Bring your youth, and enjoy the day.

Don’t forget to bring a fishing pole and tackle box, too.

The Pohopoco Rod and Gun Club will hold its 10th Annual Youth Fishing Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 16 at Phifer’s Ice Dam in Franklin Township.

The event is in recognition of military veterans and service groups, and Girl and Boy Scouts, according to Jim Deebel, president of the Pohopoco Rod and Gun Club.

Deebel said the event is open to youth service groups, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of military veterans of Carbon County ages 1 to 15, and there is no cost to attend.

“We want to encourage kids to fish,” Deebel said. “That’s our whole mission.”

Deebel said those who love to fish won’t be disappointed.

“We will be stocking in excess of 200 trout of various sizes,” he said. “In the past, we had 40-some kids here.”

Deebel said the objective of the event is to “get the kids to be outdoors and do outdoors stuff; get them out of the house.”

“Seem to get a lot of enjoyment out of it, and gets kids interested in fishing and the outdoors,” he said. “It seems to be well-received by the kids and their parents.”

Deebel noted that a few years ago grass carp - an organic, nonchemical way to address the matter - was stocked in a pond at the park to help control weed growth.

“It’s done a very good job of cleaning up the weeds,” he said. “They’re getting pretty big now.”

Deebel added they are in the process of applying for a permit to stock more grass carp via triploid grass carp.

“Which means they are sterile and means they won’t reproduce,” he said. “We’ve gone to some pains to keep them here to do their job.”

Deebel said that fishing is limited in the primary Phifer Ice Dam for a 30-day period from May 16 until midnight June 15 to people under the age of 16.