Cast Your Line to Family Time

In my opinion, time with family is time well spent…albeit hard to come by.  Between work, school, packing lunches, cooking dinners, homework, and everything else that competes for our attention, quality time together is a rare but precious gift.  Weekends at our house – much like the rest of America’s – represent one of the few times in our crammed-to-the-gills week when we can finally do something together as a family, and we’ve found the best way to spend that time is fishing.

Fishing together as a family on a quiet riverbank or lake is the perfect way to reconnect and strengthen bonds. It’s just an easier setting for back-and-forth communication and getting caught up to speed with what’s going on in each other’s lives.  Baseball games, movies, and amusement park trips are all perfectly fine means of having fun as a family, but to actually be able to sit and talk while having a good time together is invaluable. For parents who know what they’re doing when it comes to fishing, the opportunity to pass on the knowledge of how to bait a hook or cast a line to their children is a wonderful thing to impart. For a family of novice anglers just looking to try something new, learning together can prove to be equally as rewarding.

If your family is looking to get out on the water this spring, visit your local sporting goods store to stock up on all the best gear for a day on the water, and make sure you are appropriately licensed. In fact, if you live in or around the Washington, D.C. area, there is a great opportunity for you to get your kids hooked on fishing and the great outdoors – and it’s a free event!

Stop by Fletcher’s Cove on the C&O Canal National Historic Park this Saturday, April 16, for a day chock full of fishing activities the entire family will enjoy.  The annual Family and Youth Casting Call runs from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. and will offer fishing tutorials, stocked streams, games, nature activities, educational experiences and much more.  The Take Me Fishing team will also be on site with its casting mat offering casting instruction to kids. Will you join us?

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Stephanie Vatalaro

Stephanie Vatalaro

Stephanie Vatalaro is vice president of communications for the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation and its Take Me Fishing and Vamos A Pescar campaigns where she works to recruit newcomers to recreational fishing and boating and increase awareness of aquatic conservation. Stephanie grew up in the Florida Keys as the daughter of a flats fishing guide. Outside of work, you can find her fishing and boating with her family on the Potomac River in the Northern Neck of Virginia.