They learned to leave no stone unturned - when looking for tasty trout tidbits - and they learned to tie what they find swimming and crawling and fluttering around the stream. They learned a knot or two and they learned to cast. And they discovered that all that learning can have big rewards.

They were the 15 kids ages 11 to 15 who were selected by lottery to inaugurate the Youth Fly Fishing Clinic sponsored by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and staffed by the Clear Fork Chapter.

By the end of a sultry day in June, each had caught five-fish limits at the DNR's Castalia trout hatchery and learned a little about fly fishing and Trout UnlimitedŐs mission of coldwater conservation and entomology.

None of this would have been possible if not for some lunch chatter among Clear Fork members Ron Thompson, Vernon Bewley and Jamie Darr during an adult fly fishing clinic last summer.

With the chapter's support and the help of DNR's Linda Keesecker, the youth clinic was ... hatched.

The clinic was such a success that we will team with DNR again for a repeat performance in 2006.

We owe a special thanks to these business sponsors, who supplied everything from fly tackle to lunch:

Buehler's supermarkets in Wooster and northeast Ohio, Mad River Outfitters in Columbus, Jann's Netcraft in Maumee, Cabela's and L.L. Bean.