By Brooke Curley
brooke@gilavalleycentral.net
ROPER LAKE STATE PARK- Free family fun available at the local Roper Lake State Park this Saturday March 10, with free fishing poles to borrow and free lessons and bait available. The state park entrance fee is still $10 a vehicle.
One major draw to the event is that from 7 a.m. – 11 am. families may borrow poles, and take lessons for free during the Family Fishing event hosted by Arizona Game and Fish. Free bait will be provided. Last year, many families had nothing but positive remarks for the experience.
Brooke Curley Photo/Gila Valley Central: Marci Alderman, left, instructs individuals attending the 2017 Family Fishing event at Roper Lake State Park on the basics of fishing.
According to Park Manager Michelle Reddy, the final total of participants in the event last year were 172, and the park rangers called the day a triumph.
Marci Alderman, is the Arizona Game and Fish’s sporting and fishing education coordinator from Phoenix. Last year Alderman told Gila Valley Central in a previous interview that last year’s event was well-received.
“This is the first time that we’ve done a family fishing event at Roper Lake State Park in several years,” Alderman said. “It’s the first time I’ve done it. The idea is to get families outdoors (and) we also want to get kids engaged with the outdoors, get them interested in fishing and obviously we know that with kids, parents have to be involved too, so we want the whole family unit to be involved, and so we are providing these types of clinics because we do have a lot of families that are new to fishing or who have never fished before. This gives them the opportunity to get some instruction and to learn how to fish and hopefully want to do it again on their own.”
Brooke Curley Photo/ Gila Valley Central: This rainbow trout was one of the fish caught at the 2017 fishing event.
Entire families are invited, and participants may bring their own poles if they wish. For more information, contact Kelly Wright at Roper Lake State Park at (928) 4286760 or the Sport Fishing Education Program at (623) 236-7240.
