Article by: Bryan Hendricks of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Children love fishing, as evidenced by an outing Tuesday at Boyle Park for students at Little Rock’s Western Hills Elementary School.
Children in first through fifth grade shouted and chattered excitedly as they cast crickets under bobbers into the pond in hopes of catching the catfish that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission stocked for the event. Many were successful.
A DJ played music. Volunteers from St. Andrews Anglican Church provided hot dogs, refreshments, and fishing assistance. The Little Rock Police Department was on hand to reassure students and teachers. The only thing that lured the youngsters away from fishing was the arrival of an ice-cream truck.
The Western Hills Elementary Fishing Derby, now in its fourth year, is the brainchild of Amy Kennedy, physical education teacher at Western Hills. The kids and staff call her “Coach.” She is a fishing fanatic.
“I learned it from my dad,” Kennedy said. “I was the youngest of six kids, and he would take us on a johnboat and line us up on the side, and we would fish. That’s what we would do for fun. And so when I had the opportunity to teach these kids and give them the same opportunity, I was like, ‘Heck yes, I want to do this!’ ”
Kennedy got the idea to host a fishing derby while attending a Fishing in the Natural State (FINS) program hosted by the Game and Fish Commission.
“They’ve got a curriculum,” Kennedy said. “We practice casting way before, in case you can’t tell. See how many bobbers they got in the trees over there? But they love it, and they learn. You can tell the kids that came last year from this year’s first-timers. They learn because they’ve done it. They’re better at it.”
For most of the children, it was their first fishing experience.
“They LOVE it!” Kennedy said.
At that moment, fourth grader Kenvonte Lewis caught his first fish, a stocker-size channel catfish.
Lewis was back in action as soon as a volunteer unhooked and released his fish. His reel, a spincasting outfit, had a loop on the spool that caused the line to stop abruptly, repeatedly flinging the cricket off the hook while making the bobber slam the water at Lewis’ feet.
“Kenvonte, trade out that pole!” Kennedy shouted. “It’s catching. It’s not your fault, but you’ve got a line that’s catching.”
The first year was a trial run, Kennedy said. There was virtually no chance of anybody catching a fish in a pond that had no fish, but the students enjoyed trying.
“So, the first year we did it, we did not have our pond stocked,” Kennedy said. “There’s a lot of paperwork you have to do with Game and Fish to get it done, but they just enjoyed fishing. Since then, we had our pond stocked. We’re catching fish all day. At least 50% of our kids catch fish. That’s real good.”
Kennedy’s objective, she said, is for the derby to inspire the students to love fishing and the outdoors. A side benefit, Kennedy added, is turning adult staffers on to fishing. She said three teachers were fishing for the first time at this derby.
“They can go sit by a lake or a pond and enjoy the nice weather and have some peace. It’s so calming, and it seems like it’s fun.”
Kimberly Lopez, a third grader, corrected Kennedy.
“It doesn’t seem like fun,” Lopez said. “It IS fun!”
“They love everything about it,” Kennedy said. “The excitement, the energy. The smells. They love the stinkbait.”
Catching a first fish is often a life-changing experience. Tyrone Phillips, a well-known tournament bass angler who competes in the Metro Area Bass Club and the Anvil Jaw Bass Club, recalled catching his first bass in a creek from a bridge on 65th Street.
I don’t remember my first fish, but I caught my first bass at age 10 from a golf course pond. More than that, I remember a much bigger bass that my fishing buddy, a younger girl, nearly caught that same morning. The bass blew up like a depth charge on a Lucky 13. She didn’t chug the bait the way you’re supposed to do. She just reeled it in a straight line. That’s not supposed to work, but it did. How that fish didn’t get hooked is a mystery, but I can still see it in my mind.
“My dad — John Wayne Kennedy — was a bass fisherman, but he would always take a Christmas tree out and make us a bream bed,” Amy Kennedy said. “He lived at Lake Chicot, and we would spend all of our summers at Lake Chicot State Park. He kind of set us up for failure, though, because we thought you just threw your thing off the side of the boat and caught a fish every time. We didn’t know that he secretly stocked a bream bed with a Christmas tree so we could catch fish. He was smart in that way. When we were grown, we found out that it didn’t work that way.”
It was Kennedy’s first lesson in the relationship between fish, fish habitat and fishing. She took it to heart and passes it forward.
Her hope is that her fishing derby ignites a similar spark in at least a few of these students.