Trout Unlimited has a large presence at scout camp this year. We sponsored the first Fly-fishing, Fishing, and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Merit Badge program at Camp Raymond, a Boy Scout Camp in Northern Arizona.
The program so far has produced 68-merit badges with one more week left of camp.
The Camp Raymond pond presently has native humpback chub, an endangered species that the Arizona Game and Fish Department didn’t want molested. However, through the cooperation of AZGFD, we were allowed to catch and release the humpback
Scout with his bullfrog caught on flychub by weighing and measuring the fish caught. The weighing and measuring, also helped the scouts fulfill some of the requirements for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Merit Badge. In addition to humpback chub, the pond has large bullfrogs, see picture at left, that took a dry fly
Scouts show off their catch: 1-Rainbow, 1-crawdadalmost as quickly as the humpback chub. The scouts also caught rainbow trout and crawdads at nearby Dogtown Lake.
The scouts competed for pond time with other aquatic sports, see picture above.
What a great experience.
