The Erie County Federation of Sportsmen (ECFS) recently had their first fishing clinic of the season at the Tifft Nature Preserve in Buffalo. It was attended by over 100 children on a sunny day in early June.

After the children were registered, they went through a number of learning stations which included knot tying, casting, where to fish, fish identification, rubber and plastic baits, etc. This was required before they would receive equipment and bait for fishing. This part of the clinic was improved from previous years with the addition of the artificial baits which was manned by Mike Elam who drove in from Orleans County to participate!

Incidentally most of these learning stations were manned by members of the New York State Outdoorsman Hall of Fame and our own Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).

After completing the learning stations the children were given bait and fishing equipment and proceeded to fish for several hours at the preserve. Volunteers from the ECFS patrolled the shore to assist where needed with problems like snags, malfunctioning equipment, handling hooked fish etc. A good time was had by all with the only problem being that the fish weren’t cooperating with very few bites and fish being caught.  As I told one of the children “fishing isn’t always about catching as many times, no matter what you do, the fish don’t bite’

If you missed this event another will be held in 2 weeks (June 22}at Chestnut Ridge Park but I do believe we are close to closing the allowable entries for this annual clinic, check on the ECFS website for info on this! These are well organized events with great learning stations which have come a long way in the last few years due to the skills of chairman Bob Avery. He does a great job and I admire his skill as I have trouble organizing my tackle box!

                                                                                                                                   Joseph Fischer