Have Bait Will Angle Idaho Hooks Up On Free Fishing Day
There’s nothing like the first kiss.
Especially a fish’s lips kissing baited hooks seemingly electrically wired to the hands of 100 boys and girls spread around the pond at Ponderosa Springs Golf Course.
A shriek signaled a bite. A double shriek indicated a confirmed catch.
Welcome to free fishing day, an annual Idaho Fish and Game event that acquaints aspiring anglers under the age of 17 with hooks and bobbers. There is the occasional adult who sneaks in among the children for a chance at the fish. No one seems to mind.
The fishing clinics are conducted throughout the state each year. In addition, people are allowed to fish for free on Saturday everywhere in Idaho.
“The main emphasis is on getting kids interested in fishing,” said Russ Kruger, a volunteer at the Coeur d’Alene clinic.
“It’s a wholesome family activity,” added Doreen Kruger, also a volunteer. “It gives kids the chance to work with Fish and Game, to learn, to see they aren’t bad guys.”
Austin Volking, 4, struck out, on this, his first fishing experience.
“No fish,” he said. “I had one and it got away,” he added, planting his palm in the middle of his forehead, with a sort of a “whoops” gesture.
Volking’s dad, Tim, was along to help him and promised to take his son out on Lake Coeur d’Alene. “My dad first took me fishing when I was 6 or 7,” he recalled.
“He worked for Petrolane, and I would go out with him. When he was filling propane tanks, I would go off and fish. Puddle jumping.”
Brian Hesse had more luck, catching a nice rainbow trout with a worm and a marshmallow. He fished here for the first time when he was 7 years old and has come back here for eight years running.
“I caught my first fish later that year at Loon Lake,” he said of that debut year.
Chuck Lawhead not only brought his son and daughter, but a neighbor girl. “I brought my sons golfing here last weekend and they told me about this,” Lawhead said.
“I was calling everybody and telling them to bring their kids. It’s such a neat deal.”
Apprentice fishermen and fisherwomen were loaned fishing gear, given casting lessons and all of the bait the fish could eat. Fish and Game employees and volunteers even cleaned the fish.
In most places around the pond, it was breathing room only. A fusillade of hooks and worms flew into the pond, a sea of bobbers fought for position. A mother duck and five ducklings swam around the pond as calmly as if this were a wilderness experience.
On one side of the pond, Julian Jameson and Justin Erkela dug through a plastic bucket trying to decide whose fish was whose. Jameson jerked his hand back every time a fish flopped.
Erkela kept up the commentary - necessary to any fishing expedition. “You sucker, don’t bite me,” he said.
Around the lake, a few bored kids kicked golf balls around soccer style. The proud parent occasionally occupied a blanket, armed with a mug of coffee and a video camera. Others intently untangled hooks and gave patient encouragement.
Even if every kid didn’t catch a fish, the local wildlife benefited from the outing. Osprey descended upon the pond the minute Fish and Game planted the fish.
“It was like they had a phone and they told all of their relatives,” said Marguerite Johnson, who has lived next to the golf course for 17 years.
“And every time they dove, they came up with one,” added Ruth Derry, Johnson’s neighbor, who has lived here 28 years.
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