Goin' fishing at Twin Hills Park (with photo gallery)

Fishing has been a part of the fabric of Ernie Martin’s life as long as he can remember.

Maybe that’s why the veteran educator and coach gets such a kick out of teaching the annual fishing camp at Twin Hills Park.

“This is the fourth year that we’ve had the fishing camp,” Martin said. “I’ve got some returnees from last year and the year before.

“There were about 14 that came out and they enjoyed fishing every day. Every kid here caught fish. It’s mainly been bream and catfish, but we have caught a couple of bass.”

Martin joked that the kids didn’t catch any of the ducks or swans that populate the ponds at Twin Hill.

While teaching the young anglers the basics of fishing Martin made sure the kids enjoyed themselves.

“The first thing we tried to teach them on the fundamentals is the first three letters, F-U-N,” he said. “We are trying to let them have some fun with something that doesn’t require electricity in either AC form or battery form. And it’s not in the air conditioning.

“You are outside in nature and the surroundings where you are learning how to catch fish with live bait using worms and crickets. We’ve used minnows a little bit. We’ve used little fish to catch the big ones, so to speak.”

The camp covered a little bit of everything that one needs to know when fishing from the bank or dock on a lake, river or even a bay. And many of the lessons can be used when fishing from boat as well.

Martin taught the campers how to cast with a rod and reel, how to bait a hook, and, depending on the kind of fish, he even let the campers take the fish off the hook. However, he handled all the catfish with pointy spine.

Click here to view photos from the camp

Read more about the camp and see more photos in the June 24 edition of the Crestview News Bulletin