Families come out for fishing fun on Pats Lake

The road along Pats Lake was lined with parked vehicles on Saturday, June 24, as parents, grandparents and kids of various ages turned out for Family Fishing Day.

Staff from the U.S. Forest Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Wrangell Cooperative Association Earth Branch (Tl'átḵ) ran lure-making stations, painting booths, a scavenger hunt and other fun activities for the young and young-at-heart.

And there was fishing.

Shirley Wimberley, the scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 40, helped organize the event when it began several years ago. These days, she volunteers to help make Family Fishing Day a success.

"Tom Simms originally - him and one other person - started it. They decided there should be something out here (at Pats Lake)," Wimberley said. "They were able to get the regulations (passed) for kids 16 and under to be able to use bait on the last two full weekends in June."

Wimberley and the Scouts, who ran the event for years, worked with the Forest Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Stikine Sportsmen Association. "We said sure, and it's been going ever since."

The Stikine Sportsmen Association is still a sponsor for Family Fishing Day.

Jeff Rice, the sportfish area management biologist for the ADF&G Petersburg-Wrangell region, was helping kids make lure to customize their fishing adventure.

"We have a large number of beads, and each child is going to be able to pick what colors they want and create their own fishing experience based on the color of the beads or the different colors of the weights used in there," he said. "It's less, hopefully, me making it than showing them how to make it."

The final step, Rice said, was to place a hook on the lure. However, parents could opt to forego the lure for safety reasons or a cover could be placed on the hook. He said his son learned to fish without using a hook.

Corree Delabrue, recreation management specialist for the Forest Service, and six other agency employees worked the event, along with Wimberley, who Delabrue called their "one, true volunteer."

Artistic activities, such as the form-line coloring book table run by Earth Branch Coordinator Alex Angerman, and the painting station run by McKenna Hammer and Katerina Schiavo with the Forest Service, allowed kids to cast their creativity.

"First you slap this down (fish template), pick whatever you want, slap some paint on it, and then we put the bandana on top of it and get an imprint," Hammer said.

Along with being able to fish on their own, attendees could learn how to cast a line or get some environmental education.

Kevin Kocarek, with the Forest Service, was using a minnow trap to teach about how the agency collects data.

"These minnow traps, we use them a lot to find fish presence/absence," he said. "We're always trying to find out the distribution of steelhead and coho, pinks and chums. We're trying to figure out how far up the streams the fish are going to set management practices."