Proud Virginia Wildlife Grant Recipient!
We thank VDGIF and WFV for supporting our youth and assisting us in connecting youth to the outdoors!
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia have partnered together to support engaging youth in the outdoors with a grant funding program. This effort is supported through gear purchases, fundraisers and private donations.
This year, BRDC applied for and received this grant to help meet our mission and get youth outside and engaged through kayaking, providing them with the opportunity to learn an enriching lifelong hobby and acquire basic outdoor skills such as camping and fishing. This grant will also provide comprehensive, safe paddling opportunities to our regional youth.
Fly Fishing Camp
They set out to experience all the habitats and environs of the prominent fish species of the area and that they did!
Seven young lads joined BRDC for a week of fly fishing in southwest Virginia. They set out to experience all the habitats and environs of the prominent fish species of the area and that they did! Who knows how many fish they actually caught but I know they caught at least 8 species of fish.
We began teaching them the basics of fly casting in a field and quickly let them test the waters of a local pond. They wasted no time catching three of the species: Bream, Crappie, and Largemouth Bass. Even at night, they had it down using no lights and nothing but the sound of their flies "popping" across the dark water.
Each day they practiced and perfected their cast and learned new techniques such as shooting line, roll casting, and hauling; even Tenkara style fly fishing. They made flies by night and cast them to potential fish by day. It was "FISH ON" for the rest of the week as they traveled to stocked trout streams, tailwaters, high elevation streams and the New River. They caught all three species of trout as well as smallmouth bass and sunfish.
They experienced fly fishing to the fullest extent possible in a little less than a weeks time. They ate good food, played games and roasted marshmallows for S'more's...how much better could it get?