Gwent Angling Society Junior Academy

During the past five years the Gwent Angling Society has been actively involved in the promotion of fly fishing and fly tying within schools and has

Gwent Angling Society Junior Academy 

During the past five years the Gwent Angling Society has been actively involved in the promotion of fly fishing and fly tying within schools and has given anyone interested the opportunity to attend winter tying classes at Ponthir Village Hall near Cwmbran and a weekly casting clinic in the summer at Ty Mawr to develop skills in both single and double handed fishing.

All of these activities have been free of charge to persons under the age of 16 years and will continue to be so. 

These efforts have been reported before when a school girl asked the societies help to produce a fly for her Design and Technology GCSE. Her efforts were rewarded by winning the Welsh Students Innovation Award for Intellectual Properties. 

With this initial success we wondered how we might improve and develop what we were doing in order to encourage children in particular to get involved in fly fishing and the idea of having a Junior Academy was formed. 

Many of you will perhaps ask why bother with all of today’s concerns and regulations about child protection and the requirement to only use qualified coaches with accredited skills.

The simple answer is that if we as anglers do not invest in our youth then fishing will suffer.

We are only the current custodians of the waters we fish and to ensure that fishing has a future we need the children of today to be willing to take on the responsibility when we are selves cannot.

If we do not invest now it may all be lost for good hidden by some other agenda.

To do that we need to introduce them to the pleasures of fishing or at least sow the seeds in their minds for them to be able to recognise their options in the future. 

The other motivating factor is that too many of our children today find it difficult to get out into the country and this was one small way in which we could encourage some of them to leave the televisions and the computer games or even divert some of the youngsters from the street corners. 

With this view in mind we utilised our own qualified APGAI coach who is also a Level II CCA qualified 1st4sport coach(Certificate Coach in Angling).

He was more than happy to help and set about the task of arranging the event and encouraged support from other fishing related companies and agencies. 

From the start the idea was to fund the entire event so that the course would not be restrictive to anyone.

The members of the society themselves helped tremendously with their support of the fly dressing classes and casting clinic which raised some funds.  

A fly tying event was held complete with hog roast where great tiers such as Gwilym Hughes, Louis Noble, Mac Lambert, and Mark Roberts all APGAI tying coaches together with Alun Rees and rising Welsh Junior fly fishing and tying star Kieron Jenkins showed their varied and brilliant skills.

Each tier concentrated on a specific discipline from dry fly to Czech nymph through to salmon and sewin patterns (that’s sea trout to you non Welsh).

Together with the tying skills fishing knowledge was passed and the best fishing techniques that they used with those specific flies. 

Other companies such as Hardy Greys, Tightlines, Cwmbran Angling, and Tyers Mate donated gifts to raffle.

Other prizes were donated by members of the society including a hand built rod by Alan Parfitt which was auctioned and was bought by our own Fred Parry an avid salmon angler who never fishes with a trout rod.

The event raised an amazing £550. Hardy Greys agreed to continue to support the event and supplied the fishing rods and reels together with a hat for each student attending. 

It has to be said that Tim Gaunt Baker who is one of the Hardy Academy Managers was a star and was able to smooth the way for the Society to receive the kit and we owe him and Hardy Greys a big thank you. 

Other sponsors were recruited and Tony Hopkins of Tyers Mate donated fly tying materials and supplied us with equipment at cost. 

The use of a venue for the event was donated by Cwm Hedd Lakes which is a local fishery in Bassaleg near Newport.

Flies were supplied by Dragon Tackle International. 

Together with the support of the fishery and Linda Kilby who runs the Get Out Go Country (www.gogc.co.uk) business from the venue we were able to arrange and run three two day courses for 25 children aged between 10 and 16 years on each course. 

The programme was devised and to be honest was to be a real test for the coaches involved in that we intended to cover the subjects of entomology, the laws relating to fishing, fly casting, fly tying, fly fishing, knot tying, the anatomy of fish, fish cleaning, cooking and eating and we also wanted the children to realise what they had around them so we also had a wildlife and fauna stage to the event. 

The plan was to introduce those attending to the many aspects of fishing over the two days.

This meant keeping them busy for 6 hours each day.  In order for it to work we had to ensure that the participants were active so we remained flexible with the programme through out so when the energy levels dropped we would change what we were doing. 

Now the plan was set we had to recruit some coaches and they had to be accredited and child protection trained as well as being first aiders. As a qualified level II coach you are able to supervise up to and including 5 level I coaches who are themselves are allowed to supervise no more than 5 students, subsequently the ceiling for numbers was set at 25 for each of the courses to be run and a total of three complete course are arranged through the summer school holiday period. 

When you say it quickly it doesn’t seem too bad a number but when you meet and greet them you realise just what you have taken on. 

The coaches were all suitably qualified and were assisted by other qualified professional teachers and carers.

Each coach was allocated his share of students and the day began with a warm welcome and registration.

All students had to have the relevant consent forms signed and delivered.

The average age was 13 years which is perfect and following the safety brief all were placed into the care of Dai Roberts from the Rivers fly Monitoring Group to get wet and muddy on the bug hunts. 

Perhaps I should have explained that the rains were still coming and that no one started dry anyway.

Coats and over trousers which were loaned for use by Linda Kilby were used to good effect and the atmosphere with the whole group was one of real excitement and interest. 

For an hour they kicked at the mud and grappled with the weeds and filled buckets.

The rain got harder and we all ended up wetter that the bugs themselves.

Time to return to the lodge and take a closer look at what we had found. 

Dai was able to explain the importance of the river groups work and the children were able to compare the bugs from still waters with those from the river.

Closer inspection through the microscope brought shrieks of delight and following explanation an understanding of how important all our water life are in showing the well being of our waters as well as identifying what trout and other fish actually eat. 

Tom Richards then took a number of the group to show and explain what the plants were around the lake and the dangers of some of them.

This part of the event was well received by most as none had ever had them explained to them and excepted the explanations of identifying such plants as colts foot by the shape of the leaves as being obvious.  

It reminded me of how much I had learnt in my own childhood during the nature walks that occurred often when I was in primary school. 

The remainder stayed in the lodge and were shown how to tie their own pheasant tail nymph.

Each child was helped in stages to create their very first fishing fly.

When completed the sense of achievement was evident as each of them secured their own fly ready to take it home to show their parents. 

A swap around of the groups took us to lunch. 

The afternoon dried a little and all were outside learning how a rod was put together and what the different parts were.

This was quickly followed by the first casting coaching session.

It was surprising how many initially gave up attempting to cast a line but with sensible coaching and encouragement they all persevered and started to present a good line and get to grips with the mechanics. 

Those that mastered the techniques quickly were fitted with safety glasses tied on a fly and were let loose on the pond actually fishing.

Those that were less able seemed to be stirred on by seeing others actually fishing and started to listen carefully to what the coaches were telling them and all finished the day actually fishing. 

The first day left all of the coaches exhausted yet each explained that they felt a real sense of achievement with the days events. 

All the children were keen to return the following day and catch a fish so we must have done something right.

The second day was met with moderate winds but sunshine and this lifted everyone’s sprits.

The registration was completed and the safety brief given again and following some instruction on tying knots the rods were set up and fishing commenced. 

You may ask how we introduced the law relating to fishing well simply we invited the E.A. Bailiffs to attend and Steve Barker and his colleague Ian Jones went to each child as they were fishing and answered all of their questions.

To meet the bailiffs in this way in a non confrontational environment was well received and appeared to be a great success.

One however did ask how they would ever catch. someone younger and fitter than them..

A smile came over Steve’s face as he reminded them that it is better to have brains and expertise rather than mere speed.

A puzzled look from the questioner was then answered simply ‘I know you’re your Dad and where you live’ 

Through out the day all seemed to be fishing hard and each child was given continued instruction and coaching.

There were some successes and disappointments with fish lost but the main point was that they enjoyed the two days.

We broke the fishing up with a gutting and cleaning session where the children were encouraged to discover what was inside of the trout and how to prepare it for cooking.

These fish were cooked on the bar-b-que and nearly all had a taste. 

The day ended with all of them stating that they enjoyed the two days but for us the idea was to plant a seed so when they feel the need to get out and away from the pressures of work or family when they are older all they need to do is go fly fishing.

To underline their success all the students were issued with a certificate detailing what activities they had experienced. 

The whole process would not have succeeded if it wasn’t for the commitment of those members and coaches and tackle manufactures who gave of their time and money to put something back into a sport they themselves love. 

Special thanks to all the coaches and teachers who helped during all the sessions namely Alun Rees, Frank Britton, Frank Williams, Mike Maslin, Andy Locke, Vaughan Thomas, Alan Parfitt, Tom Richards, Dai Roberts, Rob Williams, Tony Hopkins, Martin Hayter Huw Bassett and Ben Williams for without their effort and commitment it would never have happened. 

For those of you interested in setting up a similar scheme in your area then contact the Game Angling Instructors Association for help advice and a list of qualified coaches in your area. 

The Gwent Angling Society have their own web site which has many articles on the many aspects of fly fishing and fly tying including some video clips and sequential photographs explaining specific techniques. It is not run for profit but for development of all fly fisherman who are interested in sharing their knowledge. 

The event venue was by kind permission of outdoor activity providers ‘Get Out – Go Country!’ www.gogc.co.uk .

Watch the video below to see what some of those attending thought of the day.

www.gwentanglingsociety.co.uk

www.hardygreys.com.

www.tyers_mate.co.uk

www.cwmhedd.co.uk

www.gogc.co.uk   

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