Welcome to Florida Fishing Fun as part of our Getting Families Fishing Series.

As you’ll discover in this video, fishing with friends and family offers you pathways to learning about aquatic ecosystems, the fun and bonding of family adventures, plus how to become a more sustainable person here on Planet Earth. This show and others in the series is airing nationally on 5 digital networks 24/7, and syndicated television in 7 states on 33 stations via ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX… plus PBS in some markets.

Okay, so there's several great ways to enjoy and share the fishing fun and education in this show.

First, you can kick back with family or friends to watch this entire half-hour television episode to get the full content in one sitting. Kinda like enjoying a full course meal. Yum-yum.

Then there's the shorter, custom segments on the noted links below. These are the custom "classroom" or learning videos with some bonus content designed to share with your entire classroom. On these links below you'll also find lots of other educational content, including custom lesson activities for your teacher to take your entire classroom on a three to four day journey of peer-driven learning blended with fun and hands-on pathways to try outdoor pursuits yourself.

Whichever way you decide to enjoy the fun and educational content, it's a win-win way for you to get engaged with pathways to discovering more about yourself and the great outdoors.

Until then, enjoy the journey of discovery in all of the content in our Getting Families Fishing Series funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in partnership with the Future Angler Foundation, a nonprofit org dedicated to growing sportfishing across the country.

For all kinds of helpful information and resources on how kids can learn where-to and how-to go fishing, explore our companion KidsFishing.US website. You'll also find lots of fun educational resources for classroom or lakeside learning. Plus, be sure to check out all the helpful resources on TakeMeFishing.org.

Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials

The reason this topic is in "Health Science" is because catching fish is healthy for your physical and emotional health by spending quality relaxing time outdoors with family and friends on the water. Then after you've caught some fish for dinner, it's healthy for your body and brain by eating a super protein that's low in calories and yet high in Omega 3. To make the process of cleaning and cooking your catch relatively easy, watch the video above plus explore the helpful content provided here by our friends at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. And believe it or not, cleaning fish actually provides an opportunity to learn more about fish anatomy and fish diets (what the fish was feeding on before you caught it will still be in its stomach).

Staying Sharp - Cleaning is the technique used to prepare fish without removing bones.
Filleting leaves the fish boneless, and occasionally skinless and is generally used for larger
fish. The most important step in preparing any fish is choosing a sharp knife of the
correct size and shape. Most fillet knives have thin, slightly flexible blades five to
eight inches long. A dull knife can be more dangerous than a sharp knife because
you have to work harder to make the proper cuts. Make sure your knife is sharp,
and hold it away from your fingers and body as you carefully prepare your fish.

Cleaning Your Fish is the simple process of removing the scales and internal organs. Then you can cook your fish with the skin and bones in tact and remove the bones before eating. It works fine on most species of fish, especially on pan fish such as perch, crappie and bluegill.

Step #1 - Remove the scales using a spoon of fish scaler. Scrape off the scales by scraping from the tail toward the head.

Step #2 - Without cutting through bones or internal organs, cut around the head, behind the pectoral fins, and down to the anus (also called "the vent").

Step #3 - Break the backbone by bending the head downward and twisting. Remove the head and internal organs. Clean the inside with water while gently scraping away any remaining "stuff".

Step #4 - Check local rules, but generally you can dispose of wrapped fish waste in a trash bin or bury it deep in your garden. Fish waste does not belong in compost bins. If trash pickup is a few days away, consider freezing them until trash removal.

Filleting Your Fish takes a little more time and skill with practice and is often used on larger fish such as salmon or bass. But the rewards are having a clean, skinless and boneless "fillet" to bake or fry. A sharp "fillet knife" is key to successfully filleting your fish.

Step #1 - Cut along the dorsal fin from head to tail and along the anal fin from anus (or vent) to the tail.

Step #2 - Just behind the gill cover make a vertical cut through the flesh down to the bone. This cut extends from the back to the stomach. Deepen the cut made along the dorsal fin working from head to tail. Hold the knife nearly parallel to the row of bones extending upward from the spine to the back. This cut should extend downward only as far as the backbone.

Step #3 - Repeat this procedure on the stomach side. Cut first from behind the gills to the anus, then along the anal fin cut you made earlier. These cuts should be just below the surface of the belly skin to avoid rupturing internal organs. As you cut up toward the backbone your fillet will come free.

Step #4 - Do not cut the fillet from the tail. Flip the fillet so that it is lying skin-side down. Hold the fish down with one hand just in front of the tail fin. Beginning at the tail carefully skin the fillet, working away from your hand. Work slowly and patiently; cutting too deeply will result in cutting through the skin and not cutting deeply enough will result in lost meat.

Besides that fillet knife, "sharpen" your aquatic science by "exploring" the various internal organs of your fish. Check out your fish’s stomach! Examining a fish’s last meal will help you
become a better angler. Knowing what the fish was eating can help you better match your next lure to this species’ diet. We've also included some lessons below that you can share in class that should help you on your way to becoming a fish biologist, or at least knowing their basic anatomy.

To learn how to cook your cleaned fish, click on the "Learn More" button below and get ready to share your catch with a fish dinner.

The helpful content here about how to clean and cook your catch was  provided by our friends at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Check out their website links for more information and classroom education materials. In fact, watch this helpful video on "Eating Your Catch" from WIDNR that helps educate you about some healthy science that you didn't consider.

Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials

Okay admit it! Kids and even parents today can't seem to "disconnect" from their cell phones long often enough to make time for meaningful face-to-face connections with family and friends.

So what's the solution? One innovative teacher created a summer-school homework assignment that required two "cell phone-addicted" students to make it their "mission to go fishin". As you watch the TV show, try to identify a handful of key elements that can make real family fishing adventures happen. And if you're a student of R3, see where recruitment, retention, and reactivation come into play.

Besides enjoying the action in this program, kids and teachers can share the education that's part of almost every fishing adventure by watching the companion classroom videos and lesson activities with the links below. They're free, fun and an easy to download for engaging peer-driven classroom learning... complete with hands-on sections for getting kids and families fishing.

Fishin' For Food and Fun comes with complete educational content about how to clean and cook your catch and was  provided by our friends at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Fishing YOUR US Forests is your educational "passport to angling adventure". This classroom video has tons of companion lesson activities and resources on how to plan a family fishing adventure on YOUR National Forests. To help plan your next National Forest adventure, click on the logo here.

For all kinds of helpful information and resources on how kids can learn where-to and how-to go fishing, explore our companion KidsFishing.US website. You'll also find lots of fun educational resources for classroom or lakeside learning. Plus, be sure to check out all the helpful resources on TakeMeFishing.org.

Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials

We see information like this in the news all the time. "Studies show that kids spend too much time in front of TVs, Smartphones, and computer screens and not enough time connecting with the natural world and their families."

As if that's not enough bad news, other studies also show that those disconnects from nature and family can undermine our physical and mental health. And too often the "cure" of participating in organized competitive sports only adds to our mental stress when we really need to be de-stressing in quiet, wide-open spaces.

Thankfully, there's a cure. It's called creating your own family-outdoor adventure. And the best part is that it's available on millions of acres in National Forest lands across the country. Plus, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg or make us jump through flaming hoops. Though some parts of the country do have more National Forests than others, most regions still have forests within a day's drive. The video here and information in the "LEARN MORE" section decodes the seven easy steps to creating your personal passport to angling adventure on YOUR National Forests.

Okay, we admit that we need guidance in life from parents and teachers. But we also deserve the chance sometimes to determine what we'd like to do and when. That only seems fair, right? How else are we supposed to problem-solve and develop life skills? So really, this whole passport to adventure exercise benefits our parents by helping us develop skills for navigating through life. (Nice psychology, huh?)

Here's the drill. You can do this with friends, siblings (you know, your brothers or sisters), or classmates. Watch the video once and simply enjoy the content. Then take a moment to consider what kind of outdoor adventure you'd like to have, what's realistic, and how you can use the millions of acres of National Forests. Then watch the video again and pause at the 7 key steps to make some notes on how you can accomplish each step. That may include recruiting help from adults.

We don't want to spoil the "fun" of planning your personal passport to an angling adventure, but chances are you're also going to learn problem-solving, math, geography, science, nature, and government. In fact, you and your class can elevate this fun educational adventure into a dynamic peer-driven learning (your teacher will love those words) experience where you ask and explore critical questions. Simply download the free lesson below, Discovering YOUR National Forests… Through Angling Adventures for learning fun stuff you can actually use in life right now. There's a win-win for you.

And don't forget to have your teacher open the LEARN MORE section below for additional information that will help guide the classroom learning where all the students get to design their own personal passports to adventure. Get a jump-start on designing your adventure by exploring the U.S. Forest Service Regions near you at... Fish YOUR National Forests.

For all kinds of other helpful information and resources on how kids can learn where to and how to go fishing, explore our companion KidsFishing.US website. To discover more about becoming a future angler, visit our educational partners that helped make this video, webpage, and lesson possible by clicking on their logos below.

Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials