The kids are starting to exit school and staying home for the summer. Years ago, a lot of us parents now, used to fishing almost everyday at the local pier or shoreline. Summer is a fresh opportunity to hook kids on fishing. It’s a time to hone rusty knot tying skills, straighten-up casting skills, and if the fish are around, perfect fish-fighting skills. Catch and release conservation is another great lesson too while we’re at it. And don’t forget the digital camera.

Kids with fish on!

We’re back and doing eLearning over the phone with Professor Kim who is teaching us about our WordPress content management system. It’s fairly standard as far as publishing software goes and easy to use. All the setup work was taken care of for us by E.Kim. Hopefully, this training will improve the content quantity. BTW, this web stuff is fairly straightforward, even for a Solaris guy like myself.

Learning to manage a fish blog with WordPress

Teaching the next generation of anglers can take many forms.  My recipe starts with a bunch of Cub Scouts and their families.  I add a 5 hour set of slideshow and exercises for the classroom that covers safety, species ID, conservation, knots and tackle and techniques, and then 2 field practice sessions involving derbies at the local pier with the winners taking home new spinning rod/reel combos, and issue certificates to all kid participants.  Pre-requisites include about 15 sets of rod/reel, a tackle bag with a couple of small rigging kits and lots of cheap sabiki rigs.  I’m up in the Bay Area and Santa Cruz is close by and has free parking up until 10am on the Weekends.

Parents get excited too because many haven’t fished in years or at all.  And no license is required on public saltwater piers.  Cub scout requirements for fishing pin and belt loops are online.  The system works with older Boy Scouts, but requires a certified/trained Merit Badge Counselor present to sign off blue cards.