City Catch

Type: Nontidal
Region: Northern
Location: Leakin Park, Baltimore

The damp chilly weather didn’t stop Baltimore youth from coming out to fish Dead Run in Leakin Park on Saturday morning, April 9th. These youth were taking part in the Maryland Chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU) “City Catch” program which is run in cooperation with Baltimore City Parks and Recreation to introduce intercity youth to fishing and fun in the outdoors. Approximately 90 kids ranging in age from 5 to 16 were given new rods and reels courtesy of TU and Tochtermans Tackle Shop and teamed up with the 40 plus TU volunteers for a morning of trout fishing. Trout were purchased and stocked by the local TU chapters. Assistant Fisheries Director Don Cosden, myself and a young TU volunteer named Thomas Perkins, instructed 6 youngsters in the fine art of fishing a small stream for trout. This included repeated demonstrations on retrieving tackle from trees and bushes and untangling lines from rod tips and each others tackle. The fishing was slow for the first few hours and some of the kids were getting a little chilly but once the trout started to cooperate the chill was quickly gone. About a dozen kids converged on one good hole where they could see the trout. They took turns casting to the fish while the others watched. The excitement and decibel level of the group went up with every trout caught. By the time the call went out for lunch our group had only caught 2 trout but they didn’t want to stop. I heard several kids and mentors say they were going back to get ‘em after lunch. Baltimore City Parks and Recreation provided hotdogs and drinks and nice certificates for each child. In addition because TU and Baltimore City Parks and Recreation are partners with DNR for the Maryland Fishing Challenge, ten lucky anglers were selected to go on a striper fishing trip to help tag “Diamond Jim” in June. One little girl in our group was really determined to catch a fish. While some of the boys were more interested in seeing who could cast the furthest, she worked hard and listened to our instruction. When she did eventually get one she was quite proud. I was really excited to see her name come up as one of the lucky ones to join us on our rockfish tagging trip later this year. On my way home I was thinking that we may have just created one new angler to care for Maryland waters in the future.