A 'Let's go fishing' backpack comes stocked with everything the young angler needs. Including: telescopic fishing pole, tackle box, ID cards, net, journal, Pond Life book, FWS & ODFW fish education materials, and a lamprey coloring book. - Photo Credit: FWS

Reeling them in at Free Fishing Day at Marr Pond where Fishing Backpacks were available for checkout - Photo Credit: Gretchen Sausen, FWS

The FWS’s La Grande Field Office (LFO) requested funds to purchase 10 “Let’s Go Fishing” aquatic theme backpacks filled with fun educational items to help guide outdoor aquatic experiences. These fishing/aquatic theme backpacks are equipped with telescoping fishing pole, tackle box and tackle, pond life book, journal, fish identification cards, aquatic insect/fly-fishing identification cards, and one small dip net. OFWO funded 5 additional “Let’s Go Fishing” aquatic theme backpacks so a total of 15 backpacks can be utilized in our ongoing and future outdoor program with kids, families, and the community. LFO plans to use the backpacks for Free Fishing Day at Marr Pond, Wallowa County Watershed Festival, local public schools and libraries, classroom field trips, outdoor schools, and other outdoor community/family programs. There were newspaper articles in two local newspapers informing the community of these backpacks and their availability to check out at libraries and to local groups. Annually, these 15 total backpacks, would serve approximately 60-300 kids/families at our ongoing educational programs. This project connects families, kids, and local communities to nature by providing opportunities to learn about fishing and the aquatic environment. The Lets Go Fishing backpacks help get kids outdoors learning about their aquatic environment. The 10 backpacks funded by CPWN and 5 additional from OFWO give our ongoing educational programs the flexibility to loan out the backpacks to individual kids to do self-exploration (through school and local public libraries) as well as to be used in a group outdoor learning experience. FWS staff and several partners support the local schools and communities with these ongoing outdoor programs. FWS staff time – 4-6 biologist days (in-kind); in 2012, one actual FWS staff from La Grande Field Office to plan, implement, and post event work (submitting article for two local papers) for these outdoor fishing programs utilizing the “Let’s Go Fishing” backpacks. In 2012, the FWS had these backpacks at Free Fishing Day at Marr Pond and the Watershed Festival for check-out and the hope is that, thanks to additional funding, they will be even more popular than the previous year.