just some interesting information http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77474,00.html

Mike

Brike, That is a good article, but I see some points that seem to have been left out. I am 30 years old and I grew up in Hurst, TX. The things that I think are left out is accessability to local fishing spots, and harrassment from local law enforcement. I understand the legal issues, but even back in the late 80's when I was in high school, we were constantly harrassed by sherriff and city police officers while bank fishing on local creeks and ponds. They would search all of our belongings. They thought we were either drunk or on drugs. I guess they thought we couldn't actually want to go fishing just to fish. This almost made me quit fishing myself. Also, most of the local fishing ponds are now considered off limits. I can think of at least five spots back on old hwy 10 by Bell Hellicopter that I grew up fishing. They were all within bike distance. Now all of them are off limits. Basically if you don't have a car you can't fish in most of the suburbs. Now there are always the small park ponds, but I don't like fishing in htem, so why should they? Anyway, That is a bit of my own opinions, I hope I didn't take this in an unintended direction.

67, You have a good point.
When I grew up in the 50's, I would get my pole, a can of worms and hit the local gravel pits via my trusty (and rusty) old balloon tire bike. I would be gone all day and my parents didn't even know which pit I was at.
There is no way todays parents can let their kids go all day unsupervised. And come to think of it, all the places I fished are now no longer available to kids.
Maybe we should all make a point of taking a kid fishing.

Well,
I guess im fortunate, I have always lived in the suburbs and had plenty of places to go fish and hunt. I have a son that is 19 now and i have taught him to enjoy and respect nature every chance he gets.
Hopefully he will pass that on to his kids and grandkids someday.

Now the only problem is...I have to mow the yard myself.

That's a great idea jcass to take a kid fishing. That should be a goal for all of us. But, to add one other thought..don't just take a kid fishing, take a teenager fishing. Or take an adult that has never fished. Introduce someone to the sport that we all love. So that they can learn to love it too.

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Happy Hookin'
-Jeff

The reason they close all these off-the-beaten-path fishing holes is because it IS attractive to the drunks and druggies. With all the weirdo's that roam the streets now days looking for kids, I can't say that was a bad move on the part of the authorities.

Also, it is a liabilty to private land owners now days as well...with the suit happy public/lawyers, the slightest accident on their property and the land owner gets hauled off to court, jail time and fines.

Back in the 50's-60's taking responsibility for your own actions was supported/adhered to by our parents and land owners weren't taken to task. Without proper parental guidance, it's become a dog-eat-dog world out there.

[This message has been edited by redfin (edited 02-04-2003).]

You are right redfin, nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions. Either that, or they are looking for an easy way to get rich.
When I was young, we could sneak off to farmer Brown's pond and be gone all day without thinking someone was going to shoot at us. We might get a run off with a warning or worse, parents called. I really wish it was the same for my kids, but we do live in a fallen world. Another reason to do what we can individually to better the situation in our little corner of it.

Wes

I believe we are looking at the results of the stay at home and inside, TV generation, now more then ever. Seldom do I see kids playing outside in what we use to call pick-up games of basketball or football. Our front yard was always warn down to the dirt during football season and the neighbors driveway was lite up late night with lights during basketball season. All the kids now play in organized sports that their parents pay for and support. I believe my generation is the last of the outsiders, living more in the reality of the great outdoors and not the virtual reality Xbox and playstations gamers of today... Thank God My dad took me and my brothers fishing and hunting often and I try to do the same for my kids but the oldest boy (19) isn't very intrested anymore, he lives on his computer day and night so it seems. I'll say this, it is very difficult to trust my kids with a gun and hunting is now out of the question, purely based on needs. Fishing is less costly to the environment and in ways that agree with me personally. I do not oppose gun/bow hunting by others, I just don't do it anymore, believing that I've taken enough game in my life so now I use a camera. We'll see if this downward trend continues as we move further into the information age..

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hook-line-and-sinker,

That's a verrrrrry cool sign-off tag you got there.....

The guy is even a southpaw...amazing!

[This message has been edited by redfin (edited 02-04-2003).]

I took an interest in this several years ago as a hunter's safety instructor. I noticed that literally three quarters of my students were dropped off by their mothers. Many of the mothers told me that they signed their kids up in hopes that they would meet someone that would take them hunting. They were divorced and would not likely be teaching their kids to hunt or fish.

Many of the kids came with their fathers and this was their "visitation with dad". Others were there to get certified with their dad so they could go hunting with them to develop a family tradition.

In about my third year of teaching, I began to survey the classes and was amazed at how many of the kids were from broken homes. They had been encouraged by their friends to take the course so they could go hunting with their best friend and his dad. Thank God for those "fill in dad's" who took the time to teach the neighborhood kids to hunt and fish.

There were many dad's who wanted to have more time with their kids but were restricted by the court in a divorce decree. Lots of those dad's made time to take their kids hunting and fishing and have impacted the lives of their children forever.

I truly believe that divorce has a direct impact on the number of kids who have the opportunity to make hunting and fishing a part of their lives. I encourage everyone who has the chance, to take a kid fishing even if he is not your own. My son is now 20 and I'm waiting for the neighbor kids to get big enough to hold a rod. Then....we're going fishing!

[This message has been edited by jigmeister (edited 02-04-2003).]

[This message has been edited by jigmeister (edited 02-04-2003).]

[This message has been edited by jigmeister (edited 02-04-2003).]

Being a ripe old 22 years old myself, I can relate to both aspects of this discussion, as I am "on the edge" of two generations.

On the one hand, I started fishing when I was about 3 or 4 years old, thanks to Dad and Granddad. I enjoy all types of fishing, from arificials, to bait, to fly (something I need a lot more practice at ) and for anything that swims in fresh or salt water.

I will fish every waking moment of the day if given the chance, stopping only to take a restroom break (I seldom eat while fishing), and I have been known to fish until literally falling asleep with the rod in my hands, and forced to "call it a day". I then proceed to dream about the big fish that started biting the instant I left, which wakes me way too early the next morning to start the cycle over again

It isn't a hobby or a sport, it's a way of life. Simply put, it's in my blood, and I feel the "need" to fish every hour of the day that I'm not fishing.

On the other hand, I grew up in an era of Nintendo, cable TV, and computers...I spent a lot of time playing outside, but an equal (and increasingly greater) amount of time inside playing video games, dazing into the TV, or messing around with my computer. The desire to fish was still there, but it was easier to avoid taking the time to go fishing, with ever-advancing forms of electronic entertainment.

Now, I spend over a hundred hours per week behind a computer, and once more, all I can think about is fishing. I only wish I spent a hundred hours per week fishing.

I can safely say, it still wouldn't be enough.

Rest assured, there's one 18-24 year old around here who always has, and always will, love fishing more than anything else

I try to take kids every chance i can. Hunting or fishing. I supply everything as older men and my father did for me years ago.

I took the hunters safety or education class a few years ago for out of state hunting, did not need it for here. Took it years ago and still do not need it to hunt in Texas, but took it for out of state and with my stepson.

There were several kids there by themselves that were dropped off by parents.

I grew up hunting and fishing, by myself, with my dad, his friends, got on my bike and went to area creeks, got dropped off at the lake or state park in the summers. Went to our lease and peddaled all the way around it fishing all the ponds by foot. My folks trusted me and knew I would be allright. Now a days, trust is still there, but it is shadowed by the other members of society who use drugs, drink a little too much, and other acts that I will not mention. It is simply not safe anymore to do the things I did as a kid.

Kids too often today are babysat by the TV or the video game. I told my stepson who is now 15, that i am not buying another game for this video machine, period.. GET OUTSIDE!

We put up a basketball goal in hopes to get him outside more, or I did, but I also knew that my buddies would come over and we would have some serious games of 2 on 2, 3 on 3, horse and 21 and I could get my stepson more involved. He does not shy away from yard work now. gone is the need to have momma remove a splinter or address a very minor scratch. He now knows the difference between pain and hurt, also that a scratch where blood comes to the surface does not mean you are bleeding!!!!!! When we got married I inherited a big mommas boy, he still is to some degree, but now when he gets outside, i tell him figure it out, I have shown you for years, now you figure it out......Thought he was going to cry about three years ago when he could not get a spinner bait out of a fishes mouth. he was all the way across the pond and caught it, I could not get there, no i did not want to. I was catching little bass every other cast. he finally got it off and I asked him if he felt bad about throwing a fit...he did. Then i reminded him of the times he threw a fit when we were hunting and fishing and asked him what happened.....he said, you told me to stop, you asked me and warned me to stop and when i did not I got a one way trip to the truck, to the bank, to the house and you left to go back to what you were doing......I said and you did not like that did you? he said no, but i do not want it to happen again.

he got jealous when i took a 12 year old boy from Plano duck hunting, kid had never been before and wanted to go so as a favor to my dads buddy, I took his grandson, but my stepson had a football playoff game that day and could not go which was fine, that way I could focus on one kid only, we had a good time. My stepson brought it up the other day that another kid got to go, he forgot all about his football game and was still mad. I simply said, how many times do you get to go hunting???fishing???? now tell me one other kid you know that gets to go as much as you......silence....so be quiet and grateful...I do not take selfish kids or jealous kids hunting of fishing.....again silence. I have dealt with this before when another kid catches more or bigger fish then him, but he still gets upset no matter how much I talk to him about it. So, the alternative is not going period.....by and large I have taken a big baby out from the house and view of his momma and made him grow up in the outdoors, it has taken a great deal of patiance AS I AM SURE IT DID WHEN MY DAD TOOK ME. BUT I AM GLAD HE DID AND MY STEPSON IS GLAD AS WELL. My final comment to him is always........if i did not or had not taken you hunting of fishing, WHO WOULD HAVE???? He knows he has been beat then, and says nobody....... I say exactly....that is why I take so many kids to do both, quit being jealous and selfish, you get to do a hell of a lot that others do not get to do. Now go turn off that darn video game..


"teach a child to hunt and fish and enjoy the outdoors and by the time they are old enough, no drug dealer on the streets will ever touch them."

take a kid every chance you get, get involved with programs that help kids in the outdoors, they are the future!

I am 24 years old, and I live for fishing. I have a XBOX at home, it has more dust than my fishing poles do. My poles get used a whole lot more. Since I have found this site I have fished alot more. I have learned a bunch from you guys going fishing with a few, going to seminars and reading all the info you guys share, THANK YOU. I try to get my buddies to go all the time but the say nothing is biting. I do not care if anything is biting or not. I just LOVE TO FISH. My parents get a kick out of me when I go camping with them. We get there and get everything set up and I grab my tackle and poles and fish. Sometimes I do not eat. Sometimes they bring me food. I just get to watching that rod tip so much I do not think about food. Or I get to talking with someone will fishing. My wife says I fish to much I say I do ot fish enough. Kids now days are to worried about getting dirty or they might miss something. I can miss it all I do not care as long as I am fishing. They want to go deeper in to the metroplex and I want to get further away. I am from a divorced family. It was for the better in my case. If my mom would have stayed with my dad I would have never got a fishing pole for Christmas or a BB gun or anything. My stepdad has taught me fishing and hunting a few times. Hunting got to expensive for us but that is a different subject. I remember going with my grandad to Navarro Mills every Spring Break. We would sleep in the suburban and fish at the marina. I would go to his house all summer and we would go drift fishing at Cedar Creek. I remember fishing some of the old gravel pits. I do not hink I could find them anymore that I could fish. That was a blast to me. All the other kids would come back to school in the fall and say they sat at home all summer. I am very grateful to have parents that took me fishing. We did not have alot of money growing up but we always found stuff outdoors. Just driving through the country or looking at different campgrounds to go camping. I cannot wait to have kids and show them the same my parents and grandparents taught me.

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David

Although I have just jumped out of the statistics criteria, I am 25, I am a diehard fisherman. I love to fish when I have time. I am also well aware of all the situations from the previous posts. I am a teacher and a coach so I see the effects society has on kids. I wish each kid get the enjoyment I get out of the outdoors. There is nothing I would rather do than go fishing, camping, hunting, or just be outdoors. I save those video games for when the sun has set and I can't go night fishing. I pray that one day when I have kids that they will have the same passion I do for the outdoors.

Hello all. I guess that since I am 24 yo I can go ahead and chime in on this one. I was lucky enough to grow up with two grandfathers who both enjoy fishing, and a father who loves it. One of my grandfathers lives on a small private lake in the middle of FT. Worth, and I spent all the time I could there growing up. My parents bought a house that happened to back up to a golf course and while we lived there I fished the water hazards constantly. I still fish at my grandfathers house at least twice a week, and wherever I go I will always fish. My first job was as a recreation director at a Sea Camp at Texas A&M Galveston. Over my years working there I saw physical abilities in kids go downhill. When I finally left the job the average 12 yo kids could not do things like wheelbarrow races because their arms were not strong enough. The one thing that did give me hope was that every night that fishing was offered as an optional activity we had to send extra adults because there were too many kids. SO I guess that I'm saying that there are fewer kids going fishing these days, but its probably more our fault than theirs. When the option is there I have seen even the most prissy 12 yo girl pass up a movie for a fishing pole. Incidentally, the lake my grandfather lives on has been well stocked over the passed few years and the average fish is pushing 2 pounds. Hopefully the weather will get good and I'll start trying to get some of the folks from the forum out there. If you have kids get them out of the house as often as possible, you'll make a coach or recreation directors job a lot easier.
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