There was a time when the image of a child holding a pole down by the ol’ fishin’ hole was as much a part of the fabric of American culture as a kid holding a Game Boy is today.
The former, more organic image was captured by the likes of famed artist Norman Rockwell in some of his many illustrations depicting the wholesome side of life in the United States during the early 20th century. The Andy Griffith Show – popular during the final decade of the so-called “Golden Era” in American history – used the image of a father and son coming home from a day at the pond with a stringer of fish, whistling a carefree tune as they walked.
There are those who believe that image is fading, at least in certain demographic fields of the U.S. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with video games, but it’s an activity that simply doesn’t promote family togetherness the same way helping a child bait a hook or land a fish can.
This is the contention of some Alabama state employees who teamed up with a fishing conservation group in June to resurrect a children’s fishing event at Joe Wheeler State Park in the north-central part of the state. The youth fishing program, formerly an annual event at Wheeler Lake, has been on hiatus for the last few years due to a lack of funds.
FishAmerica Foundation, part of the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the official conservation charity of FLW Outdoors, answered a request from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for money to bring the program back to life. Through an FLW donation, a sum of $5,000 was used to stock Wheeler Lake for a June 15 event that wound up allowing more than 200 children to try their hands at reeling in a fish.
FLW Outdoors makes $5,000 donations each year to area fisheries at all of its FLW Tour and Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit stops in addition to donations made at other sites along the organization’s various tournament trails. FishAmerica parlayed this year’s donation from a mid-February Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournament on Wheeler Lake into an opportunity to introduce a new generation of anglers to the fun of fishing.
The 2002 children’s fishing event was an unqualified success, said Joe Wheeler State Park Superintendent Tim Haney. All of the 250 fishing tickets prepared for the event were distributed, and there was demand for more.
“They all had a good time and caught fish,” Haney said of the fishing derby. “I feel like people probably started fishing because of it.”
Many of the children who showed up along the shore of Wheeler Lake on June 15 seldom fish, or never have before. Haney said having a controlled section of the lake teeming with catfish provided a great chance for children to feel the thrill of landing a lunker – from baiting the hook to setting it to pulling in the catch.
“For some of the kids, it’s the first fish they’ve ever caught,” Haney said. “It sparks an interest in fishing – they’re catching fish, it’s exciting, they’re smiling.”
Local sponsors came together to pay for the youth fishing program through the latter part of the 1990s. But a lack of funds in the last three years made it impossible for state officials to stock Wheeler Lake with enough catfish to host such an event.
“It’s made it much easier this year with the donation from FLW Outdoors,” Haney said.
Tim Wishum, assistant operations and maintenance supervisor for the Alabama State Parks Division, said it’s a great event that has been sorely missed.
“We didn’t have the funds to purchase the fish, which is the biggest expense,” he said. “That was one of the many projects that we used to have sponsors for.”
Haney said state park officials used to simply refer to the annual event as a “kids’ fishing rodeo.” This year the event was planned to coincide with a national program called Take a Kid Fishing, sponsored by Wal-Mart and FLW Outdoors, so it was dubbed the Wal-Mart FLW Kids’ Fishing Round-Up.
The purpose of the project is many-fold, but the main reason behind the endeavor was readily apparent when the event returned to Wheeler Lake this summer.
“From the kids, you get a lot of `thank yous’ and a lot of smiles,” Haney said.
If the beaming faces of the many children weren’t incentive enough to host such an event, there are the adults to consider. Haney said there are surprising number of parents – many of whom are single – that relish the round-up because it provides an opportunity to spend time with their children while learning a common skill they will enjoy for years.
“There are parents who had never (fished with their children) before because they were afraid they wouldn’t know what to do,” Haney said.
One of the reasons state officials in Alabama are interested in programs like the Wal-Mart/FLW-organized Kids’ Fishing Round-Up and Take A Kid Fishing, Wishum said, is to protect the future of fishing. They hope introducing a new generation to the sport will help maintain the popularity of fishing as a free-time activity in the U.S. With greater interest in the sport, Wishum said there is an increased likelihood that people will push for the proper maintenance of fisheries and conservation of bodies of water throughout the nation.
“To me, it’s a real good way to introduce these kids to fishing,” he said. “It really reinforces … kids wanting to fish.”
A key to the success of the program is stocking enough fish to keep children interested in their initial angling experiences. A majority of FLW Outdoors’ $5,000 donation went towards the purchase of 2,500 pounds of catfish, enough to provide ample opportunities for participants to reel in some sizable catches.
“Generally, they do pretty good with that many catfish,” Wishum said. “Those kids really get excited. It’s a good program.”
Wishum and Haney said they are hopeful FLW Outdoors’ resuscitation of the program will rekindle local sponsors’ interest. They hope to bring the round up back as an annual event as it had been since the mid-`90s, possibly even augmenting it to allow for increased participation.
Tossing a $5,000 donation into Wheeler Lake also has a ripple effect, they said. The fish that aren’t caught during the round up add to the lake’s fish population. Haney said the event also helps to bring new people into Joe Wheeler State Park and to the lake, which typically leads to return visits and better use of some of Alabama’s natural resources.
FishAmerica Executive Director Tom Marshall said his foundation uses donations from FLW Outdoors for a variety of conservation projects – from habitat restoration to waterfront development. The children’s fishing derby at Wheeler Lake is only one example of how these donations can benefit the local fisheries that have hosted FLW Outdoors tournaments, but it stands as a shining example.
“The significance (of the event at Wheeler Lake) is simply ensuring the future of fishing,” Marshall said. “We have an obligation to teach our children about the family-friendly sport of fishing … at the earliest age possible.”
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