Main page | March 1, 2008 »

Learning more than fishing

A new program is teaching Chariho Middle School students about entomology and ecology while they develop fine motor skills and a sense of rhythm.

It’s all about fly fishing.

The program has attracted 13 seventh-graders who take classes in fly fishing and six students who have been learning to tie flies in an after-school program with John O’Meara and Bill Arzamarski, from United Fly Tyers of Rhode Island. Several members of the school staff have also said they would like to learn about the sport and the art and science that swirl through it.

“The best part will be catching a fish with a fly I made by myself,” said Zach Robinson, a seventh-grader from Richmond who participates in the after-school program. He will have a chance to catch fish on his flies April 5. A week before Opening Day of trout season, the state’s aquatic education program will open one of its trout-hatchery ponds to the Chariho program. Zach has a mean looking Woolly Bugger that should devastate trout, bass, and any other fish on the prowl for prey.

Keelan Cox, a sixth-grader from Hope Valley, fishes with his father, Greg Zenion, the middle school’s acting principal. “We have a place we call ‘the secret spot,’” Keelan said, “and we fish for trout – rainbows, if you want to get particular.”

Zenion recently bought a fly rod. He is one of several staff members who are about to join students learning about fly fishing and all that runs through it.

Posted by Tom Meade  at 1:30 PM | Permalink