Merit Badge Requirements1.Explain to your counselor the injuries that could occur while fishing and the proper treatment, including cuts, scratches, puncture wounds, insect bites, hypothermia, dehydration, and heat reactions. Explain how to remove a hook that has lodged in your arm. Name and explain five safety practices you should always follow while fishing. 2.Learn and explain the differences between two types of fishing outfits. Point out and identify the parts of several types of rods and reels. Explain how and when each would be used. Review with your counselor how to care for this equipment. 3.Demonstrate the proper use of two different types of fishing equipment. 4.Demonstrate how to tie the following knots: clinch, palomar, turle, blood loop (barrel knot), and surgeon's loop. Explain how each knot is used and when to use it. 5.Name and identify five basic artificial lures and five natural baits and explain how to fish with them. Explain why bait fish are not to be released. 6.Explain the importance of practicing Leave No Trace and how it positively affects fishing resources. 7.Give the regulations affecting game fishing where you live. Explain why they were adopted and what you accomplish by following those regulations. 8.Explain what good outdoor sportsmanlike behavior is and how it relates to fishermen. Tell how the Outdoor Code of the Boy Scouts of America relates to a fishing sports enthusiast, including the aspects of littering, trespassing, courteous behavior, and obeying fishing regulations. 9.Catch two different kinds of fish and identify them. Release at least one of them unharmed. Clean and cook another fish.

• Hypothermia: Over-exposure to colder temperatures over time that result in a drop in body core temperature. Treatment: Removing them from the elements that caused the condition. Seek a dry, warm place away from the wind.

– Initial mental status changes in response to cold may be subtle and include hunger and nausea.– This will progress to apathy, confusion, slurred speech, and loss of coordination.– Many times a person will just lie down, fall asleep, and die.

• Frostbite: Occurs when tissues freeze. This condition happens when you are exposed to temperatures below the freezing point of skin. Treatment: Keep the affected part elevated in order to reduce swelling, move to a warm area to prevent further heat loss, remove all constrictive jewelry and clothes because they may further block blood flow, give the person warm non-caffeinated fluids to drink, apply a dry, sterile bandage, place cotton between any involved fingers or toes (to prevent rubbing), and take the person to a medical facility as soon as possible

– In superficial frostbite, you may experience burning, numbness, tingling, itching, or cold sensations in the affected areas. The regions appear white and frozen.

– In deep frostbite, there is an initial decrease in sensation that is eventually completely lost. Swelling and blood-filled blisters are noted over white or yellowish skin that looks waxy

• Dehydration: Occurs when the loss of body fluids, mostly water, exceeds the amount that is taken in. Treatment: Sip small amounts of water or carbohydrate/electrolyte-containing drinks. Treat for heat Increased thirst with dry mouth and swollen tongue

– Weakness and/or dizziness – Confusion and/or sluggishness, even fainting – Inability to sweat – Decreased urine output. If urine is concentrated and deeply yellow or amber, you may be dehydrated.

First Aid

• Heatstroke: This medical condition is life-threatening. The person's cooling system, which is controlled by the brain, stops working and the internal body temperature rises to the point where organ damage. Treatment: Ice packs/sheets, IV fluids, and medical evacuation

– Unconscious or has a markedly abnormal mental status (dizziness, confusion, hallucinations, or coma) – Flushed, hot, and dry skin (although it may be moist initially from previous sweating or from attempts to cool the

person with water) – May have slightly elevated blood pressure at first that falls later – May be hyperventilating – Rectal (core) temperature of 105°F or more

• Heat exhaustion: This condition often occurs when people exercise (work or play) in a hot, humid place and body fluids are lost through sweating, causing the body to overheat. Treatment: oral fluids & cool shading

– Often pale with cool, moist skin – Sweating profusely – Muscle cramps or pains – Feels faint or dizzy – May complain of headache, weakness, thirst, and nausea – Core (rectal) temperature elevated—usually more than 100°F—and the pulse rate increased

• Sunburn: Excessive or prolonged exposure to the ultraviolet (UV) radiation of the sun. The time between 11 am and 2 pm contains the most powerful solar radiation exposure period. Treatment: Sun protection or appropriate coverings should be worn at all times, but especially during this time to decrease risk of sunburn.

– Sunburned skin is red and dry in exposed areas in a first-degree burn. Often, one may not realize that the skin is burned until ours later.

– If exposure to the sun continues, second-degree burns may occur and blisters with clear fluid may form.

First Aid

• Stings: A sting or bite injects venom composed of proteins and other substances that may trigger an allergic reaction in the victim. Treatment: If there is only redness and pain at the site of the bite, application of ice is adequate treatment. Clean the area with soap and water to remove contaminated particles left behind by some insects (such as mosquitoes). Refrain from scratching because this may cause the skin to break down and an infection to form.

– Most bites and stings result in pain, swelling, redness, and itching to the affected area. – Severe reaction include hives, wheezing, shortness of breath, unconsciousness, and even death

within 30 minutes.

• Tick bites: Second only to mosquitoes as vectors (carriers) of human disease. Treatment: Wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants cinched at the ankle or tucked into the boots or socks. If attached, using rounded tweezers, grasp the tick as close as possible to the skin surface, and then pull with slow steady pressure in a direction away from the skin.

– Redness, itching, and swelling– Lyme’s Disease: The hallmark target lesion, a red circular rash with a pale center, occurs at the site of

the bite within 2-20 days after the bite in 60-80% of cases. The rash may be accompanied by fatigue, headache, joint aches, and other flulike symptoms.

First Aid

First Aid

• Cuts: ALWAYS WEAR LATEX GLOVES WHEN APPLYING FIRST AID TO A BLEEDING VICTIM. Treatment: Clean the wound with an antibacterial and apply a bandage

– In almost all cases, applying "Direct Pressure" to the wound may stop bleeding. That is by pressing down upon the wound with your fingers or hand. If a sterile dressing is available, it may be placed on the cut before pressing down, but if the bleeding is serious, DO NOT WAIT for the sterile material. It is better to have a live victim with a few germs than a sterile wound on a dead patient.

• Scratches: Scratches are very common injuries that are usually caused by animals. Treatment: First, because scratches can easily become infected, you should clean the area thoroughly and remove any dirt and debris. Cover wound with gauze.

– Do not scrub vigorously, as this can cause more tissue damage.

• Puncture Wound: A puncture wound doesn't usually cause excessive bleeding. Often the wound seems to close almost instantly. But these features don't mean treatment isn't necessary. Treatment: Clean and cover the wound. Change the dressing regularly. Watch for infection.

• Hook Removal: Stuck in the arm while fishing. Treatment: Push the barb back through your skin, cut the barb, pull out the rest of the hook. Clean and dress.

5 Safety Practices of Fishing

T.R.E.A.D.

Travel responsibly on designated waterways and launch your watercraft in designated areas.Travel only in areas open to your type of watercraft.

Respect the rights of others including anglers, swimmers, skiers, boaters, divers and others to allow them to enjoy their recreational activities undisturbed. Educate yourself by learning rules and regulations, planning for your trip, taking recreation skills classes, and knowing how to use and to operate your equipment safely.

Avoid sensitive areas and operating your watercraft in shallow waters or near shorelines at high speeds.

Do your part by leaving the area better than you found it, properly disposing of fuel, oil and waste, avoiding the spread of invasive species, restoring degraded areas, and joining a local enthusiast organization.

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Fishing

Baits LuresThere are many types of fishing lures. They are all manufactured in different ways to resemble prey for the fish in most cases, but are sometimes engineered to appeal to a fishes sense of territory, curiosity or anger. Most lures are made to look like dying, injured, or fast moving fish. They include the following types:A jig is a weighted hook with a lead head opposite the sharp tip. They are often covered with a minnow of crawfish or even a plastic worm to get the fish's attention. The operator moves the rod to make the jig move.Surface lures are also known as top water lures. They float and resemble prey that is on top of the water. They can make a popping sound from a concave-cut head, a burbling sound from "side fins" or scoops or a buzzing commotion from one or several propellers. A few have only whatever motion the fisherman applies through the rod itself, though if skillfully used, they can be very effective.Spoon lures are made to resemble the inside of a table spoon. They flash in the light while wobbling or darting due to their shape, and attract fish.Plugs are also known as crank baits. These lures have a fishlike body shape and they are run through the water where they can make a variety of different movements caused by instability due to the scoop under the head.Artificial flies are designed to resemble all manner of fish prey and are used with a fly rod and reel in fly fishing.Soft plastic baits are made of plastic or rubber, and are designed to resemble worms, lizards, frogs, leeches and other creatures.Spinner bait are pieces of wire bent at about a 60 degree angle with a hook on the lower end and a flashy spinner mechanism on the upper end.Swim bait is a minnow- like soft plastic bait that is reeled like a plug. Some of these have a swimming tail.

The natural bait angler, with few exceptions, will use a common prey species of the fish as an attractant. The natural bait used may be alive or dead. Common natural baits include worms, leeches, minnows, frogs, salamanders, and insects. Natural baits are effective due to the lifelike texture, odor and color of the bait presented.The common earthworm is a universal bait for fresh water angling. Grubs and maggots are also excellent bait when trout fishing. Grasshoppers, bees and even ants are also used as bait for trout in their season, although many anglers believe that trout or salmon roe is superior to any other bait. In lakes in southern climates such as Florida, USA, fish such as bream will take bread bait. Bread bait is a small amount of bread, often moistened by saliva, balled up to a small size that is bite size to small fish.Roe is an excellent bait for trout, salmon and many other fresh water fish

Release Bait FishBait fish are often short lived and proliferate spawners. This means their populations can fluctuate rapidly, and they can often recover quickly when depleted. Regulations may exist to prevent overexploitation, as in Arkansas and Massachusetts. Studies by fisheries and conservation agencies monitor the health of bait fish populations, allowing regional governments to set quotas

Leave No Trace is an outdoor code of ethics. The principles of Leave No Trace are as follows: •Plan ahead and prepare

•Travel and camp on durable surfaces •Dispose of waste properly

•Leave what you find •Minimize campfire impact

•Respect wildlife •Be considerate of other visitors

Leave No Trace and the Outdoor Code

The Outdoor Code: As an American, I will do my best to—Be clean in my outdoor manners

I will treat the outdoors as a heritage. I will take care of it for myself and others. I will keep my trash and garbage out of lakes, streams, fields, woods, and roadways.

Be careful with fire I will prevent wildfire. I will build my fires only when and where they are appropriate. When I have finished using a fire, I will make sure it is cold out. I will leave a clean fire ring, or remove all evidence of my fire.

Be considerate in the outdoors I will treat public and private property with respect. I will follow the principles of Leave No Trace for all outdoor activities.

Be conservation-minded I will learn about and practice good conservation of soil, waters, forests, minerals, grasslands, wildlife, and energy. I will urge others to do the same.

• Trout Season: Trout streams that aredesignated as seasonal trout streams areOPEN to fishing for any species fromMarch 28–October 31, 2009 andMarch 27–October 31, 2010. Seasonaltrout streams are CLOSED to fishing forall fish species at all other times. See pages14–17 for trout stream designations.• Flint, Chattahoochee and Spring Creeks:The Flint River and its tributaries from theGeorgia Power Co. dams at Albany to theUS Hwy. 84 bridge; the ChattahoocheeRiver and its tributaries from the ColumbiaLock and Dam to the GA Hwy. 91bridge; and Spring Creek and its tributariesdownstream to GA Hwy. 253 areCLOSED to striped bass fishing and spearfishing from May 1–October 31 each year.• Lakes Seminole and Blackshear: All fishing,including spear fishing, for any speciesin the marked areas around five fish refugesin Lake Seminole and in three fish refugesin Lake Blackshear is prohibited fromMay 1–October 31 each year.• Coosa River: The season for taking lakesturgeon from the Coosa River and itstributaries is CLOSED.See www.gofishgeorgia.com for moreinformation on this closure and how toidentify this fish.• Noodling or Grabbling: The seasonis open March 1–July 15 statewide inFreshwater.

Commercial Fishing• It is unlawful to fish commercially exceptin waters opened for commercial fishingby regulation of the DNR Board.• It shall be unlawful to engage in commercialfreshwater fishing without having avalid commercial fishing license.• It is unlawful for any person to sell or purchaseany game fish, however Americanshad, hickory shad, channel catfish, andflathead catfish taken while commercialfishing may be sold as described in theGame and Fish Code.

SpoolThis part of the reel holds the line. The spool is visible on the both the spinning and

baitcast reels. On the spincast models, it's located under the cover. Spools vary in size and in the amount of line they can hold. As you look at each reel, you'll see a listing like, 12/160 or 8/250. This tells you how much of a certain pound test line the spool can hold. In the 2 examples, the spool can hold either 160 yards of 12 lb test or 250

yards of 8 lb test line.

BailThe bail has 2 settings, open or closed. It's the mechanism that either prevents or

allows line coming off the spool.An open bail allows line to come off the spool 

A closed bail- prevents the spool from letting line out. When casting your line, one of the things you do is open the bail. After the cast is completed, the bail is closed by turning the handle. Sometimes you'll hear the bail click after you've just turned the handle. This click is the bail closing and is normal.

HandleThe handle is what's used to retrieve (more commonly called crank) the line back onto

the spool.

DragThe object of drag is to allow the spool to slip before the line snaps. This slipping of

the spool allows the fish more line and also prevents it from breaking. When fighting a fish, the rod does its job by absorbing the shock from the line. The rod and the drag

work together to prevent the line from stretching and possibly breaking while fighting.

RodsFishing rods come in several lengths, strengths (called "action"), and can be affordable or almost obscenely expensive.

Rod and real benefits.   With the rod and real you can fish farther away and use lures that have to moved through the water like a minnow swimming.

There are a wide variety of rods out there to choose from and there are quite a few manufacturers making them also. They also come in different sizes and shapes. Fishing wouldn't be very exciting if there wasn't a wide variety of rods to fish with, just like reels. They both get paired together

to provide a variety of options for fishing for a variety of fish.    Short, stout rods are used mostly for trolling for big game fish. Longer rods are designed for longer casting situations such as surf fishing. You don't need to go to the sporting goods store and buy the longest rod you can find. You need to be capable of handling your rod without tiring. I've

caught plenty of fish within 10 feet of the shore.    I recommend a light action rod about 4 to 5 foot long for a beginning fisherman's first rod. It is ideal for smaller fish, it's lightweight, and can

handle smaller terminal tackle very well. Plus it's not too terribly expensive if it's lost.    The most important thing, is to get equipment that is best suited for the type of fishing that you plan on doing. Get your parents or the person

working in the local tackle shop to help you.

Spin Cast Reelsometimes called "Closed Face" reel

                                                                              The set will give you a lot of trouble free fishing and is capable of holding what ever you catch.

Spincast reels have a pushbutton line release for casting and an enclosed "nosecone" where the line comes out of the reel. Spincasting reels are mounted on top of the rod and are used primarily by casual anglers, usually fishing for small to

medium sized fish.  These reels are easy to use, inexpensive to buy and might be a good choice if you're not sure how much fishing you're

going to do.Plus it's not too terribly expensive if it's lost.

Spincast rods typically are 5 to 6 feet in length, have a short, "pistol grip" and small eyes. These rods are usually fairly limber in action and light in weight. Spincast equipment is fine for casting medium weight lures/bait. These don't usually work very well for heavy-duty fishing but some larger spincast reels have been designed for catfishing and are gaining

some acceptance.Spincasting reels typically are the easiest to learn but they have some failings. Typically, reels of this type don't have

much line capacity, rendering them unsuitable for fishing that requires a lot of line or really heavy pound test. They also usually don't have a very good drag system and the gears in these reels are usually cast plastic or white metal. The gear

ratio for the line retrieve is pretty low also, making it difficult to work a lure that requires any amount of speed. If casting accuracy is required, it is difficult with spincast equipment.

The better quality reels are fine for typical panfishing and casual weekend bobber watching but if you think that you're going to get fairly serious about fishing, you might want to consider the next 2 categories.

Open Face Spinning Reel                                                             

It comes in ultra-light models for smaller tackle used to catch panfish all the way up to a big bruiser used to catch bigger

gamefish such as "Bull Reds" in the surf. It's very useful for situations when a longer casting range is needed.Spinning rods are usually more limber than baitcasting tackle. This limberness is one of the things that makes spinning excellent for casting light lures or bait, much more so than either spincasting or baitcasting. The other thing that allows

spinning equipment to cast light lures far is the design of the reel. The line is allowed to peel off the spool on a cast, unimpeded by either the nosecone of spincast reel or the friction of a turning baitcast reel's spool.

Spinning rods come in various lengths. The line capacity of spinning reels is much higher than that of spincast reels so fishing for salmon or trout is possible.

"Most" spinning reels have a much smoother drag too, something that is required for finesse fishing and for long running fish. However, the qualities that make spinning great for finesse fishing also somewhat limit where it can be used.

Bait Casting Reel                                                          

Let me begin by stating that I do not suggest this type for your first reel. Maybe your third or forth once you're proficient with the other two reel types.

It is the most difficult to cast with, but it comes in widest variety of sizes, and can handle a lot of abuse day in and day out. There are models for light-weight use, and bigger models for catching huge fish such as Marlin.

Baitcasting is used anytime heavy cover is going to be targeted. It's ability to handle heavy line, lures and fish is unmatched as is its strength to weight ratio. Baitcast equipment is NOT meant to be used with light lures; anything under ¼ oz. would be better fished with spinning tackle. Baitcasting tackle is the goto tackle when big fish and big lures meet thick, nasty cover. Also, because you control the cast with your thumb, pinpoint accuracy is possible. Once you become proficient with a baitcast reel, it's possible to drop a lure in a 6-inch circle at 50 feet, with hardly a ripple on the water.

That kind of accuracy and "touch" is rarely possible with spincasting or spinning tackle.Baitcasting rods too come in varying lengths and look somewhat like a spincasting rod. But that's where all similarity

ends. Baitcasting rods typically have a lot more backbone than the other types of rods. It's this backbone that allows you to muscle a fish from thick weed growth or away from timber. It's also this backbone that allows you to cast heavyweight

lures, work big jerkbaits and twitch crankbaits effectively. Try these tactics with most spinning tackle and you'll be exhausted.

 The Bait caster Reel mounts to the top of a bait casting rod (this has smaller guides attached to the top side of the rod).

This has more uses than the spinning combo - but requires more coordination to use. The line comes off these reels from the top, so it doesn't twist, however, the angler's thumb is used to help control the speed the line unwinds off the reel when

casting. Basically, if you forget to put your thumb down over the line on the reel, or don't use enough pressure, the reel spins faster than the line can go through the guides, so it creates a big mess of snarled, tangled line called a backlash, or a

"woof" or various other descriptive names.A really good comparison is what happens to a lot of necklaces thrown into a jewelry box and shaken. Imagine that mess all tangled together with only two ends, one safely hidden by feet of unused line on the reel, and the other at least six feet away, threaded through the rod, with a very sharp object tied to the end. Backlashes are a calculated risk when using a bait

caster, and your angler may use many colorful metaphors if one occurs on his favorite reel.