When it comes to mastering any new skill the key to success is practice, practice and more practice. No one knows this better than the organizers of the Youth Education Challenge. A daylong event that’s been held at the Edward Kehoe Conservation Camp each spring since 2011.

For several years now, the second Saturday in June has been Free Fishing Day in Vermont, where anyone can try out the sport of angling without a license. At the Ed Weed Fish Hatchery the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has hosted the Grand Isle Fishing Festival to educate, inspire and hopefully hook both children and adults to the joys of angling.

Close to four dozen baby spiny softshell turtles were collected last autumn by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department Biologist Steve Parren. They over-wintered at ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain under the care of ECHO’s Animal Care staff. In late June a group of volunteers and staff released the turtles back into Lake Champlain. This marks the seventh year of this important animal preservation program. 

New England is home to hundreds if not thousands of summer camps every year. But if you’re looking for a camp that specializes in fly-fishing they are few and far between. In 2011 the Mad Dog chapter of Trout Unlimited launched its first fly-fishing camp for teens. Since then they’ve been spawning a new school of enthusiastic fly fishermen and women every summer.