TOWNSEND — On a southern bank of Canyon Ferry Lake, the Bureau of Reclamation and Walleyes Unlimited hosted a kid's fishing clinic for about 40 kids to teach them the basics of fishing like how to tie a knot, how to bait a hook, and how to cast.
With 40 kids, the possibility that every kid caught a fish on Saturday is extremely slim, but nonetheless, both organizations hope the kids had fun and were able to take something from the experience.
"Today's event is just to get some kids that may not have experienced fishing and get them fishing, and just getting them to learn about how to tie knots, how to cast a rod, some fish identification and just kind of learn about the natural resource that we have out here at Canyon Ferry," said Charles Hueth.
Along with the basics of fishing, Troy Warburton from Walleyes Unlimited said they also taught kids fish recognition and selective harvesting, so the kids know what fish they’re catching and what they can keep.
"Limits have changed here a lot, recently at Canyon Ferry. It went from 20 a day down to 10, which is a big deal," said Warburton. "Right now at Canyon Ferry, you can keep one [walleye] a day over 15 inches. So that really helps people with their selective harvest, when they can only keep one fish might be a little bit out of a range that some people would consider table fare," said Warburton.
While some kids might not have caught any fish today, BOR hopes this event will be able to keep kids coming back out to the great outdoors for the foreseeable
future.
"I don't know how many kids actually get out and get to experience this, you know, like on an everyday basis or a weekend basis. So it's just some nice to partner with Walleyes Unlimited just to get kids out, get them out in the great outdoors," said Hueth. "Hopefully, then they'll stay, you know, coming out in the great outdoors and have appreciation for it, and then they'll teach their kids the same thing. So it's a cycle."
