Featured Lesson

Lesson 6:3 - Planning a Fishing Trip

by Nadine Meyer, Aquatic Education Specialist

August 2009

Fishing on a pier
Chapter 6 of the Fishing: Get in the Habitat! Leader’s Guide contains five of the 39 lessons, all of which pertain to safety and fishing. Fishing can be as simple or as complex as the angler chooses to make it, yet even the angler with the cane pole, hook and bobber must have some basic understanding of how to fish safely and find areas for fishing that fit an individual’s or group’s needs. Lesson 6:3 – Planning a Fishing Trip is designed to guide students through the process of choosing a safe place to fish using resources found online.

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Lesson Summary

There are many things to consider in planning a safe, successful fishing trip. Students will gather information from a variety of sources, including the Minnesota DNR website, plan a fishing trip and make a poster illustrating how they planned for a safe, successful trip.

Tips & Tricks

  • Be sure to schedule enough computer time in your computer lab to allow students to fully explore the online resources integrated into this lesson. 
  • You may want to schedule time with your Media Specialist to go through the online resources, like LakeFinder, and make sure all elements are supported by your school's computer systems.
  • Give yourself enough time to order maps and other visuals from the DNR Information Center and have them delivered to your school before you start this activity. You can order classroom sets of all maps and other visuals for free. 
  • If you have a local site for fishing already established, you can append this lesson to researching the existing site and utilize digital cameras and GPS units to create a detailed description of your fishing site. 

Diving Deeper

Students can add other topics to their research such as invasive species, special regulations, historical fishing and commercial fishing. A follow-up project could include developing a website or brochure dedicated to the fishing areas the students researched that includes all of the information they gathered and images of the fishing area, fish species found in the fishing area, and more.

MinnAqua Lesson Connections

Safety should always be integrated into all fishing activities. Lesson 6:1 - Safety and Fishing at the Water's Edge has a great safety checkoff list and activities. Also, Lesson 6:1 can provide guidance when creating the posters for Lesson 6:3.

Lesson 6:1 - Safety and Fishing at the Water's Edge (37 pages | 3.5 MB)

Suggested Online Student Resources

These resources can help you plan for a successful fishing trip with your students:

  • Fishing Safety Rules For Kids That Every Parent Should Know This blog entry from takemefishing.org reminds us of the kind of planning and preparation that ensures for safe and fun fishing trips with kids. 
  • Fishing in the Neighborhood The Minnesota DNR's Fishing in the Neighborhood (Fin) program has great tips and tricks on their website. The program is focused on fishing in the Metro area and holds events in the Metro. 
  • LakeFinder LakeFinder contains data from more than 4,500 lakes and rivers throughout Minnesota, including lake surveys, lake depth maps, lake water quality data, lake water clarity data, lake notes, and fish consumption guidance. 
  • Fishing piers and shorefishing sites Use the tools on this webpage to locate fishing sites nearby.

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