• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Volunteering
  • Community Partnership/Sponsors
  • Contact Us

Spartan Angling

The Art and Science of Minnesota Angling

  • In the News
  • Fishing Trips
  • Meet the Anglers
  • Guest Speakers
  • Sponsors and Donators
  • Class Projects
  • Letters of Support

Luke Adam

Alumacraft Partnership

November 7, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

Spartan Angling greatly welcomes the boat manufacturer Alumacraft as a sponsor this year! The group very excited and looks forward to working with Alumacraft for many years to come! Thanks! Please see our website www.spartanangling.com for our mission, purpose, and accomplishments!

Filed Under: Sponsors and Donators

MN Darkhouse and Angling Association Donation and Partnership!

November 5, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

A huge thank you to the Grand Rapids Chapter for a monetary donation to Spartan Angling! We also have partnered with the organization and will be taking the whole class spearing in December and again in January! Most kids have never been spearing, so this is an incredible opportunity for them! Thanks Rick!

Filed Under: Sponsors and Donators

Dave Lick from Itasca Waters

October 24, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

Dave from Itasca Waters gave a lesson on watersheds and shoreline management to Spartan Angling! He also gave kids a guide for lake stewardship.

Filed Under: Guest Speakers

Huge Rod/Reel Donation, Womens’ Anglers of MN

October 16, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

A huge thank you to Women’s Anglers of Minnesota for a huge donation of open water and ice fishing rod/reel combos. The organization used members around the state to deliver the rods to the high school! Such generosity!

Filed Under: Sponsors and Donators

Spartan Angling in the Outdoor News!!!

September 27, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

Article pg. 1Download
article pg. 2Download

Filed Under: In the News

Bray Lake Fishing, Fall ’19

September 26, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

Students caught some nice fish in September! Beautiful colors outside!

Some students boated their first pike and walleye! Fish memories made!!!!

Filed Under: Fishing Trips

Lew’s Rods and Reels

September 12, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

A huge thank you from Spartan Angling by providing our fishing class with 4 spinning and 4 bait casting combos! These donations will be used in our lending library and will be open to student use for this open water season and many more to come! The quality is excellent and incredibly sensitive rods for a variety of species in northern MN! Thanks!

Filed Under: Sponsors and Donators

Spartan Angling Float!

July 5, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment


Happy 4th of July!

Filed Under: Volunteering

Star Tribune Article!!!

June 4, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

Anderson: Class project isn’t only landing a whopper; it’s landing outdoors stewards

MAY 30, 2019 — 2:55PM

Rick Webster, Braden DePaulis, and Jon Olson, left to right, of the Spartan Angling class with a sturgeon on a class trip.T

Dennis Anderson

Dennis Anderson@STRIBDENNIS

Maybe Luke Adam has the answer to America’s growing nature deficit disorder.

Adam, a math teacher in northeast Minnesota, is the brains behind a new fishing class at Nashwauk-Keewatin High School that is hooking kids in ways even they didn’t think they would be hooked.

Called Spartan Angling — after the school’s sports-team name — the class next week will conclude its debut semester. Establishment of the course followed Adam’s successful funding request a year ago to the Department of Natural Resources.

“Our school board, principal and superintendent have all been very supportive,” Adam said. “They understand that, historically, fishing has been an important part of northern Minnesota culture that has been passed from generation to generation, and that it’s a great activity for everyone.”

But even in northern Minnesota, some youth are missing out on the outdoors traditions their forebears enjoyed. Some kids can’t afford to fish, Adam said, or otherwise don’t have an opportunity. Others are being raised by single parents who don’t know how to fish or are too busy to go.

Whatever the case, an important link that connects the past, the present and the future has weakened, Adam said, or is missing altogether.

“Our district has a 50-percent free or reduced lunch population and a 30-percent special education population,” Adam said. “By the same token, our district is full of great kids who are passionate about the outdoors, but sometimes don’t have the knowledge, means or equipment to participate.”

Adam’s fishing-class idea was sparked when he saw a DNR publication noting the agency had grant money for programs designed to recruit, retain and/or reactivate hunters and anglers.

Growing up in Keewatin, Adam was bitten early by the fishing bug. His grandfather had him on the water often and also took him to Canada on a fly-in trip.

“That was a walleye trip, and when you’re exposed at a young age to Canadian fishing, it hooks you for life,” he said.

When Adam learned the DNR had funds to lure Minnesotans into traditional outdoor activities, he summoned his twin passions — teaching and fishing — to write a $20,000 grant request to underwrite a fishing class (see spartanangling.com) at Nashwauk-Keewatin High School.

“My personal passion,” Adam wrote in the application, “is to equip high school students with the knowledge, experiences, awareness and conservation mentality to foster lifelong skills to enjoy angling for many years.”

Meeting five days a week, the credit-earning class is open to students in grades 9-12. Thirteen kids were enrolled in the semester just ending. Two are of American Indian descent and one is a girl.

“The class seems to attract kids who are looking to identify with an activity,” Adam said. “Many aren’t involved in typical school sports. And some know nothing about fishing. I had one student who didn’t know what an ice auger was.”

Twenty-nine students have signed up for Adam’s angling class for next year, an impressive number, considering a typical Nashwauk-Keewatin High School graduating class numbers total between 40 and 50 students.

“Some students who enrolled this semester thought we would go fishing all the time,” Adam said, chuckling. “But the class is more than that.”

A lot more, as it turns out.

Adam’s goal is to teach children that “a whole gamut of knowledge” comes with fishing. What must anglers consider before they fish? While they fish? After they fish?

As importantly, what makes one lake healthy and able to sustain good fish populations and another lake unhealthy, with no fish?

To teach the class, Adam had to relinquish the hour of preparation time he and other teachers are allowed daily. But that was an easy sacrifice to make, he said.

“This isn’t just a one-day shot at fishing” Adam wrote in his grant application, “but instead the goal is to build a foundation of knowledge, skills, and conservation awareness that creates success on the water and a respect for the environment.”

In class, students learn to identify various fish species, their habitat needs and how to catch them. Fish and water conservation are stressed, as is identification of various invasive species and the threats they pose to fish and the broader environment.

Adam has recruited individual anglers and fishing clubs to share knowledge with the fishing class, and a portion of the grant money was used to buy rods, reels and other gear that students can borrow.

“The class does go fishing,” Adam said. “Our big trip this last semester was to the Rainy River for sturgeon. Our principal, Ranae Seykora, went along, too. And the kids caught a big one — a 5-footer!”

Driven to see his fishing class become a staple in Nashwauk-Keewatin High School and in other schools, Adam is seeking new funding. The DNR money runs out after the fall semester, and he can’t reapply for the same grant.

“I’m not the kind of guy to let something like this die,” he said. “I know I’m doing a great thing for kids in my district, and I also know my students will walk out of Spartan Angling with a new respect for our natural resources, and that will help the cycle of outdoors participation in our area continue.”

Outdoors columnist and editor Dennis Anderson joined the Star Tribune in 1993 after serving in the same positions at the St. Paul Pioneer Press for 13 years. His column topics vary widely, and include canoeing, fishing, hunting, adventure travel and conservation of the environment.danderson@startribune.com

612-673-4424

@stribdennis

Filed Under: In the News

Ron Schara’s Book Donation

May 30, 2019 By Luke Adam Leave a Comment

Thanks Ron for donating 60 books for Spartan Angling! This is a great book and will be used as class curriculum for many years to come! The book provides hands on tactics on many Minnesota species and several other angling tips!

Filed Under: Sponsors and Donators

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Huge Gear Donation!!
  • Duluth News Tribune!
  • High Banks Winni Trip!
  • Hugh C. Becker Muskie Grant!
  • BORDER VIEW LODGE

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • April 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019

    Categories

    • Class Projects
    • Fishing Trips
    • Guest Speakers
    • In the News
    • Letters of Support
    • Meet the Anglers
    • Sponsors and Donators
    • Volunteering

    Copyright © 2021 · Spartan Angling · Website by Dedicated Web Services, LLC.