Registration Open for Cain Center's St. Patrick's Day Fun Run March 14

Join the Cain Center for a St. Patrick's Day fun run, Come Jig & Jog With Us, on Saturday, March
14.

Participants can choose to participate in the 5K or 1 mile run/walk. Participants are allowed to bring their dogs. Dogs must be kept on a leash at all times and a registration form must be filled out on their behalf.

Participant Fees:
$10 Dog Registration (includes bandanna)
$25 Early Registration, ends March 12
$30 Registration, after March 12
Registration includes a T-shirt and one door prize ticket.
To register online, please click here.

Non-perishable food items will be donated to the Athens Food Pantry. Donate non-perishable food items for an extra door prize ticket.

For more information, including an event schedule, please click here.

Spring Breaking at Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center

Families looking for a place to have an inexpensive, rewarding family vacation during spring break need look no farther than the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens.

Located just 75 miles southeast of Dallas, 100 miles east of Waco and 180 miles north of Houston, TFFC is a one-tank round trip for about 10 million people.

TFFC offers free fishing with paid admission for channel catfish and rainbow trout with no license, bait, tackle or experience required, and from March 14 until the end of rainbow trout season in late April, visitors can harvest trout for free. Daily limit is five trout per person. Anyone wishing to harvest trout should bring an ice chest and ice.

Visitors will also want to check out the center's 300,000 gallons of aquaria featuring native Texas fish. There are some truly monster fish on display, including largemouth bass weighing more than 15 pounds and alligator gar weighing 200 or so. All the aquaria can be viewed from a covered walkway, and indoor exhibits include a fishing museum, a freshwater fishing hall of fame, displays showing how fish are spawned and raised and well-stocked gift shop.

As an added bonus, this year's Fly Fish Texas event falls in the middle of spring break. You can come to TFFC on March 14 and learn to tie a fly, cast a fly and catch a fish all in the same day. The event is put on by volunteers from fly-fishing clubs all over Texas and is free with paid admission.

Food vendors will be on site every day from March 10 through March 14, making it easy to spend the whole day at TFFC. Visitors are also welcome to picnic in the areas provided, and Athens--where the hamburger was invented, has plenty of restaurants.

Weekdays at 11 a.m., Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. a diver hand-feeds the fish in a 26,000 gallon aquarium with a viewing auditorium. Visitors can ask questions of the diver through a live underwater link.

After the dive show, visitors can take a tram tour of the hatchery where TFFC annually raises millions of largemouth bass and channel catfish for stocking into public waters. Most visitors disembark the tram at the far end of the hatchery and walk back along the ADA-compliant Wetland Trail. This 0.8 mile, wooded trail features an exhibit with recorded calls of wetland birds and animals, a working bee-hive with see-through walls, a wildflower area and scads of turtles in the ponds.

All of this is yours for the price of admission: $5.50 adults, $4.50 for seniors, and $3.50 for children ages 4 to 12. For more information, call 903-676-2277 or visit www.tpwd.texas.gov/tffc.

For information on Athens dining, lodging and attractions, visit www.AthensTX.org.

Fly Fish Texas March 14 at Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center

Fly fishing clubs and anglers from across Texas come to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center to share fly fishing tips and techniques and teach them to others. Aimed at the novice fly fisher, this event is designed to teach you how to tie a fly, cast it and catch a fish with it, all in the same day.

Fly Fish Texas emphasizes hands-on learning and immediate application of newly acquired skills. Visitors can collect aquatic insects from the center's streams, tie a fly to imitate one of those insects under the supervision of a skilled tier, learn to cast it from a casting instructor certified by the Federation of Fly Fishers, then use it to catch a rainbow trout, catfish or sunfish from one of TFFC's stocked ponds or streams.

Throughout the day, experienced fly-tiers will be demonstrating and teaching fly-tying in the Anglers Pavilion on a one-on-one basis. In addition, group instruction in beginning fly-tying will be offered in the Hart-Morris Conservation Center classroom beginning at noon. Both are offered on a walk-up basis.

Beginning casting instruction will take place continuously in the Conservation Center parking lot from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the Conservation Center Room B, attend fly-fishing 101 at 10 a.m. and learn about essential flies for Texas fresh water at 11 a.m.

Fly-fishing kayak style will be presented on the shore of the casting pond at 2 p.m.

Other sessions will focus on caring for fly-fishing equipment, choosing a fly line, and fishing the slam of B.A.S.S. in southern rivers.

Kayak use will be demonstrated on the casting pond. Do-it-yourself fly-fishing for rainbow trout, sunfish and catfish will be available all day in the TFFC's ponds and streams.

Food service will be available onsite, or attendees may bring a picnic. TFFC's regularly scheduled dive shows will take place in the dive theater at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and will be followed by tram tours of the hatchery.

Fly Fish Texas takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free with regular paid admission. For more information, please click here.