A loud laugh shattered the silence in the science resource center as junior Songyu Ye announced that he had never caught a fish in his life. Ironically, Ye is one of the three co-presidents and founders of the Fishing Club, along with juniors Adrian Knyazev and Derrik Chen.

“I had never been fishing before this [last] year,” said Ye. “Before the club started going on outings, Adrian drove me around and we went fishing in different local places.”

Unlike Ye, co-sponsor and Spanish teacher Lauren Carranza has been fishing since she was four years old. Carranza’s dad, who taught her how to fish, wasso excited she would be sponsoring the Fishing Clubthat he dropped off a tackle box and pole at her house upon her first sharing the news.

The co-presidents started the club this past year, as they had heard about successful fishing programs at other schools and hoped to create a similar opportunity for Glenbrook Northstudents. Any student or staff member is eligible to be a part of the club regardless of prior fishing experience.

According to co-sponsor and science teacher Joel Borowicz, the Fishing Club consists of meetings as well as “fishing outings,” where the sponsors and students take a bus to different local lakes and fish for a few hours.

Both Borowicz and Carranza accompanied the students on their firstfishingouting to IndependenceGrove in Libertyville. They traveled by foot around the lake in three groups and used live bait that was provided for them. Students were required to bring their own pole. Carranza said that of the eight students who attended the outing, only one caught a fish. 

As well as holding their own events, theFishing Club got involved in HomecomingWeek activities. Carranza said the co-presidents are extremelypassionate about the club. Theyspent three hours painting a mural for Paint the Town and werevery enthusiastic about participating in the parade.

According to Ye, the parade was a great moment for the club, as having fun while promotingfishing is what the club is all about. 

“We had Russian music playing and we had the fishing poles out,” said Ye. “Adrian was on rollerblades and in a tutu. We were just going crazy trying to attract attention for the club.”

Borowicz said the long term goal of the club is to have a competitive fishing team where students can compete at local and state-level tournaments. For now, the club is focused on growing a good community of avidfishermen, with 40 students showing interest in the beginning of the school year. 

“Fishing has a natural kind of culture in the United States, where many kids grow up fishing their whole life with their families,” said Borowicz. “It is kind of a culture that a lot of people center a large part of their life around. They take it as more than just a hobby. Before [the Fishing Club] there was no avenue for students to explore [that culture] in a school setting.”