When Bob Long Jr. pops the wax worm into his mouth, kids screech, “Oooh!” and adult chaperones gag. They know about eating candy gummy worms, and they know when someone tells you to eat real worms it isn’t a compliment. But they never have seen anything like this.
On a recent weekday morning at Douglas Park Lagoon on Chicago’s West Side, Long launched into what he calls his bait-eating act, swishing a wax worm around a little. One kid from the North Lawndale YMCA, here for a 50-minute, introductory fishing lesson, squealed, “That’s gross.” Others laughed.
“It gives it flavor,” Long said, as he fitted the bait on a hook.
Then he held up a fishing rod with wax worm dangling, and said, “If this thing starts to move around in the water, you’ve got a fish.”
Moments later, Doreisha Morgan, 7, reeled in the first fish of her life. It was a tiny bluegill, but to Morgan it might as well have been a world-record salmon. Her face lit up and she pledged to become an angler forever.
Still, when Long gave her the opportunity to hold the fish, Morgan leapt backward, said, “Uh, uh,” and let him throw it back into the dark green water. Catching was thrilling, releasing was too up-close-and-personal.
Long, 53, in his third year of supervising the 4-year-old Mayor Richard Daley’s Fish ‘N Kids program, was not perturbed. He is a Pied Piper trying to lead youngsters to the sport, trying, in less than an hour, to implant a memory that will endure.
“We don’t really teach kids how to fish,” Long said. “We give them that first taste, that smell, that twinkle in the eye. If a kid doesn’t fish before age 12, he never, ever will. Kids don’t care about size. Every fish is fantastic to a kid.”
The children come from all corners of the city, in groups of eight, or groups of 400, five days a week, to Chicago Park District lagoons and Lake Michigan harbors, on outings from summer school and summer camp. And, either Long, who calls himself “The Fishing Guy,” but whose real title is Park District special projects manager, or some of the other nine, green-jerseyed instructors, offer Fishing 101.
Budget trimming limited this year’s program to 35 days between June 30 and Aug. 8–down from 50 days last summer. But Long, who hoped to expand the program to 20,000 kids, thinks 12,000 kids, the same number as last year, will be reached by creative planning. City kids between the ages of 6 and 12 will watch how to bait a hook, probably catch their first bluegill, and just maybe emerge as wannabe anglers.
The crew meets in the parking lot of Henry’s Sports&Bait Shop on the South Side early each morning. Long, or chief assistant Ken Gortowski, reviews the day’s schedule. They carry clipboards with charts of times and names of groups expected, as well as cell phones to stay in touch with instructors.
“It’s like a little army,” Gortowski said.
Gortowski drives a shiny, gray, late-model Voyager van. Because he transports so much fishing gear, it can give off an aroma.
“It stinks,” he said. “My wife and kids won’t ride in it anywhere.”
On this day of mixed sun and clouds, Long and Gortowski paired up. They had 40 kids scheduled at Douglas Park at 10 a.m. and 20-plus scheduled at 11. Even with thunderstorms on the horizon, the Fish ‘N Kids crew will be there.
“They cancel,” Long said. “We never cancel.”
Much of the gear is donated by Henry’s, or sold to the program at cost, Long said, and the fishing rods the youngsters use are not toy-like.
“We want them to get used to the real thing,” Gortowski said. “They’re lightweight rods, so a bluegill feels like a monster.”
Various studies indicate that between 34 million and 40 million people fish in the United States and most assessments also say that represents a decline in participation. Efforts to introduce more young people to the sport are widespread.
Nationally, such organizations as the Future Fishermen Foundation, a non-profit division of the American Sportfishing Association; the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation; Pure Fishing; and the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society all help lure kids into fishing.
Another major local program is the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Urban Fishing Program, in its 18th year. The program is scheduled to conduct 80 clinics at 16 locations this summer despite retirements and budget constraints that left coordinator openings vacant and shut down some of its suburban reach.
“It’s not going to be as good,” said Mike Conlin, IDNR chief of fisheries, who said the program, which began in 1984 in Chicago, typically touches 70,000 kids statewide through clinics, and 19,000 through special events, but won’t this year.
“We were not able to hire clinic instructors. We got some temporary help, but we won’t have as many clinics.”
Long, whose age shows in expanding baldness and gray in his beard, last year worked to exhaustion and was hospitalized. This summer he is pacing himself better but remains as enthusiastic as the kids.
“The purity of emotion the kids show, and that sheer delight, has been restorative to me,” he said.
On any given weekday, Fish ‘N Kids is at five or more bodies of water. While Long and Gortowski tutored kids at Douglas Park, Rich Delaney and Nick Wenta presided at the Lincoln Park Lagoon. Against a backdrop of paddleboats and tidy flowers, waves of kids from Avondale Park fished.
This is an annual outing, with the group of 75 taking turns fishing and visiting the zoo.
“They look forward to it,” said counselor Juan Mendoza, who dashed around snapping pictures when a kid caught a fish. He gives one picture to each child and posts one at the park.
“To me, it’s important they share the experience with their parents,” Mendoza said.
Brittney Lynn Wenger, 7, could have run Mendoza out of film. An experienced angler, she caught several fish. Asked if she was an expert, she said, “I think so. I love going fishing.”
Jenny Molina, 7, never had been fishing, but when she dropped her line she instantly caught a bluegill.
“It took you about two seconds,” Delaney said. “I think you set a world record.”
