Philanthropic Spotlight - July 2023

ABOUT THE

Boy Scouts x Trout Unlimited Fish Camp

The camp consisted of three one-week sessions in June, held at the R-C Scout Ranch in the cool Ponderosa Pine Forest 20 miles east of Payson Arizona. Over two-dozen teenagers from Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas earned the fly fishing and fishing merit badges, and a lifetime of memories.

Each camper received some sweet SWAG, including a sling pack loaded with a box of flies, nippers, forceps, leader, and tippet. Addition

For the fourth year Arizona Council Trout Unlimited volunteers conducted another great Fish Camp withally, each youth received a Trout Unlimited membership, an AZGFD annual Hunt-Fish Combo license, along with a hat, a shirt, and a unique Fish Camp patch. The patch design, pictured above, includes rockers for various trout species caught. This year we awarded rockers for Gila and Rainbow trout.

Highlights included keynote addresses by Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) Commission Chairman James Goughnour giving the campers insight into the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s role in managing over 800 species and giving credibility to the Camp by setting the stage for the week-long program.

But the campers didn’t sit around in class all-day listening to speeches; they learned fishing basics of equipment, knots and casting techniques, fly tying, fish anatomy, dissection and pathology, entomology, including using a seine to capture aquatic invertebrates, aquatic invasive, nuisance species, water and soil conservation, including ‘leave no trace’ philosophy, daily excursions to other streams and mountain lakes, an introduction and understanding of AZGFD rules and regulations for fishing and taking of aquatic species, How to properly catch, clean, and cook a fish, part of the Fishing and Fly-Fishing merit badge requirements.

The overwhelming response from all was they planned to tell others about the great time they had in Fish Camp! The volunteers also shared these feelings.