12 Jun My New Love for Fishing and its Unexpected Challenges
There are many things I love about the outdoors. The joy of admiring life under a log, hearing a beautiful bird’s song and trying to find where it is coming from, and identifying a cool plant that ends up being invasive. However, there is one thing I never expected to love… fishing!
I believe fishing is an outdoor activity that is simple for non-outdoor people to understand and relate to. Spaces for fishing have historically excluded communities from being able to participate. Part of the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger Angler program is to help diversify this hobby. This will create a new face of fishing that shows it is an activity for everyone! The Fish & Feathers program has helped instill a new interest in fishing for me. I love learning more about the life we cannot see under the water. This past Saturday, I could share everything I have learned in this program so far with others!
Fishing is an outdoor activity that I believe is simple for non-outdoor people to understand and relate to. Spaces for fishing have historically excluded communities from being able to participate. Part of the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger Angler program is to help diversify this hobby. This will create a new face of fishing that shows it is an activity for everyone! The Fish & Feathers program has helped instill a new interest in fishing for me. I love being able to see more about the life we cannot see under the water. This past Saturday, I was able to share everything I have learned in this program so far with others!
MY FIRST Junior Ranger Fishing Event
Maryland hosts free fishing days where people can fish for free without a fishing license. One of those days was last Saturday, June 10, in which I helped lead an event at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, MD, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Part of my job at these events is teaching people how to fish and promoting the Park Service’s Junior Ranger Angler program. A sweet perk of these events is that people who attend get provided with a free fishing license, paid for by the Park Service. This helps to make fishing a more accessible activity for communities. My long-term project in this internship is to create a user-friendly interactive map showing people where they can find places to fish in Maryland. This will be a great resource to share with people at future events. It will help encourage people to continue fishing as a hobby and make it a convenient outdoor activity. Within the next few weeks, I will be reaching out to participants with information about how to obtain their free fishing licenses.
I had some great conversations with families where I asked how they found out about the event and learned about their relationship with the outdoors. I met some amazing volunteers with great fishing experience that they shared with me. I also go to work with the refuge’s visitor services manager, Jason Cangelosi.
post-event reflections
After reflecting on this event, there were some challenges I experienced. Kids with zero prior fishing experience will come with the one goal of experiencing the adrenaline rush: catching a fish. In fishing, you can be out there for hours and never catch a single thing. There is a lot to teach about patience and practice in fishing. It can be challenging for me as the program runner to witness children upset for not having caught anything. I think about the possibility of them going home with a negative view of fishing, with their memory being that they were unsuccessful. As I continue leading fishing programs this summer, I will work to mitigate this challenge and find ways to make the event fulfilling in different aspects.
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