Pay it Forward

I've been fortunate enough to fish as far back as I can remember. When I was in school I can recall planning our after school fishing excursions to a nearby body of water. It didn't matter if it was a brook, river or lake and we got there by whatever means possible. Usually we walked or biked, and the odd time a parent would drive us. Our trip was always based on who had the best intel of where we could catch the most fish and it was rarely right, but we made the best memories from every quest. From my time as a young boy experiencing the outdoors, I feel that I learned to appreciate nature and, whenever possible, try to help conserve our resources for our next generation to enjoy. In turn I hope this preserves the rich history of our sport and it continues to fill our lives with amazing memories. I am always looking for cool ways to get kids involved in fishing, and when I take kids out I always try to make it interesting for them so they want to learn more. A few years ago my nine year old nephew was visiting us from Ottawa for a week, and I learned he had never been fishing, so we planned an outing for that Saturday. We reached our first spot by 9:30 am and my nephew was pretty pumped to start catching fish. I was trying to instill in him that we may go a long while before we caught our first fish. I didn't want to set expectations and him get discouraged with fishing, I wanted him to learn how to enjoy nature, and spending time with family. After all my words of wisdom, I let him make his first cast and I was I little bit surprised that he hooked a twelve inch bass. We were so excited for him and took a few pictures of his first fish; little did we know it wouldn't be his last. After we released the fish I noticed we drifted a little way from our spot, never the less he made his second cast. He made about three turns on the reel and his lure came to a complete stop, my first thought was he was stuck on bottom. I started to reach over to grab the rod but just then I saw the line spinning off the reel and I could hear my nephew screaming for help. After a team effort we managed to land the second fish of his life, a 20 lbs. musky. After the excitement of the musky he caught a few more bass that day and had another musky follow up on his bait. Overall we had an amazing day on the water. We ended our day around 3:30, loaded the boat and headed to Dairy Queen to sit down and share our excitement of the day. When we got back to my mother in laws house, my nephew was glowing and sharing his fishing stories with everyone. A few months later, my nephew was asked by his teacher to do a report on the best day of his life. His mother called us and told us how excited he was to share his story at his school. After the call I went down to my fishing room and made a care package of some of the lures we used on that day and also found a tournament jersey that was in mint condition but for some strange reason it didn't fit me anymore. We heard back from his mom that he got an "A on his report and wouldn't stop wearing his jersey. It makes you feel really good that you can introduce a child to a hobby that is so near and dear to your heart. This year a new Cabela's store opened in our area and for the grand opening they were bringing in some big names to celebrate. Gord Pyzer was among them and it worked out that I got to take him out to our rich waterways for a fish. What an opportunity for me to spend time with him and gain from his wealth of knowledge. When it hit me that I was taking out Gord Pyzer I got really nervous and if you know me, you know I feel more comfortable on water than on land. I told him over supper the night before how nervous I was about taking him out and his response was that it didn't matter about the fish that we were just going out on the water to do something that we both love doing. He also said one of the best things is just spending time on the water with friends and family, so I thanked him for reminding me of that, and it took most of the pressure away. We ended up having two amazing days on the water and made memories to last a lifetime! About a month ago I found out my nephew was coming back down to New Brunswick for another visit and how excited he was to go fishing again with his favorite Uncle Jason. He wanted to know if we were going to catch a bigger musky this year. I really didn't want to tell him that his day on the water wasn't the norm and repeating that might almost be impossible. I needed a way to change the focus from just catching fish to catching some fish while having fun also. Remember how I told you I was nervous about taking Gord out, well I know Gord has had bad days on the water but still heads out the next day to try to make a new memory. I needed something to make the day interesting to keep my nephew focused on having fun. I was doing some research on In-Line spinners for an upcoming article and I found a cool program on the Mepps lure site. This could be the answer I was looking for, it was the "Mepps Master Angler Program. The program looked straight forward. The first few words were perfect "Angler, Awards, Challenging and Fun. I knew I could put us on a nice school of perch and they are easy for the kids to catch. That day we spent almost an hour catching yellow perch but we didn't catch any that qualify. That hour was full of excitement. It was getting a little hot and the bite stopped so we started up the boat and went for a ride to cool off and head to our next target species the smallmouth bass. My nephew landed a nice 2lbs. 1 oz. smalley to seal the deal on his first patch. He knew he completed his first challenge and now he had a pickerel in mind for his next target. We started up the motor again and took a nice drive about a half an hour up river until we found a nice looking weed patch that he said would be perfect for a pickerel. I think we were only there twenty minutes when he landed a 2 plus pickerel. We decided we would leave the rest of the fish alone for another day. It was getting pretty hot out so we found a nice sandy beach on the beautiful Saint John River and took some time to cool off and play in the water. About two weeks later we get a FaceTime call from our nephew to show off his awards from Mepps. You could see and hear the excitement about his achievement. He was telling us he was going to get a fishing shirt like mine and his mom was going to sew on the patches. I am not sure to this day who was more excited, him or me! Thank you Mepps for making a program to help kids get involved in fishing and for creating a fun and challenging program to keep them focused on working towards a goal that, I believe, will help them to be a better person in life. Here are some of the benefits you could possibly see by introducing your children to the great outdoors: ¢ Appreciation for nature ¢ Good morals and ethics ¢ Patience ¢ Focus ¢ Unplugging from technology ¢ Well rounded and sociable Results may vary but it is well worth the time to take a change. It may not just change your kids; it may give you a new outlook on life. Today's busy schedules make it difficult for children to get the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors, be it through camping, boating, fishing or other related activities. Teaching kids to use a rod and reel can be the first step in directing them to get out and enjoy what nature has to offer, as well as, helping to foster stewardship and conservation of our natural resources.