Learning to Fish Lure Making and More - Part 2

■ Our 10th grade students worked on a fishing project during two semesters, starting in October 2018. They provided community service and studied the food web of He‘eia Fishpond. They also designed and made lures to catch the predator fish in the fishpond.

We partnered with HFN on a writing piece where students described their project and experiences. I gave students the choice of writing a poem or writing a narrative of their experiences. . . . Billie

Elusive Lure

by Jack Fukui

The sun was blazing but that didn’t stop me from casting my lure. I casted my lure several times and got the hang of it, or so I thought. Right around my tenth cast I wanted it to go far and so I swung my pole as hard as I could. When I saw my lure flying, I knew something was wrong. I looked at my pole and saw that my lure had come off the line. I looked around to see where it landed, and spotted it far off. I knew that my lure would float and the current would carry it closer, further from me. I wasn’t going to let all of my hard work just disappear like that. There was only one thing I could do that made sense to me: jump into the pond and retrieve the lure.

I yelled at my friends to keep an eye on the lure while I took off my shoes and shirt. Soon I was ready to jump in, but I couldn’t see my lure. My friends told me that they could see it, so I started climbing down the wall. The water was cold and I was really hesitant, but my friend helped me out by pushing me in. The water was freezing! My friends called out directions and I started swimming towards where they pointed. As soon as I started swimming I realized the water was shallow, so shallow that I had to stay afloat on the water. I tried walking on the bottom but the coral was very sharp. I didn’t have time to think about anything, so I just