A desperate choice faces most schoolboys in the days when spring is turning to summer: to be good and go to school or to play hooky and go fishing. The youngsters at Carmichael Junior High in Richland, Wash, had no such problem—they didn't even have a fishing hole to play hooky at. While there were plenty of fish in the swiftly running Columbia and Yakima rivers that border Richland, both these dangerous streams were strictly off limits to the kids. Dismayed at the thought that their children might grow up never knowing the joys of angling, members of the local Rod and Gun Club, whose president, Glenn Gunn, is shown above with his son David, decided to provide the town's kids with their own fishing hole. With the help of local industry, they scooped out a five-acre lake near Carmichael High, persuaded the state to stock it each spring with game fish and forbade all adults to fish there.
Now the youngsters at Carmichael can pick up trout, bass, bluegill and perch during their school lunch hour. And while a coed or two is sometimes surprised to hear a fish flapping in the locker next to hers, many a Richland housewife happily finds dinner lurking among the books and papers in Junior's schoolbag when he gets home.
PHOTO
