Gap-toothed boy

GP made the Lincoln paper!  We didn't find out until tonight at our cub scout pack meeting.  We gave up on the Lincoln paper due to high-school level writing and the fact that the Sunday paper no longer contains a TV guide.

Here's the original story: http://journalstar.com/...

University of Walleye teaches kids how to fish

By MICAH MERTES / Lincoln Journal Star

Friday, Mar 13, 2009 - 08:46:02 pm CDT

The dozen or so kids listened to their teachers with their pure, undivided all, displaying the kind of rapt enthusiasm that every teacher dreams of.

The teachers were Kevin Larkins and Richard Lehn. And their hook: Well, um, it was an actual hook. A hook they baited with creepy crawly creatures like crayfish and nightcrawlers.

“Will he die?” a gap-toothed boy asked as his instructors stuck the tip of the hook through a nightcrawler’s head.

Students of the University of Walleye learn how to hook a worm for bait in the Lancaster Building at State Fair Park Friday, March 13th, 2008. (Heidi Hoffman)

“No, he’s not going to die,” Larkins told him.

The worm writhed on the hook.

“He’s dying,” said the boy.

Larkins and Lehn were volunteer instructors at the University of Walleye, the third annual fishing clinic hosted by the Nebraska Walleye Association on Friday night at State Fair Park. At this year’s event, more than 100 children went through five different fishing stations, which covered casting, knot-tying, water safety, tackle and baiting.

“Basically, everything they need to know to go fish,” said Betty Clayton, treasurer of the NWA.

The club hosts a number of clinics throughout the state all year long, in an effort, Clayton said,  “to get more kids fishing, to get ’em away from video games and TV.”

At the end of the event, the NWA sent every kid home with a free rod and reel. They hope it’s just the right prod to get the kids (and their parents) out to the water this spring.

Scott Ballinger and his son, Jarrett, won’t need too much prodding.

“We haven’t been out yet,” Scott said. “We’re anxious to get out.”

Especially Jarrett.

Now 4 years old, Jarrett’s been fishing for three years already. He’s been trying to catch walleye for two years.

Yeah, he’s on his way to being a true blue fisherman like his dad, as soon as he overcomes one minor obstacle.

Jarrett keeps mistakenly saying “WALL-E” instead of “walleye.”

Perhaps TV and fishing can co-exist.