Sept/Oct Community Outreach
Article written on 2016-10-16 by: Michael Renish
Sept/Oct Community Outreach Events Summary
Jack Koivisto teaching fly casting
This fall Green Bay Trout Unlimited (GBTU) continued with our pro-active approach to community outreach by partnering with area conservation groups for a couple different events.
The first such occasion was the Brown County Izaak Walton League’s Annual Family Conservation Day on Saturday, September 24th from noon until 3p.
GBTU’s Jack Koivisto, Dave Ostanek and Adrian Meseberg taught dozens of area youth the skill of fly rod casting.
Adrian Meseberg teaching fly casting to young lady
To do this we placed hoola-hoops as targets and had folks practice landing casts inside. Jack even took things to another level and had successful casters try their luck catching panfish in the League’s ponds.
The range of those eager learning to cast ranged from a very talented 3-year-old girl to adults.
Dave Ostanek teaches fly tying at BAFF
The second event took place on Saturday, October 1st (9a-3p) at the Besadny Anadromous Fish Facility (BAFF) Open House outside of Kewaunee.
BAFF is a DNR facility where chinook salmon and steelhead eggs are collected. They also raise musky and sturgeon.
The open house features several fun activities including t-shirt printing, sturgeon adoption, wagon rides, guided tours, salmon spawning and egg collection.
As for our part, GBTU volunteers Dave Ostanek and Adrian Meseberg taught fly-tying while members Steve Osterhaus and Bob Ondishko taught fly-casting.
The tiers were constantly busy and, according to Steve, the casters estimated teaching around 100 individuals !
Both events were very successful and we were able to reach large numbers of people with our message and mission to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds !
Thank you to all those who made these outreach events a success. We could not do it alone and truly appreciate the collective effort.
THANK YOU !!!!!