Feathers in thier Hat

 

Last week my daughter came home from school so excited she had a hard time formulating complete sentences. Savannah gets that way when she has a lot to tell me. Sometimes, it’s so much it all comes out at once. Usually I have to get her to retell the story several times and then ask questions to piece together the key elements. Then I can react when I finally have the full picture. It’s really funny unless it’s something urgent.

Fortunately on this day her excitement was wonderful. She had been on a field trip with her 5th grade glass to Valley Park in Hurricane. Locals always call this "Wave Pool Park." The field trip apparently consisted of 5th graders from all over Putnam County. It was entitled "Project Wet."

I remembered signing a permission slip for the event, but all I was told was she would be getting "aquatic education" and it wasn’t a swimming party. I don’t recall much else about it. Savannah couldn’t wait to tell me she had learned how to fly fish.

Bits and pieces of the story are probably still sticking to the ceiling of our home because it all came out so rapidly and in haphazard fashion. I was able to determine there was a fairly extensive setup about fish, fishing, and all manner of aquatic life in our West Virginia ecosystem. Savannah explained to me about mayflies, crawdads, different kinds of trout, and of course all of the finer points of casting dry flies. Somewhere in there she also mentioned tying flies.

 

"How on Earth did a chatterbox like you calm down to the required level of focus to engage in something as tedious as tying a fly?” I recall thinking.

Then she arrived at the big announcement,

"The man who was showing me how to fly fish and his friends all know YOU!" she exclaimed in partial amazement. "They listen to your show and you interviewed him."

Turns out, as near as I can figure, she was getting a first hand lesson from Gary Chancey of the Kanawha Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited. She did not know his name, but described him only as, "the man who had two little feathers in his hat." I suppose that could be a lot of people, but for the purpose of the story–and this column I’ll assume it was Gary.

I had spoken to Gary the Friday before. He, along with several other Kanawha Valley TU members, were helping children from West Teays Elementary release fingerling trout they had raised from eggs in their classroom this school year.

"We brought them down and put them in the basket and it wasn’t a week before they started hatching," he said. "It’s unbelievable how much they enjoy it."

It was plenty believable when my daughter told it. She was on cloud nine. Soft spoken Gary clearly enjoys passing on the love of fishing along with the concern for protecting fisheries to the next generation.

"I love children," he told me. "And I love what they’re doing to fishing."

One by one on the West Teays adventure Gary helped the youngsters gently pour their bucket with a single fish into Davis Creek at Kanawha State Forest. He would catch critters from the stream and immediately draw a crowd of enthusiasts.

Folks like Gary, and the rest of the volunteers helping that day, should be commended. We should all take the time, whether with our own children or somebody else’s, to pass on the sportsman’s tradition and ethic. The kids are open buckets waiting to be filed with wonderment and knowledge and as in the case of my daughter–her bucket was overflowing by the end of the day.  Gary, and all the guys at KVTU, should have another feather I their hat.







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