Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rodney on June 18, 2005, 08:36:46 PM
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Here are some photos from today's event. Full report comes later as we still have one more event tomorrow at Rice Lake, need to get ready.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/member/pic/pic050618-1.jpg) (http://www.fishingwithrod.com/member/pic/pic050618-2.jpg)
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/member/pic/pic050618-3.jpg) (http://www.fishingwithrod.com/member/pic/pic050618-4.jpg)
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/member/pic/pic050618-5.jpg)
Too many people to thank, so here goes:
Thanks to Fishersak, Spudcote, Trout Slayer and Chrome Mykiss for coming by my house early in the morning for set up. We met up with Dan, Dragonspeed, Rantalot, Hoof at the pier. Trout Slayer, Chrome Mykiss and Hoof did a great job at the flytying workshop as usual. The tying seminars went on non-stop for the entire event. Flyfisherman picked up tables and chairs for the event, which was very helpful. Fishersak, Nina and Marc from Seymour hatchery also did a great job on the aquatic critter station. Willowbarkus was amazing with the fish colouring station. Floon created a few new flycasters with his amazing instruction. LukeYVR made every kid happy by giving each a rod to use. Fish assassin brought crabs etc for our display. The overall fishing section was great, with constant assistance by Dragonspeed, Hung, flyfisherman, Rantalot, Spudcote and Dan the Man. The volunteers made the event happen, so thank you very much.
Thanks also go out to:
Nikka for supplying an employee to write up license for the day.
Berry's Bait and Tackle for supplying bait.
Anglers West for supplying draw prizes.
Redl Sport for supplying rods, reels and fly tying material.
Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery for supplying education material and prizes.
DFO for supplying education material.
Pacific Streamkeepers Federation for supplying tents.
BC Family Fishing Weekend for supplying hats and T-shirts.
Seymour Salmonid Society for supplying coho fry for viewing.
Green Great Printing Ltd. for printing posters for the event.
City of Richmond for allowing us to use the pier.
More later, but basically the turnout was way bigger than I expected. Thank you.
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Well run event. Kudos to Rodney for organizing the event and the volunteers for making it happen. Sorry I couldn't stay longer; had to pick up my sister from Seattle. (http://bestsmileys.com/thumbs/3.gif)
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wow, looks like fun and the weather looked good out there too!!! thanx to all the volunteers who helped out at this event, after all it is our next generation of fisherman. 8) also very impressed too see the younger contributers off the forum helping out!!!! way to go guys. :)
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I too had a great time out there and the parents of the kids I brought want to say "thank you" to you all. What I found made the event most memorable was when DragonSpeed released a foul-hooked fish while explaining the law to the kids. You all have contributed in raising a generation of responsible fisher-men and -women. And Rodney, you forgot to thank the RCMP officer who was handing out "good tickets" to the kids with fishing licences :D
Now ... I'm off to an early start at St. Mary ;D
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It certainly was a good time! It was nice of the RCMP officer to be there handing out "Good" Tickets to people with their licenses ;)
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Marco the RCMP officer and I discussed about what we could do before the event. He volunteered to come out for a few hours even after his night shift from 7pm to 7am. The kids loved his presence as they were all eager to have their licensed checked to receive a free pizza coupon. :) I know you're reading this, can't thank you enough for putting in so much effort to improve our community. :)
More photos are now available at http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/
I will have another 30 or so photos up in a day or two. I kept falling asleep while sorting them out an hour ago. :o
Today's event at Rice Lake was also very well attended. At our booth, we had a mystery fish for everyone to identify. Most got it right away, some had a lot of difficulty. ;) Overall the atmosphere was fantastic. Thanks James at the Seymour Hatchery for making sure both participants and volunteers had a great time. :)
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The whole idea of writing a licence on the spot, and having it checked by Marc was an EXCELLENT idea. Immediate reinforcement in a "feel good" way for the kids...they were very excited and keen...good to see.
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A very well run event, well done Rod.
Thanks again to Mark for the ride, a lot quicker than the bus :P ;D
BTW, the fish that we all thought was a herring, I was talking to another guy, and he reckoned it may have been a shad. Brian, do you have the pics of it ?
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A very well run event, well done Rod.
Thanks again to Mark for the ride, a lot quicker than the bus :P ;D
BTW, the fish that we all thought was a herring, I was talking to another guy, and he reckoned it may have been a shad. Brian, do you have the pics of it ?
As soon as RodneyThe editor wakes upgets the pictures posted, it'll be up along with about 15 or so others. ;)
In the mean time - Herring vs. Shad (http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Fish_Boat/shad01/poster_id_shad-herring.pdf)
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Ya ya, it's coming. :P
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Also, someone left a pouch of flyfishing stuff at the flytying station on Saturday. If it's yours, please contact me and let me know what they are and we'll get it back to you.
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p.s. I think I left my big green Thermal mug on Saturday :(
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I have it. :P How much are you willing to pay for it? ;) I'll bring it by tomorrow.
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Here you go DS:
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/087.jpg)
From what I counted, there were eight different species caught on Saturday. :)
89 photos are now available for viewing at http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/
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ok, finally have a chance to do this now:
After last year’s event, I wasn’t too keen on putting on this year’s Fish for the Future because the turnout was below my expectation. It was either due to the unusually hot weather that we had, or people in Vancouver simply aren’t interested in this type of events.
I decided to give it one more chance, putting more effort into the advertising. The result was beyond my expectation, and I am now very motivated to do the event once again next year.
Fish for the Future started three years ago, the idea was developed from what others have done during the BC Family Fishing Weekend, which was launched six years ago. Instead of doing a derby, which may often become too competitive and bring out the worst of parents, I decided that it is necessary to produce an educational event where everyone can have fun and learn something at the same time.
Sponsors have been incredibly helpful this year. Joanne and Margarita put together a package of goods that we could give away to the kids. These included the salmon and rockfish id cards, various pamphlets that explain the common fisheries around Vancouver. Steve and Ken at Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery were also very helpful. They provided several prizes and the regulation synopsis for people to take home. ZoAnn at the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation provided tents and various educational material. She suggested many excellent ideas that can be used to deliver the messages to the kids. Local stores like Berry’s, Nikka, and Anglers West were able to supply the prizes once again for our draws. Everyone should continue to Redl Sport as they have once again donated 20 or so rods and reels to each event, that’s around 500 rods in total!
When I woke up on Saturday morning, the weather looked as if it was ready to clear up, but it started to drizzle around 8:30am when we were leaving! The setup went so smoothly because Mark, Thomas, Dan, Aaron, Carlo, Nina, Richard were just so efficient. We had the tents, tables, chairs, everything up way before the start time.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/071.jpg)
This year’s event did not include the usual exhibitors, like BC Hydro, Lifesaving Society, Burns Bog Society, etc. Instead, we put together several small workshops that everyone could participate in.
Something new and experimental this year was the aquatic critter section, which I was so excited about for weeks. In this section, we had a freshwater display of insects from both streams and ponds, plus tadpoles, crayfish etc. The insect display allowed kids to observe and identify several insects by using the id cards and magnifying glasses. We also had a tank up where kids could observe their catches before releasing them back later on. It’s a fantastic way to learn the behaviours fish exhibit. We also had some marine invertebrates, including ghost shrimp, small crabs and sea worms. Seymour Salmon Hatchery brought a tank of juvenile coho that was always surrounded by curious audience. I really appreciate them for doing that as they also had a big event the day after that, lots of work.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/045.jpg) (http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/068.jpg) (http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/053.jpg)
The flytying section was incredibly busy the whole time. Poor Carlo, Aaron and Ed hardly had a break during those five hours as there was a lineup of kids who wished to tie!
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/069.jpg)
Carole’s colouring workshop was beyond what I had expected. The glitter idea was fantastic, and you made so many little ones happy. It’s nice to be able to fish for a bit, then do various arts and crafts during breaks.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/056.jpg)
Floon’s instruction always amazes me. There was a good number of people who were willing to learn, and it looked like quite a few people will be purchasing fly setups after that day.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/083.jpg)
The sandwiches for volunteers were made by the kids who I tutor. They did a great job by looking after the draw prize station. This year’s money generated from draw prizes is $89.05. It’s not much, but that will be used to pay for some advertising of next year’s event.
The floating dock was quite crowded at times, but the atmosphere was great. Brian (Dragonspeed), Thomas (Spudcote), Richard (flyfisherman) and Rene (Rantalot) were able to make sure lines stayed tangle-free as long as possible, and kids were actually catching fish, lots of it! You guys did a great job, making sure every kid understood the goal of catch and release, and other aspects of fishing.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/013.jpg)
In total, we estimated around 350 to 400 people who attended the event. Traffic was consistent throughout the event, it was nice that we didn’t get one big rush then nothing for the rest of the day.
Now, improvements for next year, and feel free to add the ones that are on your mind:
We need to create some sort of a fence/boundary for floon’s flycasting instruction area, so no one would be whipped in the head.
Next year’s I’ll be inviting back the major community groups such as BC Hydro Powersmart, Burns Bog Conservation Society, OWL, Lifesaving Society etc so there is a good diversity of activities to participate in.
Advertising needs to go out a bit earlier.
More tables! The aquatic critter section could use one more tent and two more tables so the work stations were more comfortable.
Start and end time? Maybe avoid noon so there wouldn’t be a gap since people would be out for lunch? Ie. 12pm to 5pm instead?
Set a time limit for fishing on floating dock? 1.5 hours, etc. This way it would not get too crowded, other kids have a chance to fish and also get to participate in other educational activities.
That’s all I can think of right now. Thanks again, this event can only happen if there are volunteers like you guys and gals. I think we also learn something new when we teach the kids how to fish.
(http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fftf/photo/063.jpg)
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This was a great event. What a terrific way to get people involved.
I was so impressed I mentioned it in my blog.
http://vancouver-diary.blogspot.com/2005/06/fish-for-future-2005.html
My family had a lot of fun. Thanks a lot Rodney, Thom, Randy, and everyone else.
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Well, you managed to get me off my computer butt, and blog about it too!
http://www.blogontheweb.com/dragonspeed/archive/2005/06/21/74859.aspx
From seeing your blog, I'm pretty sure I remember you coming by. It's tough....things were pretty crazy! What School do you work at in Vancouver?
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I had alot of fun at the event. Love to see the kids faces with there first fish ever. It was also nice to meet a few people from the forum. Thanks Rodney for the great event.
Dan
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Hi DragonSpeed,
Yes, you might remember us. My wife Yvonne and I were making a bit of a spectacle of ourselves fly-casting. Yvonne has a Spanish accent. Also, I was the guy attacked by a baby flounder. Fortunately, the flounder was not a very skilled combatant. :)
We own and manage Vancouver English Centre ( http://www.vec.ca/english/1/ ) in Vancouver and Vancouver Language Centre ( http://www.study-mexico.com/english/1/ ) in Guadalajara. Almost all of our students come from overseas. I think we will bring a busload next year. They will love it.
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Yeah, I remember the flounder attacking you :D He was quite the ferocious fighter. Just a bit like a fish out of water though ::)
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Just a bit like a fish out of water though
Oooh, that was weak ;D :P
Glad to see you guys had a good time out there.
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Minnow Menace, I remember briefly chatting with you and your wife briefly at the end, it was a pleasure to know people are satisfied with what we put on. :) Definitely bring out the whole class next year. Our goal is not only to put on a fishing outing for the family, but to educate the public various aspects of our fisheries.
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The last few days we have been receiving feedbacks from participants regarding last weekend's event. Here are two:
It was very nice experience for me and my kids, this was the first time we fish and all of us love it, particularly my daughter got a good catch.. Great job it was great!!
I have to say thank you so much for organize this event where I could share great and unforgettable moments with my child. We are very motivated to continue with the fishing.
The event was featured in Richmond News today, but sorry Floon, they didn't put your photo in there... :( ;)