Teach a man to fish: students at universities across the country are getting hooked on fishing.

Celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week June 3-11

There is an old saying that goes, Give a man a fish, and he 11 eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he"ll eat for life. Most of the U.S. population has tried fishing at least once in their lives. Only 12 percent have never fished. About 18 percent of that 82 percent tried the sport but never carried into adulthood. Therefore, a market exists for adult sport fishing instruction, but where does someone go to learn to teach fishing? These days, more are heading to a college or university.

The sport of fishing has many attributes that are worth passing on to others interested in the activity:

* Sport fishing is a rewarding lifetime, outdoor activity that is increasing in popularity with university students across the nation.

* It is beneficial to everyone it touches: the individual student, his/her family, friends, businesses or professional contacts.

* Anglers are supporters of wildlife, fisheries and the environment, as well as proponents of clean water, fresh air and the wise use of natural resources.

* Fishing courses help prepare students to make responsible decisions regarding natural resource development.

* Sport fishing is gender neutral; it is equally beneficial to males and females.

* It is not age specific and is suited to young and old alike.

* Fly fishing strives to be non-consumptive, non-combative, and to teach good ethics, integrity and strength of character.

* The sport binds students together in a healthy, productive outdoor activity, which builds upon leadership and teamwork in life.

With these attributes in mind, to achieve long-term stability a post-secondary program must address three primary user groups: a) Those students wishing to graduate and move into the workforce.

b) Primary and secondary school teachers seeking professional development and enhancement of grade-specific curriculum.

c) General public members seeking personal enrichment and/or shared family experiences.

Also, hands-on, laboratory-based, educational experiences serve to build confidence and enthusiasm more than lecture-based curriculum, and community-based science outreach and recreation classes are usually well-received because the students take on a certain level of ownership in the program and their education.

There are more than 115 North American colleges and universities that offer different program durations, credit options and delivery methods of sport fishing classes. Most such programs fall into three main categories: non-credit short courses and workshops; general education sport fishing programs like those offered in physical education or recreation programs; and, sport fishing classes linked to outdoor education/leadership programs.

Non-Credit Short Courses or Workshops

Sport fishing, or more precisely fly fishing, can be included in a simple postsecondary summer arts program. Such is the case at Canadore College in North Bay, Ontario. In 1994, Artsperience, Canadore College's Summer School of the Arts, presented a variety of exciting continuing education workshops and short courses, such as outdoor adventure, gardening and culinary arts. True to its name, the program included creative courses for the inspiring artist, including painting, photography, sculpture and woodcarving. Youth programs were also offered such as music workshops, computer camps and dance.

According to Linda Topolie of Canadore's Continuing Education program, Artsperience has been offered there for more than 25 years. Workshop durations range from a weekend to a full week and are either non-credit or for credit and lead to a certificate program. All courses are taught by highly regarded, practicing professional artists.

Most of the part-time instructors come to Topolie offering suggestions and new course ideas. There is not much collaboration with the college's faculty, rather the program relies on the North Bay community (population 50,000) for many of its instructors.

For many, this informal short course only whets their appetite for more instruction. At the University of Colorado (CU) in Boulder, a public institution with about 26,000 students, fly-fishing education has been a staple in its education for more than 15 years. Currently CU's Beginning Stream Fly Fishing class is offered by the school's recreation center.

After students go through this class, they can then take up to five other clinics/workshops offered by the Colorado University Fly Fishing Club. These include: Learning to Cast a Fly Rod, Beginning Fly Tying, Advanced Fly Tying, Fly Fishing Rod Building and Understanding Colorado Tailwaters. CU uses this unconventional approach to solve a problem faced by many outdoor recreation students--after taking an introductory class, they have no way to learn more about the activity.

Sport Fishing in General Education

No discussion about North American post-secondary sport fishing education could occur without mentioning Pennsylvania State University (PSU). PSU has long been recognized as a leader in sport fishing education. Today, there are three angling classes offered for credit that can be used to satisfy their general degree requirements at PSU: Principles and Practices of Fly Fishing for Trout, Casting and Masters of Fly Fishing.

One or two sections of the course Kinesiology 04: Principles and Practices of Fly Fishing for Trout are offered each semester, and always fill to its capacity of 25 students. Casting is based on tournament-type bait casting, but students spend some time on spin and fly-casting as well.

At the University of Wisconsin-Stout, two different departments sponsor sport fishing classes. The recreation department offers classes in fly casting, ice fishing and fishing with disabilities. On the other hand the biology department sponsors The Biology of Fly Fishing. All courses at Wisconsin-Stout are entry-level directed at developing, exposing and creating unique experience for the students.

"For The Biology of Fly Fishing, I hope that students develop a refined interest in the sport, one that supports 'life long learning'--perhaps the most valuable component of any general education course" says Dr. Charles Bomar, who has taught this course for five years. "My course also deals with non-profits and citizen science initiatives to promote environmental activism in the community."

He hopes to maintain this course as a general education offering for the 7,200 students who come from a variety of programs including technical education, business and psychology.

The two-credit course fulfills a requirement of Wisconsin-Stout's general education natural science component. Through The Biology of Fly Fishing, students have the opportunity to work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and local Trout Unlimited Chapters restoring streams, creating fish habitat and monitoring aquatic ecosystems.

Outdoor Education Sport Fishing Courses

The University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) not only offers sport fishing as a physical education course, it is offered as part of its outdoor leadership program. For the past three years, it has offered Fly Tying, Fly Casting, Fly Fishing, a two-credit course offered in the summer and fall terms. It is one of a group of "skills courses" from which students enrolled in UAS's Outdoor Skills and Leadership (OSL) program must take at least 12 credits of the 34 required to receive their one-year certification.

UAS offers the OSL program in cooperation with the National Forest Service. This is a nine-month intensive humanities program designed to develop skills and characteristics essential to success as an individual, group member and leader in outdoor and adventure settings.

OSL incorporates outdoor risk management, leadership skills, specific outdoor activity skills (such as rock and ice climbing, kayaking, skiing, camping, fly fishing), and academic work in areas such as Alaska history, science, philosophy, and communication.

Nestled in America's heartland, Black Hills State University (BHSU) seems an unlikely location for a successful outdoor education program. However, as the old cliche goes, looks can be deceiving. This four-year liberal arts state-funded teachers college has maintained a sport fishing education program for many years with different professors, according to Chris McCart, the Outdoor Education Program coordinator.

Located in Spearfish, S.D., BHSU offers a one-credit physical education fly fishing course in both the fall and spring terms. The class size is capped at 12 students, and an extra session is added in the spring to accommodate the demand. McCart says that all sections are always full. What makes BHSU's sport fishing class special is that it's a required part of an interdisciplinary bachelor's degree combining natural resources and environmental sciences with outdoor skills, ethics and adventure programming pursuits.

Non-Credit Classes

Offering non-credit sport fishing or other recreational programs at the postsecondary level presents many advantages for instructors and administration. First, it allows faculty to be free to create programs that match the demands of the community.

It also allows administration to add and drop programs based on economic factors. They can easily cancel non-productive classes and add extra sessions of more popular ones. In addition, workshop and short course programs are more easily scheduled and can involve families and children, thus fulfilling a possible institutional requirement (where applicable) of public service.

Faculty who develop general education sport fishing for-credit classes can approach this task from many different angles: pure recreation, science-related, business-related, etc. They also have the opportunity to build a base of students who may then branch off and take more classes in the sciences or other recreation-related fields.

Sport fishing instructors often find after they develop their initial course that students come back to them asking the instructors to build a more advanced offerings. This clearly demonstrates the potential popularity of intermediate to advanced recreation courses.

Institutions must be wary though, of over-saturating the market. During the 2004 and 2005 summer sessions at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), weekend sport fishing workshops were offered. These programs were extremely popular with an average of 14 students. However, this popularity led to the demise of UAF's one-credit Fundamentals of Fly Fishing course due to a lack of enrollment. This clearly demonstrates the need to diversify outdoor activity offerings.

It just goes to show that there are always other fish in the sea.