Let’s be honest. Most anglers have at one point or another looked at a fish tank and pondered how it would look filled with fingerling browns. Possibly even rainbow stockers. No loss there, right?
Who hasn’t dreamed of having an adopted trout around? Talk about a good way to test fly patterns… beats the hell out of floating that new hopper in the bathroom sink. (That garners weird looks from bait-fishing roommates, trust me.)
For students involved with Trout Unlimited’s Adopt-a-Trout program, having their own trout isn’t that far away from reality. Even better, it’s a trout that lives in real river habitat.
The Adopt-a-Trout program was designed to introduce students to the world of trout, fisheries, habitat and coldwater conservation. At the beginning of the program, students spend a day in the field watching fish be tagged with telemetry tags, learning about conservation and fly fishing, as well as aquatic micro invertebrates.
Then, throughout the school year, the kids participate in classroom sessions where they map their fish’s movement. Sessions range from time mapping with TU staff to presentations with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
I spent a few hours yesterday in the Big Piney Middle School science room here in western Wyoming, watching Wyoming TU coordinator Scott Christy teach students about mapping and then helping them map their trout’s movement. These students have already had a field day and look forward to another in the spring.
Students eagerly gathered folders containing the coordinates of their trout and rushed to one of four maps throughout the classroom to find and flag locations. Students are encouraged to name their individual fish throughout the program, and I had to smile at names like “Mr. Sushi” and “Nemo.”
This particular class has been working with trout in the Cottonwood drainage in the Wyoming Range, another piece which drew my attention as I’ve been researching the correlation between energy development and fisheries in the region. I spoke with TU’s Green River Project Manager Nick Walrath this morning, who shared the fact that some of the data the students help to gather is utilized in the field.
Getting kids outside, on the water, and helping fisheries and habitat along the way? Sounds like a win-win.
Youth are the future generation of organizations such as TU, and programs like this are essential to introduce kids to the world of fly fishing and trout wisdom. In a place flooded with renowned rivers – I crossed the New Fork and the Green yesterday during the jaunt down to Big Piney – it becomes possibly even more important.
Thanks to Scott for letting me hang around yesterday, and to TU as a whole for this program. I was one of those very lucky, rare kids whose first memories are in a drift boat on the Snake River and, later that same day, madly casting a pink rod over the side of the boat while in camp in Gros Ventre. There are many kids out there – even in this area – who never get the chance to cast a fly rod or hold their first trout.
TU is making a good effort to make that right.
