(country guitar music) - [Brett] Minnesota Trout Unlimited's mission is to conserve, protect and restore the state's cold water fisheries.

Fly fishing for trout depends on sustaining cold clean water habitats.

That's why members are introducing the sport to the next generation of environmental stewards.

(happy guitar music) - [Kevin] So the Foster of the Outdoors program dates back to 2017.

Tim Hemstad is the individual who dreamed up this idea of getting kids number one, out in nature, but connected to fly fishing and since that time there've been quite a few kids who've gone through the program.

This is our first year back since the pandemic.

Everybody's thrilled to be getting kids back out fly fishing and getting to know and love the outdoors.

- [Brett] Foster the Outdoors is a volunteer run program that starts in May.

Youth and their guardians meet up with mentors at Fallon Park in Saint Paul.

- [Kevin] We're adults who know some stuff and we want to share it with you.

You guys are the mentees, that means your kids who wanna learn some stuff.

Make sense?

- [Brett] Participants are split into three groups that rotate through three stations.

At one, kids are introduced to trout fishing regulations, maps and other resources.

(unintelligible) - [Brett] At another station, youth learn how to tie knots.

Teachers use yarn that's easier to handle and learn with than fishing line.

- [Female Instructor] Line 'em up.

- [Child] Okay.

- And now twist it five times.

- One, two.

Okay.

- Okay, put your tag in through the bottom hole.

(speaking in the background) Okay and now if you look where the top is, put it through the top whole, perfect.

And now just pull on the long one.

- Ha, Ha!

- You got it!

That's a beautiful knot.

That's perfect.

- [Brett] The biggest challenge is learning to cast.

(instrumental music) - [Kevin] This is, this is fly fishing, boys and girls.

Step one is a lift.

Step two is a pause.

Step three is a drop.

So 1, 2, 3.

Lift, pause, forward.

You guys give it a try.

Oh my gosh, you're doing it.

I want you to go and now do a hard flick.

Nice!

Lift, pause, forward, lift, pause forward.

Keep practicing.

The more straight your line goes out the better you're doing it.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Keep working on it.

Slow down.

This isn't a woo woo woo woo.

Hey, you're, you're not lassoing a horse.

So on, you're going, you're going.

You're not arching your back like I am, I'm making it exaggerated.

What I want you to do, watch me for a sec.

Up here, not all the way back.

Yes, yes.

At first there's the struggling with the casting but then there's that "I think I got it, I think I got it!

Yeah.

I can do this."

I would say a hundred percent of these kids have fished before.

I would say very few of them and only a couple of their parents have fly fished before, and that's what, as mentors, as teachers is part of our challenge.

Casting a spinning rod the lure has the weight and it takes the line out.

So you have to then reverse that logic that all these kids, and adults, have ingrained in themselves and realize that the fly has no weight, the weight is in the line.

So hey kids and adults, that line has to go out first or that fly is never going anywhere.

(tropical guitar music) - [Brett] After about an hour of lessons, participants head to the water with fly rods on loan from child unlimited.

Mentees and guardians will use them to fish with their mentors over the summer.

Today they'll be fishing for sunfish, not trout.

- [Kevin] One of the most important things we're trying to do is get them action.

Let's face it, a sunnys a lot easier to catch than a trout.

And that's really why we take the kids to lakes and parks where hopefully there's sunnys, crappies easy to catch fish.

As we're learning today, not always easy to catch, they're not always there, but that's why we call it fishing, not catching.

Today what we did is we had the kids focus on dry flies and there's a couple of reasons for that.

First and foremost, they can see their success.

Watching a fish come up from below the surface out of nowhere and all of a sudden, bam, it hits that dryfly and anyone who has ever experienced that, that's nirvana.

That's what you're really hoping for, that's what keeps us coming back.

On the front end, It's challenging.

I joked if this was easy, everybody would do it.

Some kids, they like that challenge.

Once you get past this initial learning curve, there's a peace, a calm that comes from the places that the trout take you.

They need clean water.

Clean water doesn't happen in polluted places, so the trout take us to beautiful places, sometimes surprisingly close to and running right through cities.

River Falls, Wisconsin is a great example.

There's a world World-class stream the Kinnickinnic River that runs right through River Falls and it's, you know, 45 minutes from the Twin Cities.

- [Brett] Some of the kids hook sunnys, but Kai has the big catch of the day.

It's a pike.

- [Man With Jacket] Oh my God.

Oh, my, oh, this is the biggest fish that I've ever seen.

Wow!

- [Child] Too bad we don't have a bucket for it.

- How cool is that?

- Whoa.

- Awesome!

Yes (excited).

- [Kai] The one thing I don't like about fish is that they're very slimy.

(laughing) - They are.

- And they, it gets all over your hands.

- How awesome is that?

- [Man] Wow.

- That's, that is so cool.

I got to see him come up and take that fly.

- [Man] Yeah, - Just inhaled it.

Nice job Kai.

- [Woman] That is amazing.

- [Man] Wow!

- This guy's got lots of teeth.

You ever seen the inside of this guy's mouth?

- No.

- Lots of teeth.

Hang on.

Nice, right?

- [Kai] Mm hmm.

- Wanna help me let it go.

- That's one of the biggest fish I've caught.

- You hold his tail.

(Iris violin music) (country guitar music) - [Kevin] We've all caught fish.

We've all gotten that buzz, so to speak, of catching a fish, but if you've ever watched someone that you taught how to catch a fish on a fly rod, you now have a higher level of just appreciation for, wow, that's a good day.

That's woo.

That's a home run.

These young people as they get get older will also learn that it's a great solitary sport.

I grew up doing all kinds of fishing and boats and motors were involved and things like that, and I remember a lot of days not doing a lot of fishing with dad, working on the boat a lot.

(laughs) You don't have to worry about that with fly fishing.

It's a rod, a reel, some flies, you and the water.

(simultaneously talking in the background) - [Brett] Besides fishing with mentors, Foster the Outdoors offers a fly time course in October and a visit to a fly shop in January.

Trout Unlimited markets the program at the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in March, through its trout in the classroom program where students raise and release trout, and by reaching out to youth organizations, rec centers and big brothers, big sisters.

- We really try and have everybody signed up by March 30th.

We can be a little bit flexible on that.

As we grow it, one of our goals is to not just grow it in numbers, but diversity of people benefiting from it.

The opportunities are infinite for the future and that's, you know, that's part of the growth.

Gender diversity and also racial diversity within the the pool of both mentors and mentees.

Because everybody should have an opportunity to benefit and everybody can.

(country guitar music) - [Kevin] I'm always about, it's not just fishing, it's about nature.

Let's point out what's out there.

Let's look at the turtles.

Let's look at the muskrats.

I was paired up with a young man, young boy named Max.

What was my favorite part about Max was he's beating me to it.

There's an eagle, he's like, Kevin, there's an eagle.

I'm like, yeah, cool.

And did you see the turtles?

And I saw Muskrat.

I'm like, oh yeah, me too.

Like, oh wow, you're doing my job for me.

And he, just his enthusiasm for nature was infectious.

Really our secret mission here is to get these young people digging this, really into it and then they become the next generation of us.

People who care enough about the resource to make sure it's protected.

(calm guitar music)