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Yesterday I spent the day attending classes about fishing at the NC Sportsman Annual Fishing School. This is the second time I’ve attended this event and this time was even better then the last time I went. The school was held at the Barwell Road Community Center part of the Raleigh Parks and Recreation one of the sponsors of this event. It was an action packed day with lots of great presentations.
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The school has 6 tracks, Saltwater Inshore, Saltwater Ocean, General Info, Outside Stuff, Fresh Water, and Saltwater mix with 3 classes in the morning and 3 classes in the afternoon all lasting an hour long. You could pick and choose which classes you wanted to go to and you weren’t bound to a single tract so that’s 36 classes to choose from which was hard to do. There is something for every angler to go to and learn. I don’t fish a whole lot I always catch myself saying I need to fish more. Well after yesterday I’m inspired to get out and wet some lines.
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My first class was the most intriguing class of the day about Kayak Fishing presented by Mark Bedell of Fish Stalkers Guide Service out of Wilmington North Carolina. I have always wanted to try a kayak and hunting or fishing out of one sounds like a great way to get in touch with some primal urge. Mark guides for coastal fish and specializes in Redfish. He says the kayak is a deadly method to sneak up on reds because its so quiet plus it can get into many places blocked to traditional anglers because of shallow water, sand bars, and oyster bars. His talk of a “NC Sleigh Ride”, when a big fish drags you around, sounds like a true North Carolina adventure to experience. I’ve got to get some time to get down to Wilmington and take a trip with Mark and Fish Stalkers.
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Other classes I took were Crappie Fishing, Flounder Gigging, Chumming, Catfishing, and Cooking. They were all excellent, as part of the cooking class Ty Conti editor and co writer of the monthly article “Cooking on the Wildside”. As part of the cooking demonstration he used the new Nickel Plated Cast Iron frying pan from Olvida. It has all the benefits of cast iron but none of the downsides; it never needs to seasoned, can’t rust, and it’s dishwasher safe. At the end of the class they had a drawing for the fry pan and I won it. I can hardly wait to try this out I love my cast iron one so we’ll see if I love this one as much.
As part of the $75 registration fee besides the day of training they give you a goody bag with fishing line, hooks, lures, and a NC Sportsman T Shirt, a year subscription to the magazine, Lunch, a chance to win some great door prizes and a chance on a fishing boat. They drew 6 people as finalists from the Raleigh school for the fishing boat to go to the South Carolina school to join the finalists from that school for the boat drawing. There is still time if someone is interested in going to the School in South Carolina.
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