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Thread: Teaching a Man to Fish

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default Teaching a Man to Fish


    A volunteer at our local homeless shelter had an idea about teaching some of the people there to fish for their own food. This stemmed from a group meeting in which several homeless people had stated that the hardest part of their life was just finding food everyday. Many of these people wander from place to place and some like to avoid shelters when the weather is good outside. In fact many people only use the shelter when the weather is extremely cold or extremely hot.

    I agreed to help in the experiment and we went shopping with a short list of supplies. We made 4 rod cases using PVC pipe and threaded end cap for easy screw on and off. We drilled some holes in the rod cases and added some small eyebolts and attached home made slings so the rod case could be easily carried on your shoulder. Total cost per rod case was around $5

    We then purchased 4 zebco Ready Tackle Rod and Reel combos with the 5 foot 6 inch rods that break down into 2 pieces. We did this on purpose because we needed the rods to break down to a smaller size to fit in the homemade rod cases and also because the zebco is a reliable and idiot proof reel capable of catching most panfish and can handle catfish or the occasional bass up to 8lbs.

    We purchased 4 small clear lure boxes and filled them with corks, hooks, sinkers, and some jigs. Cost for the rod and reel combos was $9.99 each at Academy Sports and the boxes were $3 each with about $5 worth of tackle in each one. We kept the boxes small so they would fit inside their pockets and would not be bulky. We only put a few necessities in each box like 5 corks, 30 split shots, 20-30 hooks, one small stringer, 15 jig heads, about 30 jigs of various colors and a couple other small items.

    We then took our 4 volunteers out to a city park with a public lake and proceeded to gather bait. We didn't want to dig in a city park for worms as we were not sure if that would bring unwanted attention but we turned over rocks, old logs/fallen limbs, and managed to get some grubs and catch some grasshoppers.
    Within 5 minutes of fishing they had already caught 2 big bluegills and 20 minutes later we had 11 big bluegill and had to stop to search for more bait. After 15 minutes of more bait gathering we returned to fishing and an hour later ended the trip with a total of 31 fish. We only kept 3 fish per person and threw the rest back to catch again later.

    We then used one of the bbq pits next to the picnic tables and gathered some wood around the park. There are a lot of trees including pecan trees so limbs were very abundant and easy to find. We showed them how to get a fire going easily by using some vaseline smeared on cottonballs or by using some hand sanitizer. Since hand sanitizer is given out in small bottles to the homeless on a regular basis here, it was our popular choice and worked very well at getting the wood to start burning.
    As the wood burned down we scaled he fish using old metal spoons and then cut the belly open and removed the guts. We washed the fish off in the same lake we caught them in and then took a small portion of tinfoil and layed it on the grill grate and put the fish on the foil to cook. We used no seasonings and as fish cooks rather quickly it didn't take long for the first 3 to be done. As we all sampled the fish I saw them amazed at how good they were. I showed them how to eat the meat off the bones while avoiding the ribcage which is what gives people the most trouble in eating whole fish.
    After everything was over we even took the foil and gently washed it off and folded it up to use again later. We did experiment and tried cooking a fish directly on the grate and it came out o.k. but we had no grill brush to clean the grate properly so we preferred to use the foil. We also stripped a small tree limb and stuck it through the fish and cooked it by turning it over the fire slowly. Again it came out good but was just more effort than laying them on the foil.

    We let them keep the fishing equipment and they all said this would come in handy throughout the year and would help a lot. I instructed them on fishing with the jigs, checking the line to make sure it's not frayed, how to tie a simple knot, and some more lessons. We actually printed out some knot tying instructions and folded it up and put them in their small tackle box. We also instructed them on stripping the line off a reel and relining it. We used Stren 8lb test line that we told them can be purchased for around $2.99 and it works quite well. I told them to only change the line once a year which I myself change every 6 months but they don't have much money so I figured 3 dollars once a year wasn't bad.

    I showed them how to fish on the bottom of the lake during the colder months for catfish and how to dig for worms using an old soup can as a shovel if they need bait. I also told them catfish will eat almost anything and they could try using hotdogs, dogfood, vienna sausage, livers or gizzards, cutbait from another fish, etc.

    I don't know if they will still be carrying around their rod and reels a year from now or if they will of abandoned it altogether but I like to think we showed them a skill that will fill their bellies in tough times for little to no money. So many homeless people live in cities and there are tons of city and subdivision lakes everywhere you look. Many of these lakes have good stocks of panfish and catfish which can be caught using the most basic tools. I don't see why more places don't teach the homeless to fish as I think if I were homeless I would find myself eating fish 4-5 days a week until I could get back on my feet.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    man that makes me smile, in apreciation to you....that is a wonderfull act you did...god bless you.
    i cant think of much more to say other than that and thank you.

  3. #3
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    my hat is off to you!!! great job! i hope to see a follow up of this experiment......and hopefully the folks you taught, will teach others.

  4. #4
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    Man that makes me want to get something like this together. That's something those people will never forget. Not to many people would take that kind of time with them.

  5. #5
    gabowman is offline Super Moderator * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Good deed and job well done!Thumbs UpHands ClappingHands ClappingHands Clapping
    Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

  6. #6
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    Wow, that is such a great service to fellow citizens!!!!!! This should be copied and done by all C.COM members!
    get in, sit down, shut up and fish

  7. #7
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    Not trying to start a fight, but what happens when the homeless, who has no license, get checked by the Game Warden?

  8. #8
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    Mar 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by Olgrey View Post
    Not trying to start a fight, but what happens when the homeless, who has no license, get checked by the Game Warden?
    Sorry I didn't mention it in the post but we did think of this before hand and we obtained licenses. We paid the $9.50 but some of these homeless have disabilities so in the future they may be eligible for the $2.50 disabled licenses. We didn't have time to send off the required paperwork for the discounted licenses as that has to be sent in to Baton Rouge but we received the paperwork now and will get everything in order in case they want to renew in the future.

    We are also planning another trip soon with a couple new guys who are interested. I don't have the time unfortunantly to do this on a larger level but if this were turned into a regular program and it spread to other shelters, I'm sure we could pressure some big company like Zebco or Shakespeare to give us a discount on the rod and reels or even throw some in for charity. For now though I'm content to do it locally and hope it really makes a difference in someones life. Some of these people didn't have the greatest childhood and never got any lessons on fishing from their dad.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    That is awesome! The old saying give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or teach a man to fish he will eat for a lifetime is appropriate here. Keep up the good work!

  10. #10
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    Man that great what you did. God bless.
    A crappie day fishin beats working any day!!

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