Naturalist Adventure – Big Lake State Park – Fishing and Wading

July 21, 2018

We participated in the Missouri State Park’s Naturalist Program  – Fishing and Wading Program at Big Lake State Park.  The program was hosted by Amanda, who works for the Missouri State Parks and is their Naturalist/Eco-Interrupter.  She was super knowledgeable about all the wildlife and ecology at Big Lake State Park, as well as other parks around Missouri.  She also has a Master’s in Biology.

This is our 2^nd time in 2018 that we enjoyed Big Lake State Park, and they held another amazing program to teach kids (and adults) about the Ecology of the Lake.  Amanda was amazing, and she is great with kids!  You can tell she really enjoys teaching children about the lake and all the amazing creatures that inhabit it!

On Friday Night, Amanda and other staff members from the Missouri State Park system held a learning event about what you can use as bait for fishing at Big Lake.  There were live examples of crawfish, bullfrogs, minnows  and even a station to learn to cast a fishing pole.  This was to help all the kids for the next morning’s fishing and wading activity.

On Saturday morning, everyone met at Scout Island to learn to fish and even put on waders and use a net to catch fish or even bait.  Scout Island is located inside of Big Lake State Park, and it is a great shaded area of the Park where anyone can fish or even picnic.

Once we arrived, several members of the Missouri State Park’s system, and even 2 members of the Missouri DNR were there, helping get kids fishing poles ready to put into the water.  Each child was able to use a fishing pole, and try their luck at fishing in the lake.  All the bait we learned about from the night before was also available for all the kids to use if they wished.  Most choose worms, instead of the larger crawfish and even a bullfrog.

My daughter loved holding the fish and even the bullfrogs, she didn’t even flinch once when the bullfrog jumped out of her hands and started jumping on the ground.  She just grabbed it and put it back in the bucket!  This was a very fun experience, as well as an amazing learning experience.  Seeing all the creatures that are in the lake and what they can be used for and that they are part of the food chain of the ecosystem.

If the kids didn’t want to use fishing poles, they were also able to use nets to see if they could catch fish.

There was even a bubble station that kids could try and blow BIG bubbles or bubbles out of a water bottle!  This was to keep them busy in between stations.

Once the children were done fishing, they were able to put on waders and join Amanda in the lake to use a net to catch fish or even bait for more fishing.  Again, I completely love the Missouri State Park system for having all the wonderful items available for each child to utilize to learn about fishing!  They had several pairs of waders available in different sizes for kids to use to go out into the water.

The kids really enjoyed getting in the water with the waders on.  They were able to catch a fresh water shrimp, several minnows and even a gar fish was caught in the net!  Amanda did an amazing job at showing every child what to look for in the net and then to use a bucket to capture all their finds.

Please enjoy the video from my daughter’s YouTube Channel – Exploring with Olivia on the fun adventure she had fishing and wading at Big Lake State Park!

Summary

This was an amazing experience not only for my daughter, but for her friends and others that were there.  Some of the kids had never held a fishing pole, and like my daughter and her friend, they had never had the opportunity to put waders on and get into the lake to get fish.  This was a fun time, and so thankful that we were able to experience this learning event.