Wisconsin Trout Unlimited Youth Fishing Camp 2015

One more year of our WITU Youth Camp under our belts, and one more graduating class of educated angler citizens.

This year’s group was thoughtful and funny, sassy and naughty, insightful and competitive. Basically, they were typical teenagers (and pre-teens). The camp is held at the beautiful Pine Lake Bible Camp, and it is a wonderful facility!

We started with knot tying…

…and fly casting.

I was the counselor for two girls, and here they are! Natalie and Katie. Two totally different personalities and two different experience levels, but the three of us meshed flawlessly and we all had a great time. 🙂

We had many fabulous volunteers, who drove out to the middle of nowhere (Wild Rose) and donated their time and talents. I love my TU friends!

We went on a field trip to visit our local DNR fisheries guys and they demonstrated how they do fish surveys on our streams.

When it was dark, we came inside and the kids learned about fly tying. Some of our older kids from last year came back and helped us out as junior counselors. They were fantastic! Even though I think this stuff is awesome, it means more to the campers to hear it from other kids.

Here are my girls with the grownups that they brought- one had her grampie, and one had her dad.

We had a lesson from past WITU council chair, Henry, on what TU does and why we do it.

Those lucky kids even had a chance to make their own spinners! Too cool.

The camp is on a lake, so we were able to swim and fish out there in between classes. It was a hot week- in the 90s every day. We made extra break times for a dip in the lake, and I made a couple popsicle runs.

Despite the heat, I found a little break to go for a run on the trails through the camp. It was beautiful!!

Early mornings were spent soaking up knowledge from these TU members (and total fly fishing experts!)…

…and drinking tea on the deck. Those kids stayed up way past “lights out,” probably studying their fishing books, I’m sure, so they slept in until the very last moment each morning. It was nice to have a few minutes of peace!

Our final day included some stream fishing, and my girls did a fantastic job!

Bob, who is one of the organizers of the camp, came out to our stream section and captured this image of Natalie and I. She did a great job! I was so proud.

Girls on the stream: Linda, from Wisconsin River Valley TU, came out to help guide!

We had a wonderful camp this year. Congratulations, campers! You learned a lot of new skills, and you taught us all a lot, too. Thank you for the great week!

I headed out immediately after the kids were picked up, because I only had one day at home before I had to leave on my Colorado adventure. One day is not nearly enough time to do all my laundry, snuggle my pup and my mustachioed husband, and charge my camera batteries.

That trip (and the insanity of my day at home) is up next! As always, thank you for reading!

Miles this year: 335.4