SC Reel Kids
Sport Fish Restoration

Reel Kids Fishin’ For Knowledge


Aquatic Macroinvertebrates

Invertebrates are animals that lack a backbone.  This group includes animals such as spiders, lady bugs, grasshoppers, starfish, snails, crabs, crayfish, and octopus. 

The beginning of the word, macroinvertebrate, or prefix "macro" means large.  So, the word macroinvertebrates means large insects.  Traditionally, the term macroinvertebrates is used when referring to aquatic invertebrates.  These animals inhabit all types of aquatic ecosystems or communities such as rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands, and the ocean.  Macroinvertebrates are used to determine the health of a stream.  If there are large amounts of macroinvertebrates and a lot of diversity or different kinds of species, then that aquatic ecosystem is healthy. 

Visit eNature.com for more information on invertebrates and other animals. 


Conservation Organizations

Here are just a few examples of some Conservation Organizations.  Explore, become involved, and find a chapter near you! 


Fishing for a Book to Read


How to Identify Your Catch


Ingredients for a Great Day of FishingHook Sizes ranging from 1 to 10/0

Hooks. Hooks come in all shapes and sizes.  When picking out the hook to use, you should picture the fish you’d like to catch.  You need to choose a hook slightly smaller than this fish’s mouth.  Hook sizes come in size 1/0 (big) to 12 (very small). 

 

 

Monofilament or Fishing Line.  The pound test also depends on the fish you’d like to catch.  Generally 4-pound test will work well for sunfish, perch, crappies, trout, and bullheads.  For walleyes and Smallmouth Bass you should use 6-pound test.  For catfish, Largemouth Bass, and other large species of fish you should use around 10 to 12-pound test.Split Shot 

Split-Shot. Reusable slit shots that are lead free are the best type of weight or sinker to use when fishing with a bobber of when fishing with live bait on the bottom. Fishing Bobber

Bobber. Any type of bobber or cork will do to allow you to watch when you have a bite on your line.  Bobbers are generally used when you are using live bait and when you’re fishing for crappies or sunfish, which are called pan fish. 

Bait. You have the option to choose from a variety of live or artificial baits.  Choosing baits also depends on the fish species you’d like to catch.  You should research what your target catch eats and then choose live bait based on that.  There are all sorts of live baits to choose from such as red worms, night crawlers, mealworms, leeches, crickets and minnows. 

When choosing what artificial lure to use, you should look at the size of the lure based upon the size of the mouth of your target catch—just like we chose hooks.  Another aspect to take into account when using artificial lures is researching where the target catch is hanging out.  Are there lots of bugs on the surface of the water?  If so, use an artificial lure that runs just below the surface.  If the surface of the water is not jumping with life, you should probably use an artificial lure for deeper water.  However, the only real answer to what bait to use is practice and trial and error.  


Label a Fish

Fish Label 


Learn About an Aquatic Food Web

A food web is made of at least 3 main pieces:  a producer, consumer, and
decomposers.  Producers take energy from the sun and create their own food, like green plants.  Consumers can’t get energy from the sun and make their own food, so they must eat other things like plants and other animals to receive that energy to live.  Decomposers are the recyclers in the food web.  They take anything that is dead or decaying and make it into a form where it is usable again by one of the pieces in the food web.

Aquatic Food Web

The algae uses the sun’s energy to make it’s own food.  The clam, in turn, eats the algae to get or obtain the energy it needs.  The Redear Sunfish eats the clam, the largemouth bass eats the redear sunfish, and the human fishing catches and eats the largemouth bass.  It is very important to maintain the right balance between all parts of a food web.  If one step is removed, especially a keystone species, a lot of animals die because they lose their sources of energy or food. 


Managed State Lakes

What are the State Lakes and where are they?

The State Lakes program is designed to provide quality public fishing where the opportunity is lacking or where few well-managed fishing lakes exist. 

South Carolina State Lakes (Adobe PDF 13Kb)


The Water Cycle

There is water in the ocean, streams, lakes, rivers, creeks, ground, plants, animals, and clouds.   The water cycle is the process by which the water moves or is recycled in our environment. 

Evaporation is the process by which water in a liquid form changes or is transformed into a gas or vapor.  When we sweat, our skin becomes very wet, but it soon goes away because with the sun’s help the sweat evaporates off our skin.  Sometimes you can actually see evaporation as it happens.  If you've ever been driving past a water body in the wintertime or you live near one, you have seen the steam that rises from the top of the water—that’s evaporation. 

Try this experiment with help from your parents:  Boil 8 oz of water and add 2 tablespoons of salt.  Once the salt is dissolved in the hot water.  Let the water cool and place it in a glass and set it in a sunny window.  Check the glass over the next couple of hours or wait until the next day.  What happens?   After all the water has evaporated, you should have nothing but salt left in your glass!

Evapotranspiration is the process by which water evaporates from plants.  Try this experiment:  Go place your mouth really close to a mirror or window and take in or inhale one breath.  You just took in oxygen into your lungs.  Now let out the air or exhale.  What happened?  The window or mirror fogged up and is a little wet.  When you exhaled or let out a breath, you let out carbon dioxide and water into the environment,.  Similar to how you and I breathe, plants do something called transpire.  Plants take in or inhale the carbon dioxide our bodies put out or produce and use it to transpire.  Once plants are finished using carbon dioxide to make their own food, they let out oxygen and water.   

Condensation is the process which water in a gas or vapor then changes form back into a liquid.  This is how clouds are made.  Try this experiment:  Take a glass and fill it with water and ice cubes.  Then, place this glass on a napkin or paper towel on your kitchen counter.  Let the glass sit for a couple hours.  What happens?  When you come back to check on your glass, you will see water on the outside of your glass and the paper towel or napkin will feel wet.  What just happened was condensation! 

Precipitation is when water is released or let go from clouds.  This can happen in different forms such as rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail.  Hail are balls of ice of all different sizes some as tiny as apple seeds and some as large as golf balls or softballs.  Wouldn't those hurt falling from the sky? 

To learn more about the water cycle, visit http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html or http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/diagrams/
watercycle/index.html


Back to top