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[Rodney]

A big thanks go out to all the volunteers and all the parents who brought their kids down for the event.

Some stats:

124 juvenile saltwater fishing licences were written up. Some kids also came with a fishing licence already, so we probably had around 150 kids today. Last year we wrote up exactly 200 licences. Attendance was down slightly, but traffic was still very steady at a relaxing pace, except the first two hours, which was almost a controlled chaos.

102 fish were caught and released.

• 62 coastrange sculpins
• 21 pacific staghorn sculpins
• 10 northern pikeminnows
• 5 peamouth chubs
• 4 starry flounders

Every kid who caught a fish was given a prize. The prizes available included T shirts, hats, fishing rods, lures, etc.

Ten rod and reel setups, which were provided by the BC Family Fishing Weekend Society (down from last year's 25), were used during the event and given away to kids at the end. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC provided additional 30 loaner rods during the event so we could accommodate over 40 kids fishing on the pier at one time.

Here are some memorable shots from today.


Aaron (Skunkadoo from FlyBC) teaching a future fly tyer.


Bullhead city.


Exploring the micro-critter world.


The star of the show.


Baiting worms is also a part of their job.

The rest of my photos can be seen at:
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/member/gallery/2009fftf

More about the event later. Feedbacks of course please on what different or more improved things we can do next year. Time to relax on the couch.

[chris gadsden]

Good event, thanks for all that helped make it a success including Cathy who made all the sandwiches for the volunteers. Dion was fortunate to get a rare float off me for a cup of Tims, I think he called it a Bandera Float, at least it sounded like that, said it was worth $12???

Maybe he better buy me a few more cups then. Floon received a Maple Leaf Drennan in exchange for a fly he said would guarantee me a trout. The MLD will guarantee him a steelhead too.

FA did not show up for his MLD I owed him on a bet. .

Rodney, George, Cathy and family along with Carlo had an enjoyable supper at Sockeye City after we looked at all the fish being sold at the docks. They wanted $14 a pound for chum roe.

I had a nice sleep under a shade tree at Garry Point until George woke me up as he was on the way to White Rock to get bugs and I had the 3 pumps. The kids, all of us had fun getting the bugs and I got some plucks.

Rodney calculated the tide perfectly as 7 pm had the tide just right.

[Stratocaster]

Thanks to all for a great event!  My daughter had a terrific time.  It was great to catch up with Rod, Chris, Dion and Carlo again.  Special thanks to Aaron for helping my daughter out in tying her first fly.  I think I might have learned a little bit myself   Hope to see you guys out on the water this year!

[Rodney]

We were definitely very lucky with the weather! I just took a peek outside and is it ever windy! Shower has never been a convern for my event, it has always been the wind. The pier is too open and any wind would make the event very unpleasant. Yesterday's condition was simply perfect, sun, not too warm, a light breeze from the Southwesterly, so nice that Chris even had a nap under the tent during the event.

This event has always been a group effort, so we should credit all individuals. I like the fact that I can send out a notice to everyone who has been involved every year and expect them to show up to run this event smoothly.

Many thanks to Buckwife again for the sandwiches. This time we actually made an effort to hand them out to volunteers and the responses were very good.

Also have to thank her, Natalie and my neighbour Jen for writing up 124 fishing licences for the kids.

Thanks to the FlyBC gang (Skunkaroo, Floon, Mitchell, Wayne) for taking care of the flytying workshop. Skunkaroo had three or four kids tying at one time, it was like a factory.

Thanks to RP3Flyfisher/Rick and Newsman for running the flycasting section. I'm sure some received some valuable tips. Even if little kids only got to swing the rod around a few times, at least now they had a chance to do it and perhaps will be inspired to do more later on.

Thanks to Rantalot and Murf70 for picking up and dropping off the tables and chairs, as well as doing probably the hardest job at the event with Druid, Alex, Buckeye and Dion - working on the floating dock. They had to endure the sun, dozens of kids who were asking for worms at one time, unhooking fish, bringing fish in buckets to the tanks, releasing fish for kids, untangling birdnests, the list goes on. Alex also did a good job on the creel survey.

Thanks to Daniel from DNE and Steven from Army and Navy for taking care of giving out the rods and reels.

Thanks to Chrome Mykiss for running the aquarium section smoothly. We only had a few floaters, his dad, an aquarium enthusiast, can be very proud.

Thanks to Derek and Gen at DFO Steveston for taking the time to educate the public. The best way to reduce violations is prevention, which can be effectively done through public outreach.

Thanks to Tanya and Alana at the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC for coming all the way from Abbotsford to do learn to fish lessons, lending out rods and reels, and promoting freshwater fishing in BC.

Thanks to Matt and Brian from the Seymour Salmonid Society for doing a freshwater invertebrate section at the event, which demonstrated that biology can indeed be cool and fun.

Thanks to Chris for coming all the way from Chilliwack to represent the Chilliwack Vedder River Cleanup Coalition. To reduce the recreational garbage problem in the Chilliwack River watershed, we need to educate potential users who are coming from the Metro Vancouver area.

Thanks to Jean and Raizy from the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, for bringing awareness of the growing garbage problems along our sea and lake shorelines. This year's TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is happening between September 19th and 27th.

Thanks to Sue and Thomas at OWL for bringing the feathery stars of the event. By having birds of prey at the event, it reminds anglers that we need to treat our waterways more carefully when fishing by not disgarding fishing lines in the water, which can often harm these majestic species of flight.

Some thoughts on what we can improve at next year's event:

I think that I will put together an information sheet that is handed out to every parent/kid who sign up for the licence. More generic background information should be given to them first, such as some safety rules. I'd also like to see fish not being carried from the pier to the fish tank on the fishing line. They should be unhooked and placed in the bucket with water to ensure that they would not die.

We also need to use slightly bigger hooks next year to prevent deep-hooking. Last year our hooks were too big, so this year we decided to downsize them. Next year we'll find something more suitable for all species.

Funding issues. This year we received $200 instead of $500 from the BC Family Fishing Weekend Society, which is funded by the Province. I can run the event quite cheaply, but that budget is getting pretty extreme. Because we are organizing this loosely instead of as a fishing club/association, we don't have the option of getting money from our own group. I guess we could solve this by starting a group, which would have a bank account, but that's getting a bit too much administrative work I think.

Beside the $200, we've put in an additional $400 thanks to subscribers of my website ($5 of each subscription goes to the event). We also received 10 rods instead of 25 rods from the society, which cannot accommodate 100+ kids. Thankfully the last couple of years we have the help from the FFSBC for bringing loaner rods as well.

Our costs for this year's event included the following:

$89.97 on renting tables and chairs
$68.77 (US) on Facebook advertising
$220 + GST for one ad printing in Richmond Review
$56.37 on food and drinks for volunteers and exhibitors

Ideally I would have liked one more ad printing in Richmond News (there are two local newspapers in Richmond) but that was not possible this year. This may explain the slight drop of attendance. Our expenses were also cut down in the followings:

Tents are provided by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation and DFO so we didn't have to rent them.
Special event fee was waived by the City of Richmond.
Berry's Bait and Tackle provided bait and all terminal tackle required.
Our posters and flyers were printed by Great Green Printing at Cambie and Marine, for free. Thanks Bwi Bwi!

Anyway, that's just a breakdown of the cost to run a grassroot event like this if anyone else is interested in doing one. Not looking for donations as some have offered right now, perhaps when the event gets closer next year and if I think more funding is needed, we will do something like that.

[Rantalot]

It was good but like you said the dock was very hot have a nice sunburn on the noggin to prve it:)My only concern with the dock,with so many kids and of course the short attention span iam worried that some one may fall in.Maybe kids lifejackets would not be a bad idea?

[Rodney]

In the first year when we did it, we had around 20 life vests that canoe man provided for the day. I haven't been able to find other sources to get life vests since then and the funding limits my option. The City of Richmond actually doesn't require the event to have life jackets, otherwise they would have make it a mandatory rules on the floating dock at all time. I guess the 5 million dollar liability insurance is sufficient enough for them. To minimize any danger, I've always chosen the event day that has a low tide during the event so we are blocked by that rockwall just upstream from us, away from the swift current of the Fraser main channel. Good idea though, have to explore that again in the future. Perhaps we need to minimize the number of people on the floating dock at one time by only lending out 30 or less rods at one time.

This year we also decided to not issuing licences to kids under the age of five and letting them fish on the floating dock for safety reasons.

Having radios on the floating dock, rod lending station and the registration table might be a good idea too for better communication, so I don't have to run up and down the pier. Oh yeah, Dion phoned me halfway through the event from the floating dock and asked what he should do with his great find in the water...

[Rantalot]

yup that was sick >:(Some people eh!

[Rp3Flyfisher]

Here is a link to the Video I made up with all the pic's I took that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8H8dEeEOFk

Rick

[lude98r]

Nice compilation of photos, I didn't make it to the event but looking at your video ill be there with the kids next year.

[Shooter]

nicely done

[RossP]

Hey Rick you do have some talent after all.......