FISHING DAY Children find new angle on fun

Pupils threw back the crappie, catfish, bass and bluegill they caught.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Jaylon Johnson's face displayed pride and a little anxiety as he reeled in his first fish at Packard Park Pond.
"I feel scared," said the 9-year-old Turner Middle School fifth-grader. "I thought the fish was going to attack me. It seems pretty mad."
Jaylon was one of 110 fifth- and sixth-grade Warren City School pupils at the Youth Recreational Fishing Day on Tuesday, sponsored by Community Solutions Association. The event is part of the school district's summer fun program.
Community Solutions received grants from Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife and Trumbull County Family and Children First Council to offer the event.
Packard Park Pond was stocked with bass, catfish, crappie and bluegill, but the kids had to throw back their catches.
Kathy LaMarco of Community Solutions said the aim is to show pupils alternatives to drug use.
"It's to give kids experience they maybe haven't had in the past," she said.
Tuesday was a first for Jaylon.
"It's my first fish, my first time fishing," he said, eyes gleaming as a program volunteer worked the hook out of the fish's month and tossed it back.
"It's fun, but I don't want to touch any worms," Jaylon said, wrinkling his nose. "No worms for me."
Quite a catch
Josh Estes, 9, a fifth-grader at East Middle School, pulled in three fish in about half an hour.
"Oh my gosh, this thing is huge," Josh yelled as his third catch of the day wriggled on the hook.
Josh started fishing when he was 3 or 4 with his grandfather, mostly from a pond in his family's back yard.
His advice: Cast your line close to the shore. That's where the fish like to hang out.
Teiranny Hardman, 10, a Western Reserve Middle School fifth-grader, is another fishing pro. She started fishing when she was 4 and often goes with her grandfather at Mosquito Lake, but she refuses to touch the fish.
"We usually take them home if they're big enough," Teiranny said, referring to the fruits of her Mosquito Lake excursions.
Instructions
Jill Kercher, a guidance counselor at McGuffey, Secrest and Garfield elementary schools, and Nashawn Boomer, a teacher's aide, were instructing pupils in the finer points of fishing.
Kercher, who started fishing when she was a toddler, pinched the worms into segments and threaded them onto the hooks for the squeamish members of her group.
"When you catch something, it's going to feel like this," Kercher said, giving two short tugs on the line, to show Pam Robertson, 10, who had never fished before, what to expect.
Pam has watched her grandfather fish, but she never cast the line or held the pole herself.
"It's fun," the East Middle School sixth-grader said.
denise.dick@vindy.com