Pulling his liver-baited line through the murky waters of Southern Illinois University Carbondale's campus lake, 8-year-old Louis D. Ramirez suddenly felt a tug on the line.

"I got one! I got one!" he yelled to Joseph L. Rush, a 25-year-old from Machesney Park, who is working on a master's degree in zoology at SIUC. Dropping their poles, Rush and seven fledgling fisherfolk, age 8 to 12, raced over to see what emerged from the afternoon's first "strike."

"You got a really big one - it's a tree, but it's a really big one," Rush said, with characteristic humor as he freed Ramirez' line. 

"Oh, man," Ramirez groaned.

As he has for the last three years, Rush is spending the summer teaching the ins and outs of fishing to kids, parents, senior citizens and anyone else who cares to learn. His free "fishing clinics," sponsored by the state's Urban Fishing Program, take place at SIUC morning and afternoon each weekday through July 28.

"I teach them about fish identification, tackle, how to bait hooks, safety - all the beginning things they need to get started plus a little about conservation and fishing ethics - and then I take them fishing," Rush said.

Rush holds his "fish school" down at the campus boat dock. And while he uses video, flash cards, a stuffed largemouth bass and assorted "pillow fish" as instructional aids, his most popular teaching tools are the jiggly plastic worms he flips from his tackle box when students successfully complete his "exams."

"If I can swim all the way across the lake eight times, do I still need a life jacket if I'm fishing from a boat?" Rush asks.

"YES!" scream the kids.

"Why?" he asks.

"Because you might fall out and hit your head," says one boy, quicker than the rest.

"Give that man a worm!" Rush shouts. "Why do we use a 'bump board' to measure the size of the fish we catch?"

"So we don't screw up the food chain!" and another worm flies through the air. When every student has a worm, they gather up their poles and bait and head out to a sheltered inlet just east of Bailey Hall. "We stock this to keep concentrations high so that everyone will have a better chance at catching a fish," Rush said. "There are a lot of times they get skunked - they don't catch anything, and that's very frustrating. I like to get every kid to experience that first fish." This particular afternoon, only 8-year-old Dana E. Milam caught a fish, a little bluegill that he carefully released after showing it off to the others. But the rest didn't come away empty-handed. They learned a few life lessons: "Fish don't just jump on your hook. You have to wait."

They mastered the fish tale. "I was after the dreaded squirrel fish, the angler's worst nightmare," one boy told another as Rush worked to free his line from the limbs of an overhanging tree.

They practiced optimism. "At least I caught something," Ramirez said, as Rush cut a softshell turtle off his line.

All in all, it was a good day. "We caught a turtle, we caught a fish and we caught a bunch of trees," Rush told a passer-by who inquired about their luck. "If you need any firewood, come see us." 

Rush holds his free clinics from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and from 1 to 3:30 p.m. weekdays, providing all rods, reels and bait. He can also conduct special clinics on request. For reservations or more information, call him at 618/453-6091.

(Editor's note: Rush is the son of Machesney Park residents Curt and Mickey Rush.)