Beach Bash and Blast!

Fishing Instruction 101 class in session.

This Friday marked Save the Harbor Save the Bay's annual Beach Bash and Splash! It was a blast! I loved seeing all the many campers and variety of different camp groups there at Carson Beach celebrating with us. I was lucky enough to spend most of the day knee-deep in the cool ocean water, fishing with eager campers yearning to, obviously, hook a fish, but also to learn how to cast a line and use a fishing rod correctly. My Save the Harbor crew lead many tutorial sessions, allowing the kids to understand the basic mechanics behind casting a get a handle on how to fish. Many of them expressed their skepticism regarding actually catching a fish there at Carson, but I reassured them all that I was just there earlier in the week and witnessed a man and his son pull out a nice sized striped

Way haul away, we'll haul
away Joe!

bass while fishing from the beach! Though we weren't as lucky with reeling in any fish of our own, many of the kids went home with the new knowledge of how to fish and cast a fishing rod and to them, that's makes all the difference!

The fun, however, did not stop at fishing! Save the Harbor also offered activities such as face painting, fish printing, sports madness, clamming, and the opportunity to explore the different types of crabs that were caught from fishing in a touch tank. There was a humongous beach volley ball that was sliding around the beach with an entire posse of campers chasing after it. We even lead the audience in a rendition of our famous sea shanty Haul Away Joe! The crowd was dazzled by the shanty's lyrics, not to mention the simultaneous hauling of those imaginary hulking sails. At the conclusion of our performance came time for my favorite part of the evening-- the SPLASH! I changed into my bathing suit and spent a couple extra minutes cooling off and enjoying the beautiful day floating on my back in the buoyant sea water. We all sure were hungry after a day of festivities, so it's a good thing we had come prepared with 700+ hot dogs that we grilled and served right there on the beach! I want to give a big thanks to the generous, hard working people of the Department of Conservation and Recreation for accommodating all of us and allowing us to host our event on the beach.

All the many Beach Bash and Splashers!

Until next time,
Maxwilliams