AZGFD

School Group Application – Sport Fishing Program

Submitting your application is just the first step in the drawing process and is not a guarantee that your group will receive a program.

Application Deadline

The School Group Application process is now CLOSED

The deadline for submitting your School Group application for this school year has passed. The deadline was 5 p.m., Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. The next window of opportunity will be toward the end of July 2019. If you would like to be notified directly when the next window of opportunity becomes available, click the School Group Application link below.

School Group Application

The Drawing

All school group applications will be placed in a random drawing process that will occur within one week after the deadline date. Applications selected in the random drawing will be forwarded to the Sport Fishing Education staff, who will immediately begin contacting those selected applicants to schedule a program. Our sport fishing staff will only be contacting those applicants who were selected in the random drawing and those applicants will be contacted by phone or email. Scheduling occurs on a first come, first serve basis so please reply promptly when you are contacted.

What happens to those applications not selected in the random drawing?

If you are not contacted by anyone to discuss scheduling a program within 45 days after the deadline date, then you will not be receiving a Sport Fishing Education program this school year. The Arizona Game and Fish Department would like to be able to provide a Sport Fishing Education program for every applicant but the Department continues to receive many more applications than our staff and resources can accommodate. Whether you receive a program or not, you are always welcome to apply again next year or participate in one of our Loaner Programs described below.

Loaner Program

Whether your application was selected or not, you can always take advantage of our fishing equipment loaner programs. There are no charges for any of our loaner programs, which is an amazing deal. The equipment is loaned out for up to a week at a time and is scheduled on a first come first serve basis. You must call ahead to check on equipment availability and schedule a pick- up date.

- The Rod Loaner Program provides you with up to 50 rods/reels and a tackle box. You must provide the bait but we can advise you on the best baits to use depending on your fishing location and species of fish available. Remember that anyone under 10 years of age does not need a fishing license and you do not need a fishing license to take your students fishing as long as they are the ones fishing. For any students 10 years and older, a youth-group fishing license can be purchased from any of our Game and Fish offices for $25; up to 25 students can be covered under one (youth-group) license. If you, as the teacher, wishes to fish along with your students, a day-license can be purchased for $15. Equipment is on a first-come, first-serve basis and reservations are required to be made 3 weeks in advance.

The Backyard Bass Casting Box comes with a bundle of 10 rods that are rigged with plastic casting plugs and the box contains 31 plastic fish that are about a foot long. Each fish has a picture of a fish found in Arizona that is glued to the bottom. The fish are randomly placed 15 to 45 feet in front of the casters. The casters cast the plugs past the fish and reel the plug up the back of the fish until it gets caught in a raised part of the gill area allowing the caster to “catch their fish”. After the caster reels their fish in, they can use the Fishing Regulations to identify their fish, determine whether it is a native, protected or sport fish along with many other interesting things about Arizona’s fishing resources.