Last Friday 4 children from Compton Primary and 4 children from Leigham Primary School were invited to take part in a ‘Get Fishing’ event. This was following the children taking part in the ‘Reel Education’ programme within school which is funded by the PSSP and the Angling Trust and can be used as one of your coaching days.

This event was hosted at Filham lake in Ivybridge which is part of the Plymouth and District Coarse  Angling Club. It is a beautiful lake and full of fish. When the children arrived, they were greeted by angling coaches Josh from the PSSP and Chris from the fishing club. After a quick health and safety briefing, children were given a quick demonstration on how to use the equipment and how to hook maggots and sweetcorn.

Following this, children were shown how to read the floats and bites as well as striking fish and finally how to safely handle the fish and unhook them. The children were very keen to try it themselves!

After an initial slow start (2 fish in the first 10 minutes), everyone started catching fish. The children caught Roach, Rudd, Perch, Hybrids and even a carp which gave a good pull! The session lasted around 90 minutes and every fish was placed into a keepnet to be looked at after the session and then safely returned into the lake.

The children seemed to have a fantastic time and caught over 100 fish between them! Some enjoyed it so much they didn’t even want to stop for lunch!

A huge well done to all who took part, certainly some future anglers in the making! And a massive thank you to P.A.D.C.A.C who allowed us to use the venue and have Chris for support.

We will be looking to host many more of these opportunities in the future, if you would like to book then please contact – j.gilbert@sjhcsc.co.uk