Take Your Kids Fishing

In a recent Kansas City Star edition, Brent Frazee wrote a very enlightening and troublesome story about our kids choosing the modern technology of video games made available to them. No longer are they finding fascination in nature and the many wonders found on a simple spring walk through the woods or near the water.


Parents are using a multitude of excuses: no available conservation areas near their homes; a fast paced lifestyle that does not include quality time outdoors with their children; a reluctance to separate their children from television, computers, and video games because it is a built-in baby sitter for them; also, a legitimate excuse of abduction by strangers.


Conservation leaders across the nation are voicing their concerns about what the effect of isolation from the outdoors will have upon the future of the many programs offered to children under the auspices of conservation. In our fast-paced society, parents are usually under pressure to provide entertainment to their children, but back away from the slower pace required for fishing or hunting, even for nature walks. A further hindrance can be that the parent, especially the father, never fished as a child and has no interest in any outdoor activities. I find this personally to be accurate, my children and grandchildren, camped, fished and hunted, plus have a great interest in just being involved with nature, consequently, they have continued that interest by sharing it with their children and grandchildren.


Studies by many conservation groups show an alarming drop in the number of children that has no interest in the outdoor recreation facilities available to them and their parents. There are many organized events such as fishing derbies, organized nature walks and campouts, even bird watching tours for children. It seems that under privileged children attend these events, simply because they are organized and made possibe by charitable organizations.


Another longtime effect from the disappearance of kids at the “old fishing hole” will
be the future leaders needed to fight for clean water, preservation of wildlife and a continuing fight for strong fish and wildlife management. If this trend continues and we don’t manage to somehow interest these kids into the outdoors, most of our future environmentalists and conservationist will not have nurtured their belief growing up in the outdoors, but rather from a television or video game.


Fishing has so much to offer kids, besides the thrill of catching the big one. All wonders of nature are there for the kids to see and explore. So, dads and moms, take your children to the “old fishing hole” before it dries up forever.


Below are some additional resources that may help get your children interested in fishing:


A Kid’s Guide to Flyfishing: It’s More than Catching Fish
Kids Gone Fishin’ (The Freshwater Angler)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.