7 FATC members, Al Harper, Steve Baker, Harold Bates, Vernon Preston, Ken Welter, Jim Craig and Mike Bisaga had the opportunity to participate in the Greater St. Louis Area Council Cub Scout Launch event at Beaumont Scout Reservation. This event is designed to give all new Scouts a chance to experience all the great activities Scouting has to offer. This year there were over 700 Scouts pre-registered and numerous walk in registrations.   This is a big event.

At Cub Launch, Cub Scouts participate in a variety outdoor activities(including fishing), games and a full day of hands-on introductions to archery, BB guns, campfire cooking, science projects, art,  leatherworking and all things Cub Scouts.

The fishing area included activity stations including: Backyard Bass where Scouts used button cast rods to “fish” for bass, knot tying, conservation, basic tackle stewardship and fly casting.  This is where we come in.

In our station we exposed Scouts to the basics of fly fishing/casting.  Teaching fly casting to 6-10 yr olds, can be challenging, but the goal is to just expose them to fly fishing.  With a little coaching from our FATC “guides”, most kids got into some quality felt lawn trout. Being that Harold is our Stream Team lead, this year, we also set up a bug water table for the kids to see some of the aquatic insects and animals our trout feed on, up close.  Harold, Ken and Mike hit the creek that runs out of the pond in Beaumont to collect our bugs before the event started.  Our collection started

with an assortment of mayflies,  scuds, riffle beatles, damselflies and caddisflies.  From past experience, Mike remembered that the one thing the kids really liked seeing were fish and crayfish, so we took some of those too. We had several crayfish, darters and sculpin.

What we had not completely thought though, was how well all of those critters would get along if confined for several hours.  While our hands-on display was a big hit, after just a few hours we ended up with a fish and crayfish “circle of life” display.  The kids didn’t mind. , they liked playing with the crayfish.  Turns out, the conservation table next to us also had a bug display, so the kids could still see what the bugs had looked like up close before nature took over.

It was a great event and a great experience for our FATC team . A big thanks to our guys for giving up some of their time on a Saturday morning to serve our youth.