Arrow Corps 5... or how I served my country this past week.

[The Chairman]

Click here to see how I spent my week This last week I got to teach Fly Fishing to the Order of the Arrow volunteers in the George Washington/Jefferson National Forest. It was a physically taxing week as I had just had surgery this past January on my ankle and so I am WAY out of shape for walking on slippery/loose rocks up and down the streams of Western Virginia. This was the BIGGEST public service initiative since the CCC and resulted in 250,000 volunteer hours dedicated to building and restoring trails in our National Forests. But boy did I have a LOT of fun!

The Scouts and Scouters were given one day out of five to have some recreation, and Fly Fishing was one of their choices. Dare I say it? It was a BLAST. I taught/guided during the day and taught them how to tie flies at night (them buggers can be hard to catch, you know?). I did fish every day, and on Friday I caught 100 fish. 71 in the morning and 29 in the afternoon. Most of them were Speckled Perch, with a few bass, sunfish and trout rounding out the mix.

This brings me to my only gripe. Life isn't always fair. You see, I never got a day off. Every day it was "Fish, fish, fish!" Bwahahahaha

My advice is simple. If you want your life to be FUN, then you simply need to serve others. You will always be rewarded if you put others ahead of yourself.

 

[The Kraken]

WWW . . . my friend !!!!

the K

 

[Rick Inman]

I did fish every day, and on Friday I caught 100 fish. 71 in the morning and 29 in the afternoon. Most of them were Speckled Perch, with a few bass, sunfish and trout rounding out the mix.

And the kids? Did they catch fish?

 

[The Chairman]

And the kids? Did they catch fish?

Almost everyone caught fish! Maybe two or three were denied the pleasure. This was in a non-stocked stream/lake/spillway. One boy caught 50 fish on Monday, and there were many who caught a dozen or more.

I was really amazed at how busy we were at night with the fly tying. We got there at 7:00 and didn't leave until 10:30 most every night. I perfected my "ant" fly and it was rather effective, but for the most part, my tiny shrimp colored woolly buggers were the most effective.