Taking the classroom outside

Drew Garey points out a largemouth bass sitting in a hole near the bank of the James River, and Nick Boston springs into action.

"Ooh, I see him," says Nick, 12, scrambling onto a rock to get a better look.

"He's being picky," Garey explains. "He followed my grub, but he didn't take it."

Nick flips his own white curly-tail grub at the bass but is ignored. After a few casts, he moves on. That's fishing.

So is this: Thirty yards upriver, a fish jumps clear out of the water and drops with a splash, drawing the attention of Isaac Bell, Adam Kurz and Kyle Lewter, all about the same age as Boston.

"Did you guys see that?" says Adam, leading the three through deeper water to the spot where he saw the fish.

Downriver another group targets a smallmouth hanging around a partly submerged sycamore branch.

Eleven kids grades six through nine are out here in these side channels of the James as part of VCU's "Summer Discovery" series of classes. Taught by local fishing guide Mike Ostrander and Garey, a VCU researcher and aquatic biologist, this is Day 2 of the intermediate-level "Go Fish" class. Earlier in the summer, Garey and Ostrander taught two weeks of the intro edition for younger kids.

To say it's a hit with the boys out here fishing for bass and sunfish is an understatement.

"This is my favorite week of the summer," says Aaron Kurz, 13.

Without thinking, I ask why.

"Fishing every day," he responds, incredulous.

I mean, duh!

This from a kid who later this summer will travel to Cooperstown, N.Y., with his baseball team to play in a tournament in the shadow of the Baseball Hall of Fame. But Aaron sounds disappointed when he tells me that while he's playing baseball, the rest of his family will be fishing on nearby Otsego Lake.

It's hard to disagree with Aaron's take on the week. Yesterday, they fished a farm pond near Ashland for largemouth bass. Today, a Tuesday, they'll spend their time wading along the south bank of the James near the James River Park System headquarters. Tomorrow, they'll seek out flathead catfish near Pony Pasture Rapids. On Thursday, it's off to the upper James for a float trip starting at Maidens Landing. Then Friday, they'll wade the South Anna River for a variety of species.

I think that would be my favorite week of the summer too.

"It makes you feel like a kid again," Ostrander said of being out there with 11 boys who can't get enough fishing. "This is what my summers were like growing up on the Shenandoah [River]."

Garey, 33, is a Richmond native and has fished this area all his life. Now, he scatters in science lessons for the kids to help them understand why fish act the way they do.

He turns over a rock to show Nick Boston what's growing on it.

"This rock is loaded with mayflies," he says.

Nick has lost interest in that finicky largemouth bass, so Zack Perkins and I move in. Before the previous day's outing, Zack, 13, had never fished a day in his life. Now here he is in polarized sunglasses, stalking a bass in a waist deep pool in the James River, telling me about his approach.

He keeps flipping his white curly-tail grub near the bass, but it won't take the bait. I give it a try myself and get the same result. Nada.

Then, simultaneously, Zack and I hook some debris in the honey hole and have to wade in to get unsnagged. The hole is busted, the bass gone.

Zack moves on to another part of the river, and I start talking to Ostrander about this class. He invites me to come on the trip to the South Anna on Friday.

"Come be a kid again," he says.

It's an enticing offer. Twenty yards Downstream, Zack holds up a green sunfish, his first catch. It's not huge, but he's grinning ear to ear.

Contact Andy Thompson at (804) 649-6579