The most important idea of my 20 time fishing project is attempting to catch a 50 lb catfish, we want to show people how to set a goal and what they need to do to achieve that goal. We've done research on where to find bigger fish and what we should be looking for, we've even conducted field days to compare our online research to peoples answers in real life so we can compare those answers. Our second main idea or goal for this project is getting kids outside and active, too many kids are wasting the day away inside on their electronics. Hopefully our project will show kids another way to get out and enjoy nature. Michelle Obama said you need at least 60 minutes of activity a day to stay healthy and fit, fishing may not be a lot of exercise but it will get you outside and off your electronics. Our third important idea or goal is to show people how to set a goal and how they can go about achieving that goal by studying your topic and trying to best way to do it by researching it. We're also trying to show kids how to prepare for a goal of theirs by going out and trying or practicing whatever they're trying to accomplish, and asking other people that are doing the same thing or something similar to get help and see if you can learn even more for them.

Field Work

On Wednesday night, Garrett and I went fishing under the bridge to complete some field work and found a mentor in the process. He told us he fishes under the bridge almost every night and the best working bait at the moment was cut shad. Our mentor had just gotten done from soccer practice and special Olympics training, he actually graduated from Kennedy in 2004 and was a basketball and football manager during high school. He told us you could get a good amount of bait behind the Quaker oats factory. He also told us who people have been treating the ecosystem under the bridge, leaving their trash and left over bait and supplies laying around. This not only makes a mess but it also leaves behind certain unpleasant smells. Unfortunately we couldn't catch a fish Wednesday night but the experience and knowledge we gathered from this trip will be very important in future trips. Just to compare we asked our mentor what kind of tackle or gear he's been using under the bridge and it turned out he uses just about the exact same tackle we use. He even showed us where people have been getting the most bites lately. We asked him if he had been fishing anywhere else so far this year and if there were any places catfish might be more active. He told us he's taken a couple trips to the Cedar River in Palo so far this year and the fish have been really active up there already, but for him being under the bridge is his money spot. So far this year he's caught a couple kinds of catfish under the bridge like Flathead and blue catfish. Another place he recommended was North Liberty, he's also had a couple of successful trips on the River there, Garrett and I decided to try these locations out to see if our mentor was right.  I was surprised our mentor had been getting a lot of luck already because the weathers been pretty cold. Our next step for our project is getting more field experience and reports.