National Hunting and Fishing Day Recap



The National Hunting and Fishing Day Celebration at the Rockville Chapter of the Izaak Walton League in Maryland had a great turnout and offered a lot of fun activities for families.

Everything turned out to be perfect last week for the 2011 National Hunting and Fishing Day celebration at the Rockville, MD Chapter of the Izaak Walton League.  Prior to the event, the weather threatened to dump buckets of rain and localized flooding, but as it turned out the rain didn't amount to a whole lot in our area, Seneca Creek didn't flood, and it didn't rain at all during the event despite the gloomy prediction. 

The bluegills in the IWL lake kept kids and parents alike
busy as they were quite active last Saturday.  Nightcrawlers
under a float were the ticket for many entertained anglers.

The event was divided into two main sections on the property.  The IWL Chapter House is located off of Waring Station Road, was the site of many of the hunting related activities staged at the event, including an archery station, trap shooting, blackpowder and other shooting demonstrations, free food sporting all types of wild game along with the typical cookout foods, and many other fun things.  The turkey shoot was the finale as in previous years, where prizes were given out for each round.  The other events were held down by the IWL's private lake, including fishing, kayaking and canoeing, fly tying, ice cream making, conservation booths by IWL members and the Maryland DNR, amongst other fun activities for all family members, and the IWL also had free hot dogs and burgers, and drinks for all.  I also had some of my fossil collection on display, and a station set up for anyone who wanted to search through gravel obtained from the Aurora, NC spoil material for micro shark teeth and other fossils.  I have to report that several whale shark teeth were found by the kids searching the material, and I think that most of them had fun.  Even some of the parents got into the act!  Anyway, the event was a success and turnout was very good.  The dedicated and wonderful members of the Rockville Chapter of the IWL and invited guests who donated their time and expertise to share with the community really put on a fantastic event, coordinated by Theresa Daly, for the families of members and visitors that attended.

Here are some more pictures that I took that I'll share with you.  Unfortunately, I spent the entire time down by the lake, so I didn't get any shots of the Chapter House activities.





I set up two tables to display my fossil collection, and a third table so that folks could experience looking for micro shark teeth sorting through pre-sifted material from the Aurora PCS Phosphate Mine spoil material.  Several
whale shark teeth were amongst the hundreds of fossils and shark teeth found  last Saturday.

These youngsters found a lot of cool micro fossils while sorting through the highly fossiliferous gravel that I brought back from North Carolina.

Under the pavillion, youngsters sort through fossiliferous gravel looking for shark teeth.



These IWL members worked hard to feed the visitors, members, and volunteers, cooking burgers and hot dogs all afternoon.



The Maryland Department of Natural Resources had a nice booth for the IWL Visitors last Sunday.  That bobcat mount was really cool!

Two of the IWL volunteers at their exhibits last Sunday exchange outdoors stories.  I thought the fly tying station was a really neat idea. 

The local Boy Scouts ran an ice cream making station that was quite popular. Too bad I was on a diet or I might have joined in the ice cream making fun.

The fishing booth set up anglers with fishing rods, bait and tackle so that they could try and catch the IWL lake's bluegills.  These guys were really busy last Sunday!



This young angler intently watches her bobber as IWL visitors enjoy the canoeing and kayaking activity in the background at the IWL lake during National Hunting and Fishing Day.