There’s a moment when the eyes of a child sparkle and widen as a fishing line, tugged taut, begins to sing while rushing from the reel.
It’s why Conway Bowman agreed to become the regional director of Cast Hope, a non-profit program that matches marginalized, underserved kids and mentors with fishing guides.
At first glance, it’s a way to pry boys and girls away from cell phones and video games while opening a completely different world than ones too often dishing up stress and struggles. Many of the kids come from single-parent families, if a parent is in their lives at all, and are challenged in some way — emotionally, financially or otherwise.
The program is far more, however.
“Fishing is the key that opens the door to more opportunities for these kids,” said Bowman, 55, a fishing guide from Encinitas. “Most of these kids have never been farther than a five-block radius of their neighborhood. You’re exposing them to something positive, they’re achieving goals, they’re experiencing the outdoors.
“When they start catching fish, you see the confidence build. You’re connecting that final dot.”
That’s what makes Aug. 5 so important. Fundraising for the program, which currently serves 30 kids in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, has been battered in its three years of existence because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bowman, the reservoir keeper at Lake Hodges, said hopes are to expand to school districts in Fallbrook and, in a perfect world, San Diego.
The group is holding a Hawaiian Casino Night at The Dana on Mission Bay. The colorful shirts, Vegas-styled games, music, food and drinks are the trimmings for the critical main course, keeping the connection to kids going.
The program, free for those involved, relies on ability to pay guides ensure the life lessons continue to flow.
“A lot of these kids need brightness in their lives, to some degree,” Bowman said. “When they catch that first fish, they turn to you with the biggest smile on their face. You know at that moment, you changed their life for the better in some way
“That motivates kid and mentor to come back again and again and again to find that special moment.”
Bowman told the story of a girl, maybe 10, facing challenges daily. She came to a program clinic teaching basic casting.
Soon, she was on a boat.
“She had a spinning rod on the bow of the boat with her mom,” Bowman said of a guided trip to Mission Bay. “First cast, she gets hit and misses the fish. She reels in and throws it right back out in the same spot and catches a 22-inch halibut. That day, she ended up being the hottest stick on the boat, a girl who picked up a rod one time in her life.
“On the way in, she’s like, ‘You know what Mr. Bowman? I’d like to be a fishing guide someday.’ ” She said, ‘Are girls fishing guides?’ I said, ‘Yeah, they sure are.’ She’s been in the program ever since.”
A boy enrolled in the founding program in Chico, launched by San Diegan Ryan Johnston, became a fishing guide on the Sacramento River. Another is working a fisheries biology degree in college.
Success stories are beginning to pop up like dandelions.
“Rather than filling up a half-day boat with a bunch of kids for one-time deal, the kid and the mentor can grow with the guide they’re working with,” Bowman said. “When the day’s over, the kid can’t go out and fish.
“We’re teaching them how to tie a knot, how to make a cast with a fly rod. You’re building those skills.”
It’s a common-sense approach for something more lasting, teaching kids to accomplish goals while jack-hammering excuses for why bigger things in life aren’t possible.
Seeds are planted. Cast Hope offers the water.
“What I found with a lot of these kids, they’ve never set a goal in their life,” Bowman said. “They’re definitely lost. Many kids have two pillars in their life, their mom and their dad who keep them moving along. If they get off the rails a bit, they can they bounce off either parent.
“The program gives the kid and mentor a bigger, long-term connection.”
They take kids to wetlands, to show them the starting point for drinking water than enters reservoirs, travels through filtration plants and reaches taps. They visit tide pools. They walk lakes and beaches on trash-pickup days.
The bigger picture fuels bigger goals.
“They’re giving back, rather than just getting free stuff,” Bowman said.
The light-bulb moment still thrills.
“A lot of these kids have no direction,” he said. “A fly rod can do amazing things.”
You can find a Hawaiian shirt in the closet, right?
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Supporting Cast Hope
The non-profit program Cast Hope, which connects underserved kids and mentors with fishing guides, is holding a Hawaiian Casino Night to raise money. Casino games, food, two drink tickets and a band are included.
To register for the event, click on the “Events” tab at … CastHope.org.
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