Great Scott!

Every year, the Park District and the Game Warden Office worked together in stocking a small pond in the largest park either with trout or catfish. The game wardens would invite one large group of children from downtown Sacramento and teach them how to fish. Another time during the year, a group of children with disabilities would come to the pond and the staff from fisheries and wildlife would show them how to fish. The goal is for each child to have the thrill of learning how to catch their own fish. It’s a pretty big deal.

It had been frustrating to make sure the kids had the chance to catch their own fish. Whenever the truck from the fishery came to dump fish into the pond, people from the area would come with fish nets and catch the fish as they spilled out of the truck. Others would set up several fishing poles to catch the bait-hungry fish. At night, more fishermen would come after the park was closed and fish until most of the fish were gone. By the following day, the children would come to the pond to learn how to fish, but most of the fish would be gone.

I asked Scott for his help in solving the problem. I knew that he was a tournament fisherman and it was important to him to make sure the children have a fantastic fishing experience. It wasn't long before he developed a sound strategy that involved the staff, Fisheries and Wildlife and the park security service. Prior to the next fishing event, he had his staff put signage in the pond stating that no fishing was allowed. With the pond being posted, this helped the game warden do his job. At random times during the day, a game warden would walk the pond perimeter and ask the fishermen if they could read the signs in the pond and to show him their fishing license. In most cases, the fishermen would pull in their lines. Also, Scott assigned staff to work around the pond area to discourage fishing. To deal with after-hours fishing, he worked with the security guard service to regularly patrol the pond at night. Because of his efforts in organizing a response to the problem, the children had a more positive experience in catching fish at the pond.