Fish Camp 2017 finished up last week with 12 more kids learning to fly fish. Fish Camp is a 3-day fly fishing camp for kids 10 – 14 years old in Bend, OR. It’s part of our fly club’s Next Cast Flyfishers (our youth program) goal to get kids into fly fishing in Central Oregon.
My wife runs the camp and Fish Camp 2017 was our 5th year and I’m happy to help along with 10 more volunteers from our Central Oregon Flyfishers.
We taught them about casting, knot tying, aquatic bug basics, fly tying, gear & equipment, safety & regulations, and actual fishing, which included safe fish handling to release fish to fight another day.
One of the highlights, besides trying to catch fish, is putting on waders and doing a little kick-netting to find bugs living along the bottom of the creek.
The water was high this year from all the snow this past winter and our three groups had to squeeze in to the only safe location. But we did find some aquatic insects in the rocks.
The Bend Bulletin wrote a terrific article a couple years ago which was picked up by the New York Times. If you’d like to see it, click HERE.
If you are interested in reading about previous Fish Camps, here are the links:
Next Cast Flyfishers Camp (2015)
Fish Camp (2016)
Catching fish was a little slower than previous years, but the kids did manage to land a few.
Here is one trout landed and a Next Cast Flyfisher is teaching how to safely remove a hook from the rainbow trout.
I’m not sure who had more fun…the volunteers or the kids!
Enjoy…go fish!
Kudos to Karen, you, and the other club members.