On the morning of August 27th, 5 FATC members, Mike BIsaga, Vernon Preston, Jim Carig, Harold Bates and Scott Dougherty, helped lead the final session of the Scout Certified Angling Instructor (CAI) course held at the Forest Park Hatchery.   Our guys assisted the organizer, lead instructor and also FATC member, Mike Brand, in teaching some fly fishing and tying skills to Scout leaders and a few Scouts who were finishing up their fishing/fly fishing merit badges.  The CAI program is an awesome national program within Scouting.

Some of the goals of the CAI program include:

• Promote the excitement and rewards of learning to fish, and increase a Scout’s desire to further knowledge and skills.
• Provide fishing program resource information for Units to encourage and enhance Unit-level programs.
• Develop and certify instructors to teach Fishing, Fly Fishing and Fish & Wildlife Management.
• Provide fishery management guidance and resources for councils to help them deliver quality fishing programs.
• Develop and support national fishing events.

We arrived as a group at 7am to the hatchery in Forest Park to help get things set up.  Once we got set up, we put together a game plan on who was going to do what. Once we were organized, a few of us “tested the waters” to see what the fish wanted that morning.  We tried a variety of flies, and the fish, all bluegill, were very hungry.  It did not seem to matter what we threw; they were taking it.  That was good news for the students, since for many of them, this would be their first fish on a fly rod.

After some basic casting instruction for the group to cover the required skills for Fly Fishing Merit Badge. (30′ cast and a roll cast), and help prevent them from hooking each other or themselves, we got the leaders on the water.  Last time we were there, the fish did not cooperate all day long, so we wanted to get everyone on the water early. All the FATC guys assisted the leaders in catching their “first” fish on a fly rod.  Once everyone caught a fish or two, the students moved on to the next station.  

Jim, being the most skilled tier of the group, worked the fly-tying station.  Students learned the basics of tying, and each student produced a San Juan Worm and a Wooly Bugger. Flies were tied by all, and some new skills were learned.

Mike Brand had organized some other leaders (outside FATC) to help out with knot tying, conservation, Fish and Wildlife and Backyard Bass stations.  By the way, if you have never seen Backyard Bass, it is a great way to get kids (and adults) interested in fishing.  I think the adults get as carried away with it as the kids do.  Google it. It’s a lot of fun.

The FATC has helped out the CAI program with several events now.  We even have a few members that have officially gone through the Scout Certified Angling Instructor and/or Certified Angling Educator programs, so that we can assist in these programs as needed. For more information on these programs, check out their website, BSA Fishing – Certified Angling Instructors – Home.

If you would like to participate in one of these events, just keep an eye out on the calendar. By the way, we do have an event on Oct 1st that we could use a few more guys for.

Mike Bisaga