fishing with 37 friends last weekend

[The Mountain Man]

I spent last weekend at Holiday Lake 4-H Center, fishing with 37 kids. We had a blast. We are limited to fishing off the banks at the Center and the State Park. The bass were just making their move to the shallows, males were starting on beds and females were not seen. Bluegills are usually readily caught but not as many as usual this year. The cool weather was just not in our favor. Many thanks to Virginia BASS Federation Region 8, they provided us with fishing rods and brand new Zebco 202’s for each camper. A few BBC’ers sent us some baits, we divided those up with the children, they all went home with a rod and reel and some tackle. Wal-Mart gave a generous donation we used for camp scholarships and some other misc tackle. TNT Outfitters in Appomattox graciously donated us about 10 boxes of night crawlers and red worms. I worked with the youngest group of beginners and spent a lot of time untangling lines or baiting hooks. I had so much fun I’ll do it again next year. It would be nice to be able to get enough boats together to get these kids out on the lake and teach them something besides bank fishing. I tried last year but just could not get enough boaters to commit. If we had ten, we could do it in ½ day sessions, two campers at a time. Let me know if you are interested in helping, next years camp will be the second or third week in April. Many thanks again to the BBC’ers that sent donations, VA BASS Federation Region 8, TNT Outfitters, WalMart Appomattox and Colonial Heights, VA State University, Dances Sporting Goods, all the adult volunteers and teen leaders. It was a great weekend. Here are some pictures, this first one shows a young man from Cumberland whose smile exemplifies what this sport is all about. He caught his fish on a wacky worm rig on just his second cast. Fast learner. Moments like this are the reason I do this.