(On June 26 – 30^th, Oak Brook TU members Greg Prosen, Phil Young, Fred Hodge, Jeff Kroger, Ed Michael, and Stan Zarnowiecki, along with Tom Murray of the Iowa Driftless TU Chapter, and Dr. Dean Hansen acted as instructors and fly fishing mentors for 12 Boy Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 80 of St. Charles, Illinois. Here is a fine recap in Greg Prosen’s words.)

Scout High Adventure Fly Fishing Camp

A look of wonderment eyed the air borne florescent orange fly line, as Nick, our youngest Scout, intently focused on tight loop after tight loop that he slung above the tall native grasses of North Bear Creek. Where the epiphany occurred was not clear, Nick himself having flayed the humid air for the greater part of two days, unsure of why his fly line would not lay straight upon the waters. Yet in some breathless moment, he had it all, the lessons of all the Joans and Leftys clenched in his hand as the fly effortlessly unrolled and presented itself to some unsuspecting Trota in the shimmering run. The basic cast now mastered, attention now turned to the mastery of fishing. Reach….put the line under the index finger…now mend…now keep the line feeding down the run…now mend that bow close to you…now mend again…and again…let the line now swing through the currents to the bank…now short twitches…and cast again. These were the mantras silently hummed throughout the day for a dozen Scouts of Troop 80 of St. Charles, IL, as they tried to hone both their casting and fishing skills under the fatherly guidance of their mentors from Oak Brook Trout Unlimited. Nick reaped reward that day with his first trout.

OBTU partnered with Troup 80 to present a High Adventure Fly Fishing Camp, northeast of Decorah, Iowa, during June 26-30. Twelve Scouts, already possessing the Fly Fishing Merit Badge, encamped at Highland Campground on South Bear Creek. South Bear was heavily stocked, but the trout at first proved stubbornly difficult. This camp was different from most. Scout Leaders relieved the Scouts of all their usual camp chores to follow an intense curriculum aimed to develop further casting skills, read water, and practice fishing strategies geared to catch not only those difficult stocked rainbows, but also wild stream raised Browns and Brookies.

OBTU spent almost two years, each year qualifying over four score to earn their Fly Fishing Merit Badge, but felt that these young Scouts would be lost to the sport unless the flame be further kindled. Thus, a sort of fly fishing boot camp was conceived to fan the spark of the Merit Badge. Only twelve Scouts were chosen to be paired with six very experienced fly fishing mentors, the idea being that each pair of Scouts spend a fishing session with a different mentor each day to draw upon each mentor’s special skill and approach to fly-fishing.

Topics of conservation and the complex environment of cold-water fisheries were interspersed in the program. Dr. Dean Hansen, “Mr. Dean” to the kids, passed on his entomological erudition, stirring more enthusiasm than could the Minnesota Rouser. The Scouts soon were boot high in cold running water, overturning rocks, prying apart caddis cases, magnifying squirming Stenonema and all manner of taxa screened from the bottom of South Bear Creek. The Scouts even learned the stream needed the dreaded Black Fly to keep clean. Quite surprisingly, the Scouts seined a number of rather large Sculpin and soon were taken to calling the Gapen creation “mudder minnows.” In a few days and evenings, the Scouts, under Dean’s tutelage, learned more about stream bugs than most casual anglers learn in a decade astream. Dean has a way of establishing a real rapport with kids.

Under the watchful eye of another long time educator, Mr. Jeff (Jeff Kroger), the Scouts were called upon to test the water quality, which not surprisingly was found quite good. A buried footnote had to be uncovered when the test tube failed to turn a requisite shade of pink; pale yellow indeed indicated no nitrates. The Scouts further found no phosphates, oxygen saturation at 84%, and the ph of a true limestone creek. More importantly, the Scouts learned that fertilizers fostered algae growth, which in turn depleted the oxygen needed by the trout.

The IL TU Council Chair, affectionately known as Mr. Ed (Ed Michael), taught the Scouts the practice of effective catch and release, emphasizing the very short duration a trout can endure out of water and perhaps causing shame to some adults for photo addiction. Mr. Ed talked about the origins and evolution of salmonids and the need to conserve, protect and restore the very stream which gurgled by them. Pacific salmonids are forever hence grouped under genus “Uncle Remus” (oncorhynchus). A tour of the Decorah Rearing Station fascinated the Scouts. Afterwards Mr. Ed, in a chat, premised whether expenditure of all that money and effort pumping “stockers” into the water was really preferable to simple stream restoration. Later, Tom Murray, Iowa Driftless TU president, hammered home the point, by showing the stream improvements made on North Bear Creek and taking a walking tour of where more improvements were needed and soon to be implemented. Tom is also someone to whom kids seem to listen; he personally guided the only troutless Scout to two fish on the last afternoon. Mr. Ed’s words did not go unheeded. The senior Scout, Tim, wanted to make stream improvement part of his Eagle project.

Academics notwithstanding, fishing for trout early morning and from sup to dark was the backbone of the camp. Fishing the fly soon became distinct from just casting the fly. The Scouts did ultimately catch enough stocker rainbows to provide an individual foil wrapped entrée for all in camp on Friday night. They were amazed how easily the fillets parted from the bone and delighted in Felix-like posing the skeletal remains by the tail above their gapping mouths. Oh yes, trout cheeks became a camp delicacy, to be enjoyed only by those who declined to decapitate their fare.

Fly tying was not neglected. Venerable Mr. Fred (Fred Hodge), who attracted Scouts more easily than the Hamlin Pied Piper, each day set up his extensive fly tying bench and tutored many a Scout in that art form. Suddenly imitation took on new meaning. By camp’s end, several Scouts found themselves tying while bathed in Coleman light. There was also a practical need for field tying; well over twelve dozen flies succumbed to high grass, rocks, and trees, and the occasional trout. Sounds like horrendous casualties, but really equates to only a couple of flies per Scout per fishing session. If you are not losing some, you cannot be fishing!

In the end, the only complaint heard from the Scouts, as well as felt by the Mentors, was lack of sleep. Yes, the program was intense. One Scout even had the opportunity to loop a fly line around the hook gape of a fly buried in a mentor’s thumb and yank in the prescribed method, removing the fly with no visible wound. The Scouts at the end of camp openly professed a sense of stewardship for the Iowa Driftless Area, an area they heretofore never dreamed existed, but was now very real and an integral part of their very psyche. Mr. Fred summed it best by saying he returned home with “a warm happy glow!”