A number of activities will be held to entertain kids, including a free youth fishing event hosted by the Division of Wildlife, Ohio State Parks and the Auglaize County Pheasants Forever chapter.
All bait will be provided. Fishing poles are available and attendees are encouraged to bring their own fishing poles. Anglers between the ages of 16 and 17 must have a valid Ohio fishing license. Anglers under age 16 are not required to purchase a fishing license in Ohio.
In addition to youth fishing, other youth activities will include archery, observing an electrofishing boat and a wildlife learning area featuring bald eagles.
Walleye, saugeye, largemouth bass, yellow perch and channel catfish are raised at St. Marys State Fish Hatchery and are stocked in more than 78 lakes throughout Ohio.
The St. Marys State Fish Hatchery is located at 01735 Feeder Road, St. Marys. For more information, call (937) 372-9261.
Kayak tournaments: There is a new tournament trail coming up for this area, but there's a hitch: all fishing must be done from a kayak.
The Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail will start on May 4 with The Big Slab Crappie Challenge at Indian Lake.
“The first tournament will be for crappies only, but after that all of the tournaments will be for bass only,” said organizer Neil Farley. “We wanted this to be a bass only circuit, but some guys wanted to fish for crappies, so we made the one tournament for crappies only.”
There is a $20 entry fee for each of the eight events plus $5 for big fish. The payouts will be determined by the number of entrants. It’s all catch-and-release. Anglers will carry phones with cameras or cameras, take pictures of their fish against measuring boards and compare photos at the “weigh in.”
“Most of the events will be in the Dayton area, but one will be in northeast Ohio,” Farley said.
For more information or to sign up, visit Whitewater Warehouse in Dayton. There will soon be online sign-up at buckeyekayakfishingtrail.com.
No CWD: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Department of Agriculture say testing of Ohio's deer herd found no evidence of chronic wasting disease. CWD is a degenerative brain disease that affects elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer that has never been found in Ohio.
According to the Division of Wildlife, state and federal agriculture and wildlife officials collected 519 samples in 2012. For the 11th consecutive year, all samples were negative for CWD.
The disease has been found in 14 states and three Canadian provinces. For more information, visit wildohio.com or cwd-info.org.
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