By Rhine Messmer, Project Lead

Oregon Bass and Panfish Club members participated in the Rigged Up For Summer Kid’s Fishing Clinic at the Tualatin Cabela’s on Saturday, March 2nd, and helped out at the Cabela’s trout fishing pond on Sunday, March 3rd.

On Saturday a total of 24 Club members worked at the Fish ID station, the knot tying and rigging stations, and the casting station. Club members also helped with the trout catching pond which was primarily staffed by local law enforcement officers, including OSP Fish and Wildlife officers.

This was the second OBPC’s Rigged Up For Summer event at the Tualatin, Oregon Cabela’s Outdoor Store. The event contains six stations where the children will learn something new at each station. The stations are 1) Fish Identification in front of the fish tank; 2) Knot Tying exercises; 3) Rod Rigging exercises; 4) Safety & Life Jacket fitting put on by the Coast Guard Auxiliary; 5) Casting Station to practice casting; 6) Catch & Release Bass Pond in the parking lot. The turnout was very good, with 286 kids, accompanied by their parents and older siblings, completing all stations and returning their Fish Clinic Passports for an opportunity to fish in the trout pond.

Club members helped out at the trout pond on Sunday but there was no clinic on that day so we did not get a count of participants. Cabela’s originally planned to have largemouth bass in the fish pond but it was too early in the year to obtain bass from the local supplier. So, trout were substituted at the last minute. The kids didn’t mind!

All of the kids seemed to enjoy the clinic but 1/3 of the kids were younger than the target age (5-15) and did not seem to comprehend much of the information or demonstrated skills. The 26 club members offered good feedback on this event so in the future we can better target anglers who can best benefit from the clinic.

OBPC clinic organizers plan to meet with Cabela’s management to pass on comments submitted by club members and to discuss improvements that can be made to future warmwater fishing clinics. And Cabela’s enjoyed hosting an event that created a lot of foot traffic through their store.