Studying at school of rockfishing

Local kids learn about casting and patience at Captain Rob’s School of Rockfishin’

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Devin Montgomery, 10, and Kyle Collins, 11, both of Lexington Park lounge on some rocks while fishing in the Chesapeake Bay earlier this week. The two learned fishing skills during a camp held at Point Lookout State Park sponsored by the Coastal Conservation Association. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

So, it was a natural course of action for the recent St. Mary’s College of Maryland grad to lead a fishing camp for children this summer.

Called Captain Rob’s School of Rockfishin’ (he isn’t really a captain, but the camp name was catchy), Schou spent the last two weeks teaching boys and girls from ages 9 to 13 the ins and outs of angling.

The Ridge resident is a new volunteer and member of the Coastal Conservation Association, Maryland. He sought the group’s support for the fishing camp.

‘‘He asked if we could ‘back’ the camp with our name but he would do the rest. The camp took off,” said Brooke McDonald in an e-mail.

‘‘In one of our very first conversations, he expressed his love for the water, fishing and teaching children,” MacDonald said. ‘‘Rob is an extremely motivated, dedicated and caring individual. He has put in countless hours to get this camp off the ground.”

Schou grew up fishing on the South River in Annapolis, but has lived in St. Mary’s since attending college. He recently earned his master’s in education from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and in June finished a year of student teaching at Park Hall Elementary School.

This school year Schou will start his first full-time teaching position at the Chesapeake Public Charter School in Lexington Park.

The youth camp was part of a project for the master’s program.

Along with posting fliers about the camp, he solicited several of his students from Park Hall to participate.

One of them was Myles Shoemaker, 10. ‘‘He’s a really great teacher for fishing and in school,” Shoemaker said.

Schou incorporated environmental lessons into the camp, including talking about crab management and fishing regulations in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Schou said he was impressed with some of the young fishermen’s answers.

‘‘It’s been great,” Schou said. ‘‘I can’t complain. It’s a great way to work for the summer.”

The hardest part of the camp was teaching the children patience. Schou said many of them would immediately reel their lines back in after casting.

Kyle Collins said he wasn’t having the best of luck Tuesday, but was still having fun. ‘‘Nothing’s been working for me today. I lost five bottom rigs,” the incoming sixth-grader said. The day before, though, he had a lot of luck on the water, catching a bunch of bluefish from the Point Lookout beach.

Schou lined up two charter boat captains to help out with the camp along with other sponsors, such as American Sport fishing Association and Shakespeare Reels. Several local businesses also donated tackle and other supplies.

Schou tried to keep the cost of the camp down, and for $150 apiece each child spent five days honing their fishing skills and walked away with a free rod and reel along with a stocked tackle box.

Schou is hoping to offer the same camp next year. He also said he is hoping to write down the curriculum of the camp, have it peer reviewed and copyright it somehow in hopes of sharing the camp’s structure with teachers to offer similar camps in other areas.

Joshua Slade, 9, of Ridge had fished before but still learned some new tricks during camp. He was happy showing off how he can now tie the knots needed to hold a hook and sinker in place and bait his own hooks. He caught a red drum fish on Monday, a landing that earned him a citation from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

He especially liked learning about how to tie knots and better cast the line.

‘‘It’s fun, too, catching fish,” Slade said.