6th grade fishing day - May 2009

First let me say, with the exception of Eliason, no fish were caught today by the sixth graders on a fly rod (only 10 fish where caught by 73 students using a worm/spin cast setup). However, you know the fish are hanging deep when even the osprey decided to nest today instead of fish. Depth in this reservoir would not normally be a problem for Eliason and I in the float tubes, however it was very difficult for "newbies" to get to any depth from shore. While the school rods where loaded with dry lines, I still had two rods setup with full sink type III and type IV, and only two students all day said they had a bite (however one was early in the morning so I suspect that it more of a log or a rock than a bite.)

If you want to download or view any of these pictures please visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/flyfish4pike/6thGradeFishingDay#

Ok, so here is how the day went. I arrived at the reservoir at 0830 and set up rods. I could tell instantly that it was going to be a slow biting day. Usually, at this time of year, the grass is already starting to grow in, but you will notice in the pictures that is not so this year. The Russell Elementary student arrived by bus at 0900, with one very excited Eliason jumping up and down on the bus waving trying to get my attention. The first group of 20 students in fly casting was extremely challenging (this could be due to the fact the the kids only had one hour of instruction with a fly rod before today). In the first group, every child snapped their fly off the line at least once (with one child going through 5 flies in an 1 hour period). Once you add the time of untangling bad casting knots to tying on new flies, then you will realize that Eliason, Mr. Markely, and myself barely had a chance to give any instruction!

For the second group of 20 students, Mr. Markely and I choose a different tact. We split the group in half, with Eliason and I taking half of the student on a little longer hike to reach the dock you see in this picture. . . . ..

From 6th grade fishing day

As you can see, I can comfortably fit 5 casters on this dock. At the foot of the dock, I had two more casters casting out and away from the dock. That just left 3 casters for Eliason to work with. He would work the shore just before the dock. Here is a picture from the dock looking east at Eliason and his group.

From 6th grade fishing day

At this point, we all broke for lunch. The St. Mary's 6th grade class arrived just shortly before we broke for lunch. They only had 13 students and 6 helpers! So I skipped helping them and had a nice roast beef sandwich lunch with the kiddo. After lunch, there was two biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game that gave a cool talk about native and non-native fish species of Idaho, fish ecology, and fish identification. While hiking out with the third and last group of students, I noticed much more activity in the shallows (including bluegills starting to congregate). I thought for sure someone was going to catch a fish in the afternoon, but alas I was wrong. Eliason also noticed the bluegill, and as the students were hiking back to the bus to go home, Eliason casually casts on olive willy to them. Imagine how all 20 students stopped to see Eliason's catch! (Even though the bus was loudly honking at us to hurry up)

From 6th grade fishing day

By the time Eliason and I helped Mr. Markely break down his equipment and put it all away it was 4:00 pm and the skies looked like this:

From 6th grade fishing day

Even though there was a midge hatch that just began, Eliason and I decided to call it a day. Sometime at work, I will were a pedometer and average over 8 miles a day going up and down the halls. But, keeping 10 kids at time with their line the water must have taken 4 times that amount of energy. Oh well, I am sure Eliason and I will get one more day of fishing in before our June departure date, when we get to go fish "The Ranch" for some blue ribbon trout!

TIGHT LINES!

My very first blog

Hello everyone!

Ok, so this is my first blog ever. In fact, this is my first time even attempting to set a blog site. So please bear with me as I figure all of this out.

The motivating factor to get me to start blogging is the fact that I love my digital camera. In fact, as my son and I fish I love to send pictures to Grandma and Grandpa Mendenhall. However, email seems to be a rather difficult way to send them these grand pictures. So enter the blogosphere.. . . .

Ok, so here are some pictures from last Wed. My son is in 6th grade, and he is lucky enough to have a PE Teacher who loves to fish also. About four years ago, Mr. Markely got a grant from the FFF (Federation of Fly Fishers) to integrate fly fishing into his 6th grade curriculum. He has 3 classes of 6th graders averaging about 20 students a class. We combined with a local private catholic school that has one sixth grade class of 13 students this year. One sixth grade class from my son's school and the private sixth grade class meet in the morning to rotate between three stations; Fly Tying, Fly Casting, and Spin Casting. For the morning session I was tapped to teach the fly tying section.

That was a whole lot of fun, and I certainly hope to be asked to do it again next year. In the afternoon, the remaining two 6th grade classes got to rotate through the same three stations. We were short of help in the afternoon, and Eliason and I were asked to do a father/son fly casting clinic. Here are the pictures of Eliason being a fairly good teacher. In the picture above, Eliason is setting up some targets for students to cast at.

Now remember, the object here is for the "other" students to learn how to cast a fly rod.

Ever since the Woolly Bugger Fly Casting Clinic in Boise, Id in June of 2008, Eliason has always kept that rod very high during casting!

The picture to our right might be too wide of an angle to see, let me know what you think!

Ok, so how is someone supposed to learn how to cast if the fly rod is not in their hands?

Eliason is still holding the fly rod!

Finally, someone is learning to cast.

I have to admit, that afternoon I was really impressed with Eliason's focus and maturity during the fly casting clinic. In fact, I do believe he was better able to "reach" some students more so than me. However, when I got home that evening I was struck by how many of the pictures showed Eliason holding the rod, rather than the student. It could be due to the fact that I kept the camera at my hip, and each shot was taken in less than 10 seconds.

Well, I think my first attempt at a blog is not too shabby. Please feel free to leave a reply to give me hints on how to make this more readable, however, after 4 hours of work this is the best that I can do. Let it roll. . . . .