Kids try fishing for anti-drug program

VIRGINIA BEACH

Teyah Thigpen screamed.

The little fish in front of her was slimy.

"Yuck!"

The croaker also had sharp fins.

"No way I'm touching it, " she said.

And it was making a weird sound.

"What's it doing?"

"It's croaking," said Chris Santarelli, a mate on the Rudee Mariner who was holding the fish during the Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs program on Tuesday. "That's how it got its name.

"OK, now you have to give the fish a kiss goodbye before we throw it back in."

After giving Santarelli a "look," Teyah took her index finger and put it to her own lips, then put it to the fish's before the mate lightly tossed the croaker back into the Chesapeake Bay.

Teyah, a 12-year-old rising seventh-grader at Oscar Smith Middle School, had gone fishing once before, but the croaker was her first fish.

It also was the first fish of the day on the Rudee Inlet-based headboat.

"I knew I had something," Teyah said with confidence. "I could feel the rod vibrating. And I'm lucky. I want to catch some more. My mom wants to have some to eat."

Teyah caught two more fish during the outing, but they were about the same size as the 8-inch-long one that started her day. They all made it back into the water after being admired and examined by many of the young anglers.

Teyah was 1 of 150 youngsters taking part in the annual day of lessons and fishing.

After a morning that included instruction on things such as species identification, knot-tying, how to use a rod-and-reel, conservation and safety, the group broke into three smaller ones to board three headboats based out of the Virginia Beach Fishing Center.

Captains took the vessels around Cape Henry to the first island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Fishing was fantastic on the Mariner as a warm breeze blew in from the west, but catching wasn't so great - nothing but a couple dozen croaker and all smaller than 9 inches.

"He made me kiss that fish... I can't believe I kissed that fish," Charles Jefferson shouted to his buddies after catching his first croaker.

Charles, a 12-year-old rising sixth-grader at Oscar Smith, was being tutored by Mark Wawner, who was insisting that every fish got a kiss goodbye.

"Charles, was that a girl fish or a boy fish?" he asked, smiling at Charles and winking at one of his friends.

Charles didn't know what to think at first, then came to a horrible conclusion.

"Oh man, I just kissed a boy fish," he said with a laugh, waving his hand over his lips. "He made me kiss a boy fish."

Wawner and the other volunteers were hoping to forge a few good memories for the children, most of whom had never fished or been on a boat.

"I love to see kids catch fish," Wawner said. "I remember my first fish... a spot in the Chesapeake Bay while fishing with my dad. Hopefully, these guys will learn something and want to repeat it. I'm trying to make it fun so they'll remember that fishing is fun."

That's what the Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs program is all about.

The program has been around since 1990, when Virginia Beach fishing icon Jim Wright started a casting competition in the fields behind what then was Virginia Beach General Hospital.

Several years later, Leslie Creech of the Virginia Beach Billfish Foundation expanded the effort and started rewarding essay writers with headboat fishing trips. Winners from those outings earned more glamorous offshore trips.

Students from the third through fifth grades earned the right to participate by writing essays on "Why drugs are not for me."

The billfish foundation came on board in 1999, when Virginia Beach's sheriff and police departments helped through their DARE program. The Virginia Beach Bluewater Fishing Club now helps.

On Tuesday, kids were treated to a day-ending cookout and awards ceremony, then given rod-and-reel outfits and tackle boxes.

As the crew on the Mariner raced the two other headboats south down the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, a group of kids on the bow chanted loudly as the other boats gradually took the lead.

"Go, go, go, go," they barked, pumping their fists in the air at Capt. Fred Feller.

A group of dolphins raced toward the boat's bow and split on both sides just in the knick of time.

"Look at that," Erica Grier of Norfolk said. "Was that a shark?"

Santarelli explained that there were lots of wonderful things to see out on the ocean.

"I love this," he said. "It's so much fun with these kids. When I come out here and see people having fun, it makes me happy. Especially when it's kids."