Local Cub Scouts enjoy day of fishing, hiking

FINGER LAKE — The bidding came fast and furious.

“I’ll catch five!” exclaimed 10-year-old Dylan Williams.

“Six!” countered Dixon Hubb, 9. “No, seven!”

“At least seven,” interjected 9-year-old Jeffrey Palmer.

“Eight,” comes the response from an excited Hubb, who topped his own previous high mark of seven.

The impromptu bidding war erupted when the small group of Scouts were asked who would catch the most fish during Saturday’s Pack 330 outdoors day, which featured fishing, hiking and outdoors crafts at the Finger Lake Campground.

A Bear Scout, Hubb said when it comes to baiting a hook, he’s an old pro.

“My dad taught me how to fish,” he said. “I caught two salmons before. I’ve caught about 10 or something before.”

What’s his secret?

“The bait,” he said. “It depends on the bait.”

And what’s the best bait?

“The best bait is the food they like best,” Hubb said.

Saturday’s Cub Scout outing was the first of what Pack leaders hope will become monthly summer activities for Valley Scouts, said Candy Rodriguez, one of the day’s organizers. Although summertime can be tricky to coordinate events, she said she hopes fishing, hiking and other outdoors adventures will be an attractive lure.

“It’s really hard to get people together during the summertime,” she said. “In previous years, we’ve done nothing. Kids usually hang out with their families, and that’s pretty cool. But there are some kids who don’t have that support, so we just thought we’d do an event for them.”

Along those lines, the group enlisted the help of Jane Cain, a local fisherwoman who volunteered to help teach Scouts the sport. Cain also contacted Sportsman’s Warehouse, which donated a rack, fishing poles, reels and other tackle to set up the Pack for Saturday’s event and future fishing expeditions.

Outings for July and August are planned, but dates haven’t been set, Rodriguez said.

Although it’s prime king salmon season on Valley rivers and streams, the Scouts were mostly fishing for lake trout Saturday, Cain said.

“But really, the most important thing they’re going to be learning is proper beach etiquette so they can go fish and not get in trouble,” she said. “Make sure you don’t cast if someone is behind you or if you get your hook snagged, don’t just pop it if people are behind you.”

There’s another important lesson young fishers need to learn, Cain said.

“Not being little, wild hellions down there when they have a fishing hood in hand.”

Along with having some fun with his friends, Palmer also is perfecting his skills at telling a good fish story. The 9-year-old said he’s been fishing plenty with his family — usually at Jim Creek — and tells about the biggest fish he ever caught.

“It was probably a salmon about that long,” he said, holding his hands about three feet apart. When asked if it was really that long the first time he described catching it, Palmer just laughs and shrugs his shoulders.

His secret is getting up early, “like at 3 in the morning,” Palmer said. “And you need to go up the river more where there’s no people who scare all the fish.”

While he enjoys fishing and even cleaning his catch, the Scout said his favorite part of fishing “is eating it, … especially barbecuing it.”

About 10 boys showed up for Saturday’s first summer shindig, and after setting up their camp for the day, they were divided into groups for fishing and hiking. While hiking, they were tasked with identifying a wide variety of local plants and collected leaves to bring back to use in making crafts later in the afternoon.

As the boys scrambled to begin their afternoon of hiking and fishing, Wyatt Baker was skeptical of Hubb’s boast that he’d catch eight fish.

“Maybe you’ll catch eight if you go out to the middle of the lake,” the 8-year-old Cub Scout said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or

352-2269.