Members of the North Paulding High School recently helped stock trout at Amicalola Creek in North Georgia.

Here is how high school students from North Paulding High School Fly Fishing and Coldwater Conservation Club (in Georgia’s Paulding County near Atlanta) helped stock trout into the Delayed Harvest section of Georgia’s Amicalola Creek.

Steve Hudson, founder of FlyBooks.net, has enjoyed fly fishing, fly tying, hiking, community service, and the great outdoors since childhood. He is the consummate environmentalist and one of the most community-minded outdoorsmen in the South.

By Steve Hudson

“What’s become of youth these days?”

I overheard that question recently while looking for some coffee creamer at the store. There I was, searching the cold-foods section for my favorite coffee add-in, when two folks old enough to be my parents wandered up on my left and started pontificating on the current state of young people. From the sound of their words, those senior citizens weren’t too impressed with what they were seeing. I kept hearing words like “lazy,” “unfocused,” and “self-centered.” Anyone can have an opinion, I suppose. But to tell the truth, their words kind of got under my skin.

Why?

Because just a few days before, I’d spent most of a morning standing in the rain with a bunch of young folks from Georgia’s North Paulding High School. The students I met were members of the school’s Fly Fishing & Cold Water Conservation Club, and let me tell you the truth. Those kids are absolutely passionate about conservation, the environment, and fly fishing – and I’m sure that what they’re learning will benefit them (and the rest of us, too) for years and years to come. The club was established some years ago at the school by AP Environmental

Science teacher Rodney Tumlin. Rodney is retired now, but the club lives on under the mentorship of faculty advisors Jason Pritchett (an English teacher) and John Millard (a math teacher). Club members enjoy a variety of activities focused on cold-water conservation, trout, and fly fishing. They are learning by doing, and that’s the best way to learn anything. There’s no doubt about it. What these kids are doing makes for stories worth telling, and I want to share just one of them with you here. It goes something like this.

The story begins

It‘s a rainy Tuesday at the Highway 53 access to Amicalola Creek, a Delayed Harvest trout stream in north Georgia’s Dawson County. The sky is gray, and the rain is steady
and cold – a yucky morning by any measure.

Who in their right mind would want to be outdoors on a day like this, enduring harsh weather instead of hiding out inside where it’s warm and cozy and dry?

North Paulding High School Fly Fishing and Cold Water Conservation Club President Madison Yang stocks trout into Amicalola Creek.

Who indeed?

But today is trout stocking day, and members of the North Paulding High School Fly Fishing and Coldwater Conservation Club have risen early to help the Georgia Department of Natural Resources stock trout into the creek’s cold, clear waters. I’m there, too, and while we wait for the trout truck to arrive, I visit with student Madison Yang, president of the club.

Madison is not bothered by the precipitation

“I like the rain!” she says, making it clear that a little liquid sunshine isn’t going to put a damper on the day’s excitement. She goes on to talk about fishing and about how she came to be involved with this fly-fishing club. She heard about it one day during morning announcements, she says, and joined the club not long after that. Then, like many club members before her, she began
to discover just how much fun this fly fishing thing can be.

Besides learning about fly fishing, club members also enjoy fly tying and fishing trips

“We have a meeting and a trip every month,” Madison says. The club’s members also enjoy hands-on conservation- and fisheries-related activities. In fact, that’s exactly why they’re at Amicalola Creek.

Anticipation – and liquid sunshine

Events such as trout stocking (and the fishing which usually follows once the work is done) are especially popular with these students. Using 5-gallon buckets, they will help carry trout from the truck to the creek. There, they’ll release the fish, which will quickly spread out and settle in even as the students return to the truck for the next load. It’s enough to make any trout angler’s heart beat a little faster.

While we wait for the hatchery truck, a car pulls into the parking area. A visiting fisherman gets out, surveys the scene, and asks what’s going on. Someone tells him that it’s a group of students and that they are about to help stock trout into the creek.

“How long till the fishing starts?” the angler asks

“Not long,” comes the answer. “It should be great. But the stockings are great too. Want to help?” The newcomer doesn’t hesitate. “Sure,” he says. “Glad to lend a hand. Can’t let these young folks do all the work, can we!”

Community

Meanwhile, the rain continues. The kids just shrug it off. As for me? Well, heck. It’s cold. But I can’t be outdone by the students, can I? So I suck it up and tell myself it’s just a little liquid sunshine. I take a deep breath and start to say something — But what’s that turning off the highway? Yes! The hatchery truck had arrived, and all else was forgotten. The trout are here, and there is work to be done.

Ben Findley (left) and Brandon Hardeman, Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Here comes the fish!

The truck, which started its day at the hatchery at Georgia’s Lake Burton, carries about a thousand rainbow trout. The students follow it down the steep road leading to the creek, gathering around to hear Department of Natural Resources fisheries personnel Ben Findley and Brandon Hardeman offer a word of greeting and review what’s about to happen. Soon, Ben and Brandon open the truck’s tanks and begin loading trout into 5- gallon buckets. Then the students get to work, carrying buckets of trout from the truck to the water and then releasing the fish into the flow. Yes, fishing’s gonna be good here for days and weeks to come.

Club sponsor Jason Pritchett looks on as the students transport the fish

“We are creating a community,” he says – a community of students and parents, of professionals from the state’s wildlife agency, of mentors from fly fishing clubs. Area fly shops are supporting the club’s activities, too. For example, Unicoi Outfitters (which manages some private trophy trout water near the Georgia town of Helen) hosts regular outings for the club’s members, giving these young people the opportunity to put their flyfishing skills to the test and maybe catch the trout of a lifetime in the process. “We’ve been honored to support the North Paulding club,” says Jimmy Harris of Unicoi Outfitters.

By this time, the first part of the day’s trout stocking has wrapped up. Now the truck leads a caravan of volunteers to a second stocking point in the area known as Steel Bridge, where the process will be repeated to place the remaining trout into the creek.

Jason Pritchett, an English teacher at North Paulding High School, is one of the faculty sponsors for the North Paulding Fly Fishing and Coldwater Conservation Club.

Joining in on the fun

About ten minutes into that second part of the effort, two visiting anglers (Heather Hayes and her stepdad Kelly Tibbs) walk up to see what is going on. Kelly is a science teacher at Brookwood Elementary School in Forsyth County, and I learned that she participates in “Trout in the Classroom,” a program that allows classes to raise trout at school and, eventually, release them into a Georgia trout stream. I also learned that she has never actually stocked any trout herself. “Would you like to give it a try?” someone asks. “I’ll bet there’s an extra bucket you can use.” Sure enough, a few minutes later, Kelly is toting a bucketful of wiggling, splashing trout from the truck down to the creek. She releases them there, doing her part to benefit trout fishing in northern Georgia.

All the while, the students continue their work. Soon, the last of the trout are in the creek. Ben and Brandon secure the truck and head back to the hatchery. Meanwhile, I walk back up the hill to the car for some hot coffee. And the students? I see some of them rigging up rods. The work is done, and now it’s time to fish.

Building community, one bucket of trout at a time

Later, on my way home, I stopped again at the Highway 53 access, where we had started the day a few hours earlier. As I pull into the parking area, a wader-clad fly fisher is just leaving the river. “How was it?” I ask. “It was good,” he says. “Really good! Did they just stock?” They did – we did – and I told him about it. “Sounds like fun,” he says, and I affirm that it was. Then he adds, “I’ll have help with that stocking myself one of these days.”