Fish Like a GIRL

I have had many discussions lately about how to get kids, the next generation, into outdoor pursuits. It is not a new thing, of course, an older generation thinking the world may end with them or, as my grandparents would say, “go to H*|| in a hand basket.” We have all heard it, I am sure. But somehow, these days, it seems like outdoor pursuits are in more and more jeopardy of losing out to technology, team sports and other interests. That said, I could just be starting to show my age and becoming part of the “get off my lawn,” generation. 

There are still kids that are into the outdoors, of course. I think it is important that those of us who are already seasoned in these areas do whatever we can to foster that love and excitement. 

I recently spoke with the Wausau West High School Fishing Team about fishing, making baits, and the outdoor industry as a whole. A good friend of mine’s son, Nate, is helping to get the fishing team back on its feet, and I have offered to help him out when possible. He is one of those kids — one who will ride his bike to go fishing every day if his parents let him. He’s on the trap team. He is constantly on the lookout for places to go waterfowl hunting or scouting for deer. The other day he told me that he cannot wait to turn 16 so he can go to work in a sporting good store. He is currently working at a quick service restaurant in Wausau. Both his mom and I told him, if he is working in a sporting good store, odds are good everything he makes will be spent right in that store. But, as I always say, if you get kids hooked on fishing and hunting, they will never have money for drugs.

That is said in jest, of course, but there is a lot to be said about kids who are involved in the outdoors and their propensity to stay away from criminal activity (perhaps barring the occasional interaction with a warden). I remember years as a kid where I was simply bored, probably drove too fast, maybe participated in some sketchy activities like skeeching, things of that nature. But the years I spent in the swamps and woods around my house, or the time I spent on the shores of the Moen’s Lake Chain, where my dad and I used to fish, were times I was never bored. There was always something to captivate my imagination and remind me of my place in the world. There is nothing quite like a big woods to make your problems feel much smaller.

One of the reasons I got involved in the Master Naturalist Program was the teaching aspect. I want to get other people as excited about the outdoors as I am. It seems easy with kids, to be honest. Last summer I got to help teach at a STEM learning facility owned by a friend of mine. We took the kids to a nearby stream and I showed them what I did as a stream monitor. They were super serious about writing down all of the data I was giving them, but after about 15 minutes of that, we got out the D-net and started looking for critters. That’s when the experience really came alive.

For me, one of the biggest benefits of getting kids into outdoor pursuits is getting to experience the outdoors through their eyes. It is like learning about tadpoles and red dace and dragonfly larvae all over again. That makes it just as much fun for me as it is for the kids. One of the things I learned during that time of volunteer teaching is that it may be almost impossible to know what will resonate with a particular group of kids. Obviously, in the case of the stream, I knew learning about the critters in the substrate was going to be big. But with other activities, such as learning about pollinators in a classroom setting, the kids would take the activities I planned for them and put their own spin on them. A particular learning activity about various pollinators and pollinator friendly flowers turned into a matching game in their minds. They colored all of the photos and then took to deciding which pollinators would be attracted to which flowers based on certain characteristics. That was not what I expected to be the highlight of that class segment, but I let them run with it. It was the “thing” for that portion of the class, and they loved it.

Getting kids involved in the outdoors can mean taking a kid fishing, or involving them in a hunt for sheds. But it might also mean grabbing a net and scooping some substrate out of a local pond or stream behind the house. It might involve checking out the bugs and critters in a flower garden or at a community garden planting. 

While I will continue to enjoy my time getting kids into citizen science pursuits whenever possible, I am also looking forward to working with the high school fishing team to learn more about that pursuit as well. Many of the kids are in a natural resources conservation class, according to my friend’s son. He is taking a class this year called “Advanced Conservation,” as an elective, and he took the prerequisite class to that last year. How great would it have been to have that type of class available back when I was in school? I would have loved that. But, I suppose, back then there were fewer other things tempting to take my attention away from those types of adventures anyway. 

I am excited to interact with these students and feel their enthusiasm about a sport I have loved for most of my life. Who knows, maybe one of them will go on to grab the Rookie of the Year title in the Bassmasters Elite Series. It sounds like a lofty goal, but one that a former bass club member of mine just achieved in 2022. Jay Przekurat from Stevens Point used to fish the series Chet and I run and also fished with our bass club. Now he’s fishing on the biggest stage in bass fishing, and doing very well for himself. I love those success stories. I love seeing kids come up and make their way in any facet of the outdoor and natural resources world. If I can help to foster that in any way, I will definitely take that opportunity. I feel as though it is up to all of us who love the outdoors to find a way to communicate that passion and to give kids the opportunities we had to get outside and find wonder in the world around us. 

I would challenge all of our readers to try to do just that in 2024.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].