Coosa Riverkeeper, LMLPA and community
team up to teach fishing, water safety
Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Richard Rybka
and courtesy of Coosa Riverkeeper
Want to teach children to love the Coosa River and our local lakes and streams?
The Coosa Riverkeeper says one of the best ways to do that is to teach children all about not just how to enjoy the water, but to learn why this natural resource is so amazing.
To that end, the Riverkeeper teamed up with the Logan Martin Lake Protection Association and the Pell City Boys and Girls Club to hold a Kids Casting free fishing clinic at Pell City’s Lakeside Park on Logan Martin.
“We have seen fewer children over the past few years who know how to fish. That is a multi-generational activity in Alabama, something that is important for so many reasons,” said Abby Brown, director of Community Engagement for Coosa Riverkeeper. It is a hobby, a sport, even a way for some people to help provide for their families.
“We decided to start free fishing clinics this year, with the goal of teaching 100 kids how to fish. It is just over halfway through the year, and we have surpassed that number.”
The sessions focus on traditional fishing techniques with spincaster rods, how to tie knots and about lures and the tools they use to fish.
They also focus on how to be safe around water, and not just fishing.
“We teach kids about water safety and how to fish safely – check the weather, check people around you, use personal flotation devices if you are not a strong swimmer,” Brown said.
All fishing at the event is catch-and-release, and the Riverkeeper instructors take the opportunity to teach the young anglers about the different species of fish, where they live, what they eat and the ecology of their habitats.
“We talk about safe fish handling to reduce the chance of any injuries to the fish,” Brown said.
“Then we teach casting in the parking area. Once they are proficient there, the children are allowed to go ahead and fish in the water.”
At the end of the day, any child who does not have a fishing rod in their home to use is given one to keep.
“We would like, if we get more funding in the future, to be able to give every kid who attends one of these events a rod,” Brown said.
Every participant does, however, get to take home a tacklebox stocked with lures and other gear, along with all sorts of useful information on fishing and water safety.
The Pell City fishing clinic was one of several across the area, with other events on Choccolocco Creek in Anniston and Neely Henry in Gadsden and Rainbow City, and Brown is quick to point out how much of a collaborative effort these and similar classes are.
“The LMLPA did a great job securing the use of Lakeside Park for us,” she said.
Coosa Riverkeeper members help with donations to support the effort, as do other organizations similar to the LMLPA, groups like the Choccolocco Creek Watershed, which has played a big role in working with the Riverkeeper.
She also wanted to thank Bass Pro Shops for helping fund the projects with donations and grants.
“Our community groups, our cities, we all have to work together to get these done,” Brown said.
Because the programs are free, they often give children in underserved parts of the area a chance to learn to fish and about water safety, giving them access to one of Alabama’s greatest natural resources, its waterways.
“Alabama is the river state because we have so many of them” – over 130,000 miles of rivers and streams according to the Alabama Rivers Alliance – “Alabamians should have access to and be able to safely use those waterways. That is why we include water safety, even in a fishing class and provide families with swim guide information,” Brown said.
The fishing classes are just part of the Coosa Riverkeeper’s educational efforts. They sponsor a number of other classes under their Coosa River Environmental Education for Kids (CREEK) program. These cover a wide range of topics. In July, they partnered with Lovelight Farm from Wilsonville to teach children about biodynamic farming.
Organizations like the Coosa Riverkeeper, LMLPA, Choccolocco Creek Watershed, Neely Henry Lake Association and others all need support from local communities and businesses to keep programs like these free for local students. They post regular fundraising efforts on their social media pages and websites and are worth checking out.
Brown said they are a charity partner with the Kellypalooza festival coming up in Ohatchee, which is a great way to help support the Coosa Riverkeeper organization.
