Fishing ‘a lost art,’ grandpa laments

Seasoned fisherman Logan Whiteley, 7, tries his hand at catching trout at the Bow Habitat Station in Calgary on Saturday, July 7, 2012.

Photograph by: Christina Ryan , Calgary Herald

Fishing ‘a lost art,’ grandpa laments

Kid-friendly Inglewood trout pond opens on Alberta’s free fishing weekend

By Annalise Klingbeil,

Calgary Herald

July 7, 2012

As Gerry Button watches his grandsons cast fishing poles into a newly opened trout pond in Inglewood, memories of his own youth come flooding back.

He spent his childhood fishing in northern Saskatchewan, but the avid outdoorsman fears that in an era of computer games and other distractions, children just aren’t interested in angling anymore.

“Hunting and fishing — it’s a lost art for kids that live in a city like this,” Button said.

Button and his family were one of hundreds of people at Saturday’s grand opening of a child-friendly catch-and-release trout pond at Bow Habitat Station.

The opening coincides with Alberta’s free fishing weekend. People in the province are allowed to cast a line without a licence in any public water body, outside of national parks, until Tuesday.

The idea is to offer children an opportunity to try out a dying pastime, said Erin Carrier, a spokeswoman for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

“If they’re used to fly fishing on their Wii system, for example, why not get out there and try it for real? This is an excellent opportunity to do it,” Carrier said.

While about 250,000 fishing licences are sold in Alberta every year, Carrier said the sport “is a bit lost now with today’s generation.”

She’s hopeful the Bow Habitat Station’s new $750,000 pond, which is stocked with 200 rainbow trout and surrounded by a walkway and benches, will educate and inspire a new generation of anglers.

“We want to encourage Albertans to get outside. This is an excellent opportunity. You don’t even have to leave the city,” she said.

The managing director of the Bow Habitat Station believes the new pond will succeed in connecting local kids to fishing and nature.

“I think we’re always looking to teach that next generation. “(With) opportunities like this, right in the heart of Calgary, you’re reducing those barriers,” said Robyn Saude.

Calgary East MP Deepak Obhrai attended Saturday’s opening celebrations and said he’s glad to see an opportunity for young Calgarians to cast their lines in the inner city.

“If you make fishing a difficult sport, and by difficult I mean inaccessible, it’s an effort for you to go (and) naturally there is a decline. When you make it really easy and accessible for the people . . . then they use it,” Obhrai said.

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