June 7th to 12th was the 54th Annual Oklahoma Youth Forestry & Wildlife Camp.  This year the LMFRF was asked if they were interested in offering fly-fishing as one of the activities to expose the children to.  We accepted and volunteered our time for two days of instruction, some fly tying, and on-stream time with the kids.  Ken Cantrell, Teri Pearce, Tom Atwood, Jesse King, and Pat Waters went up to help out on Monday and Tuesday.

Jesse King was instrumental as the class instructor both days.  On Monday he spent an hour with each half of the camp and taught the basics of casting.  Ken, Teri, Tom and I went around and gave hands-on help to each camper so hat they could get the feel for the right moves.  That afternoon we took the ones that wanted to fish, 22 of them, down to the Evening Hole for two hours.  We tied a Caddis on to each rod and let them go.  I think we caused the trout to believe that there was a hatch happening because within 30 minutes strikes were made and fish were being caught.  Six different kids caught their first trout on a fly rod.  But a problem was discovered.

Tuesday’s lecture by Jesse was on what to do when a trout takes your fly.  We realized that no one had any idea on how to land a trout after making an acceptable cast to a willing trout.  We had kids yanking line and yelling, backing up into the wetland area, and other unique solutions to the problem.  Jesse gave a great talk and demonstration on the proper use of your hands with the line, how to set a hook, how to play a trout, and most importantly, how to release a trout without harm.  This was a great lecture as we each realized that much of this information was never taught to us in one lump but was stuff we picked up over the years.  As a result, Tuesday afternoon’s time on the river was much less chaotic.

Monday evening after dinner, Ken, Teri, Tom, Kelly Robertson (US Forestry), Jacob (Camper), and I set up our vises in the dining hall and put on a fly tying demonstration for all those interested.  We also let each camper tie a fly of their own at each station so that they had their own collection flies to use the next day.  A lot of San Juan Worms got tied that night.

After our two days were over, Christina Stallings, the camp coordinator, said that our fly fishing classes and time were a resounding success and that she had gotten much positive feedback from many of the campers and counselors.  I have a feeling that we will be asked back for next year and that we made a few new fly-fishermen (and women) this year.  Overall, all had a good time.

I would like to thank everyone once again for his or her help this year.  And a special thanks goes out to Jesse King for his lectures.