A small group of even smaller children and their parents trooped down the trail to Horseshoe Mill’s pond to put their crafting and fishing skills to the test Friday evening.

Guided by Cassie Lawson and others associated with the Buzzards Bay Coalition, five children learned how to make their own fishing poles, and put them to subsequent use using hot dogs as bait for the night’s catch-and-release program. The expedition the second of three Family Friday Explorations, put on by the coalition, and the Wareham Land Trust.

“These specific ones in Wareham we are doing to … engage locals here … to some of the conservation lands that they probably have never been to before,” MassLIFT Americorps volunteer Tanya Creamer said.

Though they didn’t catch anything, the children had a good time building their poles out of sticks, yarn, and wire. Lawson said the purpose was not necessarily to catch anything, but to “help families get outside, and explore their local environment.”

“It’s helping them to get exposed, and maybe learn a new skill,” Lawson said. “If they are out trying to catch fish … hopefully, it will help them to think about protecting the animals in this are – helping to instill the value of stewardship in them, and helping them to appreciate the environment.”

“If we can get them outside, doing something they enjoy outside, then they connect to this area, and want to protect it,” Creamer agreed.

Nina Stanger, 8, of Middleborough, said that she was having a good time, until she got stuck in the mud, and then got water in her boot.

“I do not like it,” Stanger said, crinkling her nose.