junior angling club...HELP

I am trying to start a junior angling club at the schol I work in, we will be starting with 11 and 12 year olds and eventually progress to 11-18 year olds and even a school team.

Most of the children have little or no fishing tackle. I am asking for any help or advice on how toget sponsorship or donations so we can get these kids tackle to use before they lose interest or worse still, think ofcrime as a means to get tackle or as an alternate pastime./forum/smilies/angry_smiley.gif

These kids could be the guys in the next peg a few years down the line or if we fail them the toe raggs that are breaking in to nick your tackle. Helpus help them make the right choices.

So if you have any experience or advice please let me know. all help will be greatly appreciated./forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif

How many kids are we talking about? Would 3m telescopic poles be of interest?

wabbit

What area are you in Chris and which school ?

it's Sheffield Springs Academy, Arbourthorne,Sheffield ,S/Yorks.

and to start with it will be limited to 15 kids(we don't want to take too much on and have it collapse) but eventually we want to open it up to the whole school.

3m. poles would be perfect as we will be concentrating on beginners in the 11- 12year range(to begin with)so it would be quicker to get themout there andactually fishing instead of having to teach them about reels and casting staight away.

we have representatives from Sheffield Futures and South Yorkshire Police willing to help also

Ok chris leave it with me and i will see what i can sort out. can you pm me where you want things sent.

wabbit

cheers Wabbit, much obliged, have PM'ed that address

Chris, get in touch with me, I know the school and locality very well, my ex used to be head at the Junior and Infant school!

Would love to help and have contacts who might be helpful, plus I'm an ex-teacher who has done all this stuff many times and am now sat doing nothing!

I can arrange with a friend to get permission for teach ins on his ponds and can get to suppliers.

Don

Chris,

Put me down for ?30 - PM me with an address and a payee and I'll get a cheque off this weekend.

And good luck with your endeavour!


PS - the only proviso is that you have to tell them not to beat the old boy off the next peg wearing the Sensas jacket and sitting on a Boss box . . . . . [insert smiling face - - - - > HERE]

Chris let me know if you get your school team organised, Ill bring some of my school anglers up to compete against you.

Thanks for all the help and supportplease keep it coming I will pm you all with address's and updates as soon as I get the time

Once again many thanks we apreciate it all./forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Dear Chris, I know quite a few kids from your school who already fish, they visit Aston quite a lot in Summer, hope that they are to be included.

You should also contact your local police, they have access to sources of social funds for schemes such as this. You could also go to MATREC, they might be useful for funding too.

Don

Chris there will almost certainly be a qualified coach in the area, try the NFA site or do a google, thecoaches will be CRB'd and will have session plans, ideas for classroom activities,andtips onhow to run a club or series of sessionssuccesfully.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Trev, you are on but I think it will be next year at least before the team will be up and running. we are hoping to get all the paperwork,funding and legalities out of the way for the end of the year.

EC thanks for the advice, I have sent a message to the NFA through their website but have yet to hear back- we are hoping to get fundinggo on theNFA's courses ourselves to train to be coaches we allready have to be CRB'd to work in schools and all hold child protection certificates. I will definitely get back on to the NFA as we are intrested in the Angling and the environment course that theyrun for kids.

Please keep the great advice and kind offers coming-I only posted this last night and can't believe the response. This could only happen on a <u>fishing</u> furum.

as for donations we don't have an account set up but will let you know when we have

Many Many Thanks-Chris Bailey.

Have a look here mate,and also here too!

If you do a 'south yorkshire' search on fishcoach for coarse fishing coachesyou'll find 7 coaches in the sheffield area!

It would be a good idea to approach the local asda and tescos as well Chris as they will almost certainly have a community projects fund so they can keep in with the nieghbours. We managed to get money from tescos for one of our landscaping projects when we were building a lake. Worth a try.

Put me down for £25.

There is a fish in at gold valley 18th Oct, could we get a sponser for the total weight and pass on the procedes? Anyone know?

I'll put that on my list Bill, It's gonna be a busy few months! but worth it/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Thanks for that Ray I will PM you the details when we get the account set up.

Hi Chris,

You didnt mention where you plan to take them fishing. It would be a good idea to link into a local commercial fishery, or a fishing club, so once the kids are hooked, they can then go on and make choices about where they want to fish. I have helped set up some junior fishing clubs in my area, and they affiliated to a local club, so that the kids got access to club waters, and could enter club competitions, etc. It was also important for public liability insurance, which is a minor hurdle to get over.

If you contact you local Environment Agency office, and ask to speak to whoever deals with Angling Participation, they will be able to point you in the right direction for safe, accessible venues. They are likely to also be involved in some other projects in your area that you might be able to link into. The EA use rod licence funding to support projects that bring new people into the sport, so I am sure that there will be something there that they can do for you. If you are struggling for a contact, p.m. me and I will put you in touch with the right person.

You also mention setting up a match group. I was involved in running kids matches, and national competitions for several years. It can be hard work, as parents have less time and inclination to be ferrying their kids all over the place at early hours on a weekend these days. However, when your young anglers get to a point where they would like to compete against others, then there are team fishing competitions that you can enter them into. The NFA run national and regional events for member clubs.

The matches that I was involved with were run by the National Junior Angling Association (NJAA). This is a voluntary organisation, put together by individuals who run their own junior club sections. They hold 3 'National' competitions every year. Website is www.njaa.org.uk for a bit of history and flavour of what they do, contact me with a p.m. if you want more contact details (same applies for anyone watching/lurking).

Best of luck

Thanks for that MJ, we have a council owned pond just a 5 minute walk away so that will be okay for beginners. I will be approaching some comercial fisheries-eventually.

because we are going to run the club as a school club the school insurance should cover us as an outside sporting event but I have to look deeper int it.

I have been on the NJAA site and will be getting in touch with them when the team is set up. we also have a contact in the police run Hooked on Fishing Not Drugs and Crime organisation who hold regular events and matches. I will also get in touch with the EA.

The school has a mini bus so hopefully we will be able to use that to pickk the kids up and not have to depend on their parents for transport.

Thanks for your advice, Could you posibly PM me your E-mail Address so I can get in touch with you when you aren't on fishing-magic?

Many Thanks-Chris./forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif