It would be interesting to hear some memories from avid fishermen on how many grown-ups gave them a helping hand on the road to their becoming the anglers they are today. I’d be willing to venture that if they really thought about it there were several people who guided them along when they were youngsters.

Some of my earliest memories of fishing were in a small boat off Pamlico Beach near Belhaven. A friend had taken our family out to fish for croakers, spot and the occasional speckled trout with the simplest of all fishing gear; the weighted handline. Without the fishing rod to dampen the nibbles of fish at our hooks we had a dear direct connection between out hands and the baited hook. It was a good way to start fishing.

My love of the sport of fishing developed further when a family friend named Thelbert Apple from Raleigh presented me with my first rod and reel. This was my first real experience with a “modern’ fishing tool (spring steel rod with red agate guides and a Shakespeare Reel filled with black braided nylon line. As I recall, the lure Mr. Apple gave me to use was an old wooden Jitterbug plug colored to look like a frog.

Since my family had residence in a small eastern North Carolina town friends and relatives often visited us from “Up State” that liked to fish (and hunt) in the area around Beaufort County. As soon as I was able these visitors soon learned that I knew how to paddle a boat while they fished. Of course, fishing lessons went with my rowing abilities and to just be along with these mentors of my fishing education was beneficial.

Two of the people that frequented our home were Frank Meacham (one of the curators at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History) and Jimmy Brown (of the U.S. postal Service in Raleigh). Between the two of these guys I learned to cast a fly rod while wading in a farm pond in Wake County and learned not to fish someone else’s gill net in the middle of the night in Blunts Creek (Blainey was furious with us).

My mentor in the sport of largemouth bass fishing was an elderly black man by the name of “Uncle Mike Thigpen” from Aurora. Uncle Mike and I always packed our fishing gear up so that if the robins (pumpkinseed sunfish) weren’t biting, we could always switch over from our cane poles to casting rods and catch a few bass.

We’d load a quart-sized can with big old purple tinted fishing worms from a wet spot behind Uncle Mikes house and load these and the rest of our gear into Mike’s old juniper skiff in South Creek. When our needs for a mess of robins was filled we’d tie a Heddon Zaragossa on the line if it looked like the bass might be hitting on top water lures or, if the bite looked like time for underwater fishing, we’d tie on a Johnson Silver Minnow with a trailer of white pork rind and proceed to catch a few bass for the pantry. We seldom went home skunked.

It’s been nearly sixty years since these people mentored me at the sport of fishing (we call it angling today since its considered correct to catch and release) and I still relish the memories of those days.

We live in more of an urban society today and a lot of the population of North Carolina resides within the major cities. It seems like many of the kids of today have other things to do with their time than fishing or hunting or just “outdoorsing.” Maybe its time we Old-Timers started sharing our outdoor skills with the younger generations. I guess that this is what our North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) calls “mentoring.”

Virtually every conservation organization has a segment within their bailiwick that’s slanted toward getting the youth of America involved in hunting, fishing, boating and a host of other related outdoor activities. At the center of these movements to involve youngsters (and other newcomers) to our sports is the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

These dedicated state employees are paid largely through the moneys that are raised from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and the excise taxes we pay on all our outdoor equipment but they can’t carry out all the activities we need to bring in newcomers to the outdoor world by themselves. They need help from the ranks of the outdoor sportsmen themselves if these programs are to be a success.

A good example of how volunteers help out in training newcomers to the out of doors are the very active hunter safety training instructors that the NCWRC sponsors. Since this program was begun some 40 years ago, hunting accidents have dropped dramatically and a lot of people who don’t even hunt are being trained in gun safety.

Likewise the NCWRC sponsors programs to bring kids into the sport of fishing. Good examples of this are the free kids fishing tournaments the NCWRC helps to carry out. In some of these programs Kids can fish for free and register to win prizes, including three lifetime licenses, at one of 48 kids’ fishing events being conducted across the state in late May and early June.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, in cooperation with Neuse Sport Shop, Trout Unlimited, Bayside Marina & Grill, Bass Pro Shops and the U.S. Forest Service, is supporting these fishing events as part of National Fishing and Boating Week 2010.

The grand prize is a lifetime sportsman license, which includes freshwater and saltwater fishing privileges, as well as hunting privileges, donated by Neuse Sport Shop in Kinston. First prizes are two lifetime freshwater fishing licenses, donated by the N.C. State Council of Trout Unlimited and Bayside Marina & Grill in Edenton. Bass Pro Shops is donating 50 fishing-related prizes, such as tackle boxes, rod-and-reel combos and fishing line, while the Wildlife Commission is donating another 50 prizes – any of which would be a perfect addition to a young angler’s tackle box.

Local sponsors for many events will provide prizes and gifts to registered participants as well.

In addition to providing prizes, Commission staff will be stocking fish into waters at some of these locations a few days prior to the events to increase the chances of reeling in a nice-sized catfish, bluegill or trout.

The Commission will conduct the drawing for the 103 prizes in late June. The names of winners, as well as their prizes, will be posted on the website.

You can access a listing for these free kids fishing events at http://www.ncwildlife.org/Fishing/documents/NFBW_2009_List_of_Events.pdf.

If you’re really interested in helping to bring newcomers into the outdoor sports you can also contact the Wildlife Commission at (919) 707-0010 and volunteer your services as instructors or mentors in a skill that you’re good at. As one Hunter Safety Instructor once told me, “Now I really feel like I’m giving something back to this program that I’ve enjoyed for all these years.”