange).
After a while of tutelage we embarked on fishing the pond again. This time we
decided to use some artificial bait. The boys used some salamanders crayfish
plastics while I used a suspending jerkbait. It turns out the suspending
jerkbait was the lure of the day, quickly pulling in three nice bass that were
between two and three pounds and about half a dozen more dinks. The boys had
some luck on their plastics as well. We finished up the session by discussion
Leave No Trace and conservation.
It was a great experience, being out there and teaching these young men
how to fish. Especially given most of them had no exposure to fishing at all.
But that is what Scouts is supposed to be about; exposing young men to
vocations and hobbies which they would ordinarily not be exposed to, in a safe
learning environment. I look forward to teaching my next merit badge, whether
it be fishing, fly-fishing or fish and wildlife management. Until then keep
taking your kids outdoors…
