"Fishing is being touted as the latest effective weapon in the fight against anti-social behaviour.

Angling Action is a new scheme launched in Reading, Berkshire, to encourage more people to take up the hobby."


See: BBC Report

and

Anglersnet

TL - leon

[ 24. July 2005, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

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Heaven preserve us...

This really makes me laugh. They are carrying on as though this is something new and Les Webber has been doing just this for getting on for 30 years!

Don't get me wrong, it's great others are finally getting on with it. I even considered applying for the job but due to personal problems I was unable to.

I wonder who it is that they have all gone to for advice on how to achieve this

Answers on a postcard please lol

Yes you've guessed Les!!


The only difference is everyone else gets paid/funding for it and Les continues to do it for nothing.

Not too sure how I would feel about leaving Liam with an ex offender for the day. Yes, they deserve a second chance in life and you hope that they don't stuff up again, still not sure about that one.


lyn

[ 24. July 2005, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: lyn ]

Not all on these schemes are young offenders. The GHOF started by Mick Watson in the North East takes kids with differing problems, not only those verging on crime. I'm sure the Reading scheme will be just as 'inclusive'
Any initiative to get youngsters into angling and away from less useful activities has to be applauded.

Latest release from GHOF(Durham)

GET HOOKED ON FISHING CHOOSES BRASSIDE FOR THIS YEARS RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMMES.
The Government supported angling scheme Get Hooked on Fishing (G.H.O.F) has come to an agreement to utilise Durham City Angling Club’s Brasside waters for its summer residential development programme.

Being run during the first 2 weeks of August, the events will see 24 young people attend the venue to undergo training in carp and coarse fishing, but of course being a G.H.O.F. scheme they will also have work to do by researching and completing projects revolving around angling and the environment.

Over recent years G.H.O.F. and some of its participants have travelled Europe during summer months and certainly would have done so again had Durham City Angling Club not contacted them and offered use of Brasside.

Mick Watson, director of the G.H.O.F. scheme said, "The choice was made for me really, having seen the brilliant re development work carried out and met the guys from the Club I knew we could deliver a fantastic experience for the young people we work with. It will seem strange for Paul and I because Brasside is where we learned to carp fish back in the late 70s early 80s. We have fond memories and hope that we can create some memories for others"

Brasside has undergone major changes and now boasts four lakes instead of just one and it is this that attracted Mick. He added, "This major development has created a new opportunity for people in the area, carp and other specimen fishing on one lake and general coarse and match fishing on others. Come this time next year the site will be covered in grass and wild plants and will be more delightful than it already is. I have to applaud the Club and particularly the people who made this happen, what a great asset this will become for the future of angling and the City of Durham"

This signifies the start of a partnership between Durham City Angling Club and G.H.O.F. where both parties will work together and provide angling opportunities and pathways for young people across the County of Durham.

[ 24. July 2005, 10:20 PM: Message edited by: Malcolm Johns ]

I'm sure Jim will remeber Brasside from his younger days

[ 24. July 2005, 10:24 PM: Message edited by: Malcolm Johns ]

I'm sure Jim will remember Brasside from his younger days.

I appear to developed a stammer

[ 24. July 2005, 10:18 PM: Message edited by: Malcolm Johns ]

I do indeed remember Brasside - I fished it back in the sixties when I was a college student in Durham. In those days it didn't contain carp, just pike, perch and a few trout. The adjacent River Wear wasn't a coarse fishing river, either - in those lower reaches it boasted a fantastic run of seatrout, though, and the biggest lampreys I've ever seen.

I'm familiar with Les Webber's selfless and dedicated work with youngsters - indeed, I've met Les and know how committed he is to his cause. I admire him, too. But for my part, I feel we've got quite enough out-of-control youngsters in fishing without actually taking overt steps to encourage more! Some of the problems some of my local clubs have with younger members (and their non-member "mates") would make your hair curl.... they can be a thoroughly repellent species. And yes, before you ask, I have taken youngsters fishing, including young offenders from a juvenile offenders' residential facility (what we used to call approved schools) - so my scepticism regarding the power of fishing as "redemption" hasn't just been plucked from the ether.

WE,ve been running a similar scheme in scotland for 2 years. We,re getting the same kids wanting to come back week after week, so we are doing something right. The main problem in Scotland is the cost for youngsters as all the fishing is on commercial fisheries, if it was,nt for Neil at kingennie a venue would be the biggest problem. If you consider that for 2 kids to go fishing costs about £14 a day, if you are a family on benefits or minimum wage it is a large proportion of the family budget, so not on without our help.

Appreciate your concern, Jim, but I can't help remembering the number of kids from the 'rough bit' of outer West London / Middlesex / Heathrow in the 1960s and '70s - from the council estates of West Drayton, Yiewsley and Hayes - who were literally 'saved' by angling. They're in their forties today, with families of their own, with houses and with jobs. Quite a few of their non-fishing contemporaries, however, went a different route - into petty crime, then into drug-dealing and, in a lot of cases, to an early death.

If these fishing schemes 'save' just a few from that ... well (we all know the adage "like tends to breed like"...), in my opinion, they will be worth it.

And it's not just about curbing crime, it's about the future of Angling too.

Catch this recent thread on a mostly Brit-used flyfishing forum, by a Canadian and an American - "next generation fishers". Note also my own comments some way down the thread. Interesting also to note that almost immediately after I had posted my sixpennyworth, the thread was duly buried by hastily posted or suddenly revived others... Take note of my TS Eliot tag-line at the base of this posting - SOME British anglers, it appears, certainly can't...

http://flyforums.proboards53.com/index.cgi...read=1122058473

[ 25. July 2005, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: Paul Boote ]