Kids Fishing Rodeo - A weekend of Firsts

On a recent family holiday, we decided to take our youngest three on a weekend camping trip to Vogel State Park, in Northern Georgia. This was the first time we’ve taken the kids on an overnight camping trip. We learned a lot on this trip that will make future trips even better, including campsite selection, special events and fishing skills. My expectation is to share some of our experiences, good and bad, so you won’t have to figure them out the hard way.

Our trip planning started months ago. Vogel looked like a good State park and had a number of fun things to do with the family, including a lake, swimming, fishing, hiking trails and of course nice campsites. My wife insisted that the campsite area must have "regular bathroom facilities", if you get my drift. Okay, my prior camping experience had been a bit more remote with less "amenities", but I know a losing battle when I see it. Arrangements were made for a 40 ft. campsite, via the Georgia State Park online reservation system. The reservations indicated we had a campsite, but surprisingly enough it didn’t allow you to pick a specific spot, even though a map was available online that showed the actual sites available. This caused a bit of concern, but I pushed it out of my thoughts at the time.

The week before our trip, I decided to visit Vogels website and confirm a few details, like check-in and other general stuff. To my surprise, the website showed that a kids fishing rodeo was scheduled during our stay. I hadn’t even thought to look when I originally reserved the date, so this was a very pleasant surprise, even though I had no idea what a fishing rodeo was. This event was limited to kids 12 and under, which worked out great for my two youngest. When you are scheduling your own families camping trips, remember to look at the events calendar and use the information to your benefit.

On the Friday of our weekend trip, we had a number of things going on until lunch, so it was decided that we would leave for the park after lunch. Vogel was only an hour or so north of us, so this seemed ok, since surely other campers wouldn’t get there much earlier. I know what you parents are saying. Things never go as planned when trying to get three kids packed and loaded into the car. Yep, your right, and in our case we overestimated our departure time by about 2 hours. Instead of leaving at 1pm, we didn’t get out until closer to 3pm. Upon arriving at the campsite, we checked-in at the parks headquarters and were told that we could go drive through the campgrounds and pick a site, as long as no one physically occupied the site OR as long as no physical equipment was setting there. The park ranger made a comment that there were not many sites open. This caused a bit of angst on my part, but hey, this was our big camping trip so I was going to roll with the punches. Lesson for my readers..get there early or send someone early with "Stuff" to place on your preferred site.

The morning for us started around 6:30am, with a leisurely breakfast. We observed a lot of fellow campers were walking past our site with their fishing equipment, while we were still preparing our morning meal. By 7:30:7:45 the area seemed almost deserted, except for empty tents and campers. We had forgotten a few things, so I was sent to see if the park store had these items. When I got tot the store, I realized where most of the "missing" campers were. A line had started to form near a newly erected shelter. Being inquisitive as I am, I asked a passing camper what the line was for. He was very kind and filled me in. Come to find out, the kids fishing rodeo was planned to start at 8am, and you had to register first, and the kids would get a free t-shirt and a ticket for later prize drawings. Once registered, you could move to the stream and start fishing. By the time we arrived to register, it was 9am and there was no line. However, as we moved towards the masses near the stream, we learned another lesson. If you have a choice, it better to be early since you get to pick your spot a lot easier, plus there are more fish for the catching.

We passed the initial group of "little fishermen" and noticed a marked off section that wasn’t as crowded. As we setup to fish we were politely told that the area we had staked out was set aside for cane poles only. Another lesson here is if you have young kids, go ahead and bring your bamboo pole, just in case. It’s also a lot easier for the little kids to simply hold a pole and watch a bobber, without having to cast. A good spot was found farther upstream and we began our fishing in earnest.

This weekend the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and released about 1200 trout into the stream for this event, so the odds of catching something were excellent. Every other time we’ve been fishing with the kids, we would always catch and release. My wife decided after talking to some of the other parents, that if we caught anything, we would keep them and get some help in cleaning them them. This was another first for us. We had never prepared a fresh catch for eating. Fortunately the campers next to us helped us and showed us exactly how to do it. It was a cool experience for all of us and we met some really nice people in the process. We ended up cooking all five trout that we caught and they were (amazing|delicious|mouth-watering|awesome}.

The old saying "Gone Fishing" means a lot more to our entire family after this special weekend. I can’t conclude this without also sharing my gratitude to the Georgia Park Service and the Georgia DNR for the outstanding way this event was managed. I saw a bunch of smiles on the face of the many kids there, and on the faces of a bunch of parents also. We will be participating in the kids fishing rodeo again in the future. Take what you can from our experience, and remember that no matter what else happens, enjoy being together as a family. Make your own "Priceless" moments.