FishingMagic Junior Angling Academy 2006

FishingMagic's Junior Angling Academy 2006 for National Fishing Week

One of the waters kindly lent to us by Intertype AS

I'd been up since just gone 6am having taken the real dog for his woodland walk of three miles, then after finishing my two Wheatybangs and milk I had to load up the car with all the kid's poles and goody bags. Then off to meet with Graham Marsden at Granny Anne's B & B so I could show him how to get to the venue - he forgets you see.

Up to that point everything had run as smooth as silk, so I got out the attendance list and could immediately see that we had plenty of kids there so hopefully everyone had made it.

I read through the list and each youngster stepped forward to collect a 4 metre whip and a bag with bait, a magazine, some Dinsmore's split shot and a pole rig whilst Graham sorted them out with an FM t-shirt and cap. Having completed the list we noticed that a few youngsters hadn't been forward to collect their stuff.

Straight away, we realised that we had about five or six extra that had simply turned up and there was only three that had booked that didn't show. What to do?

You can't refuse eager kids so we compromised and got them in. What we hadn't realised until later was that with three of them, their mum and dad had dropped them off and then left almost immediately after giving us the responsibility of looking after them for the day. Next year we'll have an official crèche maybe. What am I saying, “Next year?”

Well, just gone 9am and everyone marched off to the lovely Intertype Angling Society lakes and the helpers and our official Coach, Steve Rowland, got everyone started off.

The bites were slow at first, but then they have been this summer. Perhaps it's something to do with the heat; I don't know, but the fishing wasn't as intense as it has been in past years, although this is only the second for us.

It soon became apparent that everyone was catching something no matter how small - and 'small' being the operative word. Graham had got some nice pictures of the youngsters fishing and we had some prizes to dish out at lunchtime for the best catches.

Sadly, no-one had netted anything particularly special, but one youngster, nine year old Sam Mitchell, had caught himself 18 rudd when on two previous outings he'd caught nothing. So Graham decided he should get the major prize and, to be fair, everyone else would enter a draw.

It was at that point Graham noticed some small carp starting to pick up bread off the surface and one youngster close to him had his own carp rod with a controller and bread flake tackled up.

I've never seen a man act so quickly as he almost snatched the rod from the youngsters grasp and said “This is how you do it.”

After a second cast one carp did approach the large piece of bread and Graham struck, only to miss the bite and have the tackle end up tangled in a may bush.

“And that's how not to strike.” was his advice as we all struggled to recover the lad's tackle, Graham being too short to reach it.

Around that point the secretary of our host club, Roy Trevatt of Intertype Angling Society, turned up just in time for lunch and everyone headed up to the hotel for a terrific outdoor barbeque.

Last year, you may remember, we had to have it indoors because of the torrential rain, but this year is was almost too hot to sit in full sun. Roy, acting as “official food taster” was one of the first in the queue (as always [but not according to my camera - Graham]), but there was plenty of food to go around and many enjoyed second helpings of burgers, sausages, profiteroles and chocolate sauce.

We then made the presentations and after all the main prizes were collected Graham suggested everyone (the youngsters that is) come up and grab what they could. Thankfully I was on the other side of the table otherwise I could have been killed in the crush.

Now who's this stomping off to get first in the queue?

There's nothing that people - kids, adults young and old - love more than a freebie give-away. There were floats, lines, caps and badges from Shakespeare and odd bags of Dynamite groundbait, pellets and pastes from Mistral, various items from Preston Innovations and Korum; everyone got something.

Some of the youngsters then had to leave us as their dads had to go to work or meet other commitments, but no sooner did we think we'd lost four, than another four turned up to replace them.

They'd seen the announcement on the National Fishing Week website, which simply said “for more information contact ….” and since they felt there was enough information they hadn't bothered booking. Again, we didn't want to turn anyone away so off they all went to have a fish, along with a few freebies that somehow we always manage to scrounge together.

Jeff 'hang on, let me suck me belly in' Woodhouse plays Santa

At this point Graham begged his leave as he had a very long (6 hours as it turned out) journey home and we bid him farewell. A pity because the fishing during the afternoon improved with the carp starting to get interested. The youngster I was teaching, Sam, had attended the Beale Park event earlier in the week and had caught two very small rudd.

FishingMagic, always being the better event, didn't let him down. He caught a smallish, but very beautiful crucian carp of around ½lb, followed by a tench of close on one pound. Later he caught yet another, a wild carp this time of 1½lbs and he finished the day with another carp of almost 2 lbs. So yet another youngster went away with a very happy smile on his face.

Frank Guttfield presents his signed book

Come five o'clock, when I had to call 'time', no-one really wanted to go home, but I'd been stood since 9:00 am and my old body couldn't have taken much more. We'd ran out of consent forms, so not everyone had signed (oops!), but every child went away with something and many had a day they may never forget.

As Graham said to me on the Saturday when we spoke, “If only one turns out to be a lifetime angler it will all have been worth it.”

I think he underestimates how many will.

I really do hope so.

Our heartfelt appreciation and thanks goes to all of our sponsors (in no particular order):

National Fishing Week team headed by Neil Sellers for the poles and all the support
Shakespeare
Dynamite Baits
Nigel May of Dinsmores
Alan Parberry of Mistral Baits
Preston Innovations / Korum
The guys from TCF magazine
Roy Hawes from Marsh Tackle, High Wycombe, for his donation and helping with prizes
Mick Hutt of Maidenhead Bait Supplies for his donation and help with prizes
Frank Guttfield for the copy of his book and signing it for the prizewinner.
And our very generous, but anonymous, FM member for his sponsorship. (We know who you are!)

Not forgetting Steve Rowland our NFA Coach for giving up his day.
All the members of Intertype Angling Society without whom this event would not have been made possible.
A special mention of head bailiff, Mick 'Rover' Rowan, who spent so much time with the youngsters and even brought his own bait along.
And lastly to Roy Trevatt the secretary for acting as official food taster for us, but were seconds really necessary?

Now what were you guys saying to Marsden about next year?

And not forgetting all our thanks to Jeff for his organisational skills and efforts to make this a very special occasion for the kids. And don't think you're wriggling out of doing it all over again next year! - Graham.