JimKennedy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2016
- Messages
- 474
It's an event that coincides exactly with the Pa Fly Fish Jamboree, but if you're not attending that event (which honestly sounds like a lot of fun) and you have a kid in your life who has only a passing interest in fishing, you could do worse than the BOJC Campfire weekend, May 15-17, 2026 at Camp Airy in Thurmont, Maryland. For the past 86 years, the organization, founded by Joe Brooks and his friends Frank Bentz Sr., and J. Hammond Brown, has been teaching kids about conservation through the sport of fly fishing.
The weekend program includes open fishing time on Friday afternoon and throughout the day on Sunday, as well as intensive classroom instruction on Friday evening and carefully monitored streamside instruction on private waters throughout the day on Saturday. The cost of the weekend covers bunkhouse accommodations for a man and boy, as well as dinner on Friday, breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.
Also covered are all private water fishing opportunities, instruction and tackle. We have a fly rod library and keep wading boots in stock in sufficient quantity and sizes to accommodate kids who don't have their own equipment. Each kid also gets a supply of flies, which can be replenished if necessary.
Classes are geared toward age and instruction. For kids 5, 6 and 7 there is an Emergers program where the goal is to catch fish using bait. Basic fly casting begins at 8, the age when kids generally have the fine motor skills to tie their own knots, and progresses to Fishing with the Masters, where kids in their late teens are guided one-on-one with a well seasoned angler.
We always make certain there are plenty of fish for the kids to catch. Adults are strictly there to provide instruction or otherwise assist with the operation of the camp.
Brooks, Bentz and Brown founded the organization for selfish reasons: they wanted to make sure they could continue fishing after their mortal bodies expired and figured the best way to do it was to ensure future generations of anglers would take up the sport. In this tradition, we have many members who have been coming since they were kids who are now well into retirement and who eagerly sponsor grand- and great-grandchildren to ensure they are able to attend the annual gathering.
When I was a boy, my dad and I were well aware of the event, but never attended because, as my dad put it, what's the point of going to a camp to learn to fly fish when you already know how. He was right -- and wrong. I'm a good angler, but since I started bringing my son to camp more than 20 years ago, I have learned new things about fishing every time I've attended camp. And I've been able to pass along my skills to fellow anglers of all ages.
My son? Before BOJC, he was highly skeptical of fly fishing, on the grounds that his dad was incapable of having fun. He's now a capable fly angler who sometimes asks me for a tip. But to be clear, it was the other guys at BOJC who taught him to cast, catch, and release. If it hadn't been for BOJC, a multigenerational tradition of fly fishing in my family probably would have ended with me. As it stands, my son, now a grown man, is always eager to share the BOJC experience with people in his social circles.
You can learn more about the organization at this link: https://tbotjc.wildapricot.org/
If you have an interest in attending, please send me a PM. Take note: the Maryland Chapter gathers at a boys camp that has no facilities for women and girls, but our chapters in New York (right in the Catskills at Roscoe), Michigan and Ohio have facilities for men and women, boys and girls. I can facilitate an introduction if you have an interest in participating in one of the other chapters' Campfire Weekends. I'll also point out that the Michigan Chapter has steelhead trip each spring for adults that is a primary fundraiser for the main youth event.
It's not for everyone, but no one I know who has attended was ever disappointed, even when the creeks were flooded.
The weekend program includes open fishing time on Friday afternoon and throughout the day on Sunday, as well as intensive classroom instruction on Friday evening and carefully monitored streamside instruction on private waters throughout the day on Saturday. The cost of the weekend covers bunkhouse accommodations for a man and boy, as well as dinner on Friday, breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.
Also covered are all private water fishing opportunities, instruction and tackle. We have a fly rod library and keep wading boots in stock in sufficient quantity and sizes to accommodate kids who don't have their own equipment. Each kid also gets a supply of flies, which can be replenished if necessary.
Classes are geared toward age and instruction. For kids 5, 6 and 7 there is an Emergers program where the goal is to catch fish using bait. Basic fly casting begins at 8, the age when kids generally have the fine motor skills to tie their own knots, and progresses to Fishing with the Masters, where kids in their late teens are guided one-on-one with a well seasoned angler.
We always make certain there are plenty of fish for the kids to catch. Adults are strictly there to provide instruction or otherwise assist with the operation of the camp.
Brooks, Bentz and Brown founded the organization for selfish reasons: they wanted to make sure they could continue fishing after their mortal bodies expired and figured the best way to do it was to ensure future generations of anglers would take up the sport. In this tradition, we have many members who have been coming since they were kids who are now well into retirement and who eagerly sponsor grand- and great-grandchildren to ensure they are able to attend the annual gathering.
When I was a boy, my dad and I were well aware of the event, but never attended because, as my dad put it, what's the point of going to a camp to learn to fly fish when you already know how. He was right -- and wrong. I'm a good angler, but since I started bringing my son to camp more than 20 years ago, I have learned new things about fishing every time I've attended camp. And I've been able to pass along my skills to fellow anglers of all ages.
My son? Before BOJC, he was highly skeptical of fly fishing, on the grounds that his dad was incapable of having fun. He's now a capable fly angler who sometimes asks me for a tip. But to be clear, it was the other guys at BOJC who taught him to cast, catch, and release. If it hadn't been for BOJC, a multigenerational tradition of fly fishing in my family probably would have ended with me. As it stands, my son, now a grown man, is always eager to share the BOJC experience with people in his social circles.
You can learn more about the organization at this link: https://tbotjc.wildapricot.org/
If you have an interest in attending, please send me a PM. Take note: the Maryland Chapter gathers at a boys camp that has no facilities for women and girls, but our chapters in New York (right in the Catskills at Roscoe), Michigan and Ohio have facilities for men and women, boys and girls. I can facilitate an introduction if you have an interest in participating in one of the other chapters' Campfire Weekends. I'll also point out that the Michigan Chapter has steelhead trip each spring for adults that is a primary fundraiser for the main youth event.
It's not for everyone, but no one I know who has attended was ever disappointed, even when the creeks were flooded.
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