Welcome to Wild About Walleyes as part of our Getting Families Fishing Series.
As you’ll discover in this TV show and related classroom videos, walleye fishing offers you pathways to learning about fish biology, the techniques to having a rewarding family adventure while catching a unique fish, and how to become sustainable anglers who conserve our fish for future generations.
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 four 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.
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
Let's say you don't know anybody to take you fishing and you don't know where to go. So you're out of luck, right?
Wrong, because this video and the many of the others on this website will help guide you to realistic pathways to making your first catch. Besides watching the video here, check out this link on where to fish on YOUR National Forests, plus explore the step-by-step guide to creating your passport to angling adventure on a National Forest.
If you take the time to decode this video, you'll discover the steps of how these two girls not only found places to go trout fishing on National Forests, they did their own online and in-person research on exactly where to go to catch their first trout. They also did something else that helped them learn where and how to catch a trout... they took the initiative to actually ask mentors to take them trout fishing. So watch this video and learn how you can do the same.
When you're done, take the time to also watch the Your Best Waters video (click on that thumbnail on the right), and discover where many of the best waters in the nation come from and what it means to you and the ecosystems they nourish.
Admittedly, if you're trying to make your first catch (that means catching your first fish), trout may be more of a challenge than perhaps a panfish or catfish. But don't let the challenge stop you. Just the process of fishing for trout will take you on a journey of fishing adventure that's ideal to share with family or a friend. Here's why:
To learn more about trout, trout habitat, trout fishing, and the habitat restoration work of conservation groups like Trout Unlimited, check out the reference links below... such as TU's Save Our Steams youth clubs.
Wherever you try to fish for trout, please remember to check beforehand on local fishing regulations and license requirements, including the need for a "trout stamp" that helps pay for trout habitat. To learn more about trout, trout habitats, and fishing for trout, click on the LEARN MORE button below, plus have your teacher download the free lesson activities below. You might get so interested in the wonderful world of trout that you may even want to plan a trout fishing adventure with your family or peeps.
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.
Okay, we left you off with Step 4... armed with three powerful things on your side; 1) solid reasons why you want to form a club, 2) other students who also want to share in the “education of fishing”, 3) a faculty advisor to help support your club… you’re now ready to meet with your school principal or superintendent (with your teammates) and pitch the idea – reasons why it’s good for students and education plus how it’s going to work with structured support of HighSchoolFishing.org.
Step 5 - Along with your teammates and possibly your advisor, meet with your school principal or superintendent to pitch the idea. Show him or her that you're taking this seriously by making your presentation with a printed list of the educational and beneficial reasons for forming your club. Also be prepared to show them one or more of the videos here, or the SAF Quickstart video. Now it's time to sell the concept, just as you practiced with your prospective club members. Your pitch should include printed information or online information about:
Step 6 - Once your have the go ahead from your principal, you'll present the club proposal to your school board so they can formally sanction your "school fishing club". Ta-da! After they formally school-sanctioned your fishing club. It's time to go fish.
But before you go fishing, you'll need to know how to boat and fish safely on the water. So that you, your teacher and your entire class can share in that boating and angling safety, use the free Safe-N-Smart fishing lesson activity below.
To learn about all the ways your team can fish and compete with other high school teams, explore the links below and check out the LEARN MORE tab below.
When you're ready to discover what to do in tournaments and what you'll learn as you fill your "educational tacklebox" with bass-fishing savvy, go to High School Bass Club 104.
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.
And if you decide to fish, you really need to get serious about being a safe angler. So take the complete online boating and water safety course using the link below.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
Let's say you'd like to form your own high school bass fishing club, but it sounds like too much of a hassle. Don't worry, lots of students have done it and the four videos and web pages on High School Bass Club (101-102-103-104) will help guide you through the process. So let's get started.
STEP 1 - Become familiar with the process and reasons why for starting a bass fishing club. Review the reasons on High School Bass Club 101. Also go online to highschoolfishing.org/ and follow the guidelines they offer for forming your club.
STEP 2 -The process will be easier and more fun if you enlist the help of other students (include a diversity of students and gender) who are interested in fishing. Research the website links provided below and take notes. The more you know, the easier the process and enlisting the support of your club advisor and school administrators. You're actually selling the idea to fellow student anglers and your school administrators, so be upbeat and positive about the whys of starting your club.
STEP 3 - Next, besides enlisting a minimum of two interested students grades 9-12, you'll need to find a club advisor. Use the "pitch points" or the reasons for forming the club that you've researched and feel free to use some of your own reasons relative to your school or geographic area. It makes sense to look for a "faculty advisor" (teacher-coach-counselor) who is also an angler. Or, you can enlist an involved parent or volunteer who is interested in angling and helping with your club.
Step 4 - Now that you're armed with three powerful things on your side; 1) solid reasons why you want to form a club, 2) other students who also want to share in the "education of fishing", 3) a faculty advisor to help support your club... you're now ready to meet with your school principal or superintendent (with your teammates) and pitch the idea - reasons why it's good for students and education plus how it's going to work with structured support of HighSchoolFishing.org.
To find out what to do next in Step 5, watch all four Classroom Videos and take notes. Then go to the High School Bass Club 103 web page to continue with Step 4 and others to complete your journey of creating your school's bass fishing club. And to get the entire class involved in this process of bass fishing discovery, have your teacher download the free lesson here and have it be part of your actual education in school… and on the water!
Still looking for more good reasons to form your club? Then explore the LEARN MORE tab below!
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.
And if you decide to fish, you really need to get serious about being a safe angler. So take the complete online boating and water safety course using the link below.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
Imagine being a key player in a high school team sport where you can travel around the state and country to win prizes and even compete for some of the millions of dollars offered in college scholarships. And no, you don't have to be a star athlete and have extraordinary skills at some sport. You can do it all by forming or joining your high school bass fishing club.
There are two major organizations that offer pathways to high school bass fishing clubs. 1) The Student Angler Federation that's part of the The Bass Federation, and 2) B.A.S.S. High School Nation that's part of Bassmaster. Each organization offers all kinds of advice and pathways to form your club and to enter bass fishing tournaments.
Now before you jump into the deep end of the lake, consider some of the reasons why a bass fishing club just might be your ticket to fun, recreation and relationships at school plus might provide a pathway to a college education;
So clearly there are solid reasons to form or belong to your high school bass fishing club. But where do you start and what does it take? No worries. We'll decode the whole process in an easy-to-follow step by step plan laid out by the Student Angler Federation. Begin by watching the 101 video here and reviewing the content in the LEAN MORE section below. To get the entire class involved in the this process of discovery, have your teacher download the free lesson here and have it be part of your actual education in school... and on the water! To learn about the next steps in forming your bass fishing club, go to High School Bass Club 102.
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.
And if you decide to fish, you really need to get serious about being a safe angler. So take the complete online boating and water safety course using the link below.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
Recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard, approved by NASBLA and your state boating license agency, and approved by Transport Canada
Watersports are an awesome way to have fun on the water! But before you dive in, it's important to know some basic safety guidelines and rules. When it comes to wakeboarding, this means knowing hand signals to communicate with the people on the boat, and of course - PFDs!
How do Polar vortexes, climate change, record storms, extreme weather of all kinds play havoc on our ecosystems and all the species that live there? Discover the answers by watching the four parts of this science show and reading the information below. And to take this learning adventure into your classroom, have your teacher download the free Discussion Guide at the bottom of this page so everyone can share in the fun of this inquiry based learning.
While some species thrive, like record hordes of mosquitoes, others like the loons or whooping cranes struggle to raise their broods when assaulted by record hatches of blood-sucking blackflies. Even though species have had to adapt to various stages of climate change such as glacial advances across the Midwest over the past 2.3 million years, it’s little consolation to some species enduring extreme changes each year that affect their chances of survival. And even with our modern technology, us humans must also develop new strategies to confront the challenges of surviving in the face of record snows, rains, and temperature extremes. While considering this fact, imagine what it must have been like historically for Native Americans.
So all this raises the question, “How do the species that live out in the wild survive these extreme conditions?” The answer is all about extreme survival strategies that different species have evolved over tens of thousands of years. Some strategies are similar between species while others are extremely different. To discover how many species use their unique survival strategies, watch the four segments of this exciting episode. You might even learn that you're not supposed to mess with hibernating bears in their den as they can easily wake up and defend themselves. And for gosh sakes, don't run from that bear!
To take this survival strategy learning to a whole new level, have your teacher download the free discussion guide so your entire classroom can participate while learning a few survival tricks from Mother Nature. If you're an elementary or high school student, download the additional lessons we have provided to use with the discussion guide!
Plus, the educational partner noted below supported the video and lesson content here for all of us to learn from. They also offer other learning opportunities on their website. So click on their logo to discover more!
As you watch all four videos in this series on forming your high school bass fishing club, you might consider taking notes on all the things you learn about catching bass, aquatic biology, different aquatic ecosystems, electronics and relationships. And if you think that this starter list is impressive, just wait until you begin team fishing with your friends in either friendly competition or in real bass tournaments.
In this final segment, we'll explore some of those things you'll learn, then offer some advice on what to expect when your team actually enters a fishing tournament in the LEARN MORE section below.
If you can identify several physical differences between largemouth and smallmouth bass by watching our handful of classroom videos here, just imagine all you'll learn about bass as you continue to lean from fishing, catching and sharing your adventures with your club and other teams. And if you think about it, belonging to your bass fishing club will expand your knowledge of:
You can probably add a bunch more to this list of what you'll learn in your bass club. But the bottom line is that over time your bass fishing club can help you mature into a "professor of bass-ology" while building relationships that can last a lifetime.
To learn some tips on how you and your team can fish in bass tournaments, explore the LEARN MORE section below.
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.
And if you decide to fish, you really need to get serious about being a safe angler. So take the complete online boating and water safety course using the link below.
Official Boater Safety Courses
and Boat Safety Education Materials
As you'll see in this television episode, parents like to show how much they know... or what they think they know. We get it. It’s part of being a parent. So watch and learn how to use simple quizzes to test their boating safety savvy while also making them aware of key boating safety points… such as:
Help them build on their knowledge – Parents are supposed to have more life experiences than their kids, that should equate to more safety smarts. So ask them to use that experience to create a Family Float Plan… even if they don’t what a float plan is. Simply ask them to imagine what could go wrong on a boating adventure, then how to minimize those risks with a float plan. Have then write it down... which is part of actually creating a float plan.
Blend boating “fun” with boating “safety” – Once you’re out on the water having fun, boating, fishing or whatever, present a few more quiz competitions (maybe the loser buys ice cream at the end of the day) Consider some of these critical quiz questions:
Want to really "plunge headlong" into getting your parents and classmates into having a blast learning about boating safety? (That's right, you are allowed to have fun learning how to be safe on the water). Learn more on sharing the peer-driven classroom video and the FREE lesson activity that's designed to get the entire class involved in three days of interactive learning... while having a blast with kid-parent-instructor role playing in school where everyone gets ALL ABOARD with boating safety! And check out the other boating safety videos in the thumbnails... in the upper right window.
The information in our video and on this page was made possible by our educational partners.
For instance, how many parents put on their life jackets even before stepping on the dock or getting in a boat? Not enough. Why? Because they think they know better, or boast that they’re better swimmers than most. So what’s a kid to do? Follow some of these ideas on how to recruit parents into becoming safety-savvy boaters.
Give them a quiz – Parents like to show how much they know. It’s part of being a parent. So use simple quizzes to test their knowledge while also making them aware of key boating safety points… such as:
Help them build on their knowledge – Parents have life experience. So ask them to use that experience to create a Family Float Plan… even if they don’t know what a float plan is. Simply ask them to imagine what could go wrong on a boating adventure, then how to minimize those risks with a float plan.
Blend boating “fun” with boating “safety” – Once you’re out on the water having fun, boating, fishing or whatever, present a few more quiz competitions (maybe the loser buys ice cream at the end of the day) Consider some of these critical quiz questions:
Dangerous “Adult” Behaviors – Parents should know better than to engage in high-risk behaviors, right? But not all adults realize those risks. So ask your parents, “What’s the number one contributing factor to fatal boating accidents?” Answer = Alcohol use while boating. Then ask them what’s the most responsible way to prevent that if someone really loves their family? There’s only one right answer to that question.
Physics Lesson – To really ratchet up the brains of your parents, give them the ultimate “physics quiz”. First, tell them that “collisions” are one of the leading causes of serious boating accidents. Then ask them to research and answer:
The top 3 contributing factors to all those avoidable boating collisions each year are;
That’s a lot of operator error. Those contributing factors are followed by operator excesses… excessive speed and excessive alcohol.
For more family boating safety savvy, click on the LEARN MORE section. To share in that learning at home or in your classroom, download and have a blast by participating in the FREE lesson activity below... where kids take the lead in educating parents about boating safety!
The information in our video and on this page was made possible by our educational partners. To learn more about Getting Families Fishing and boating safely, click on their logos below to explore their websites.
