hi tec mad kids

[Guest glyn llewellyn]

I’ve been helping 15 kids from our local school on how to fish and how to conduct themselves when fishing. This has been now been going on for the last three years for one week in July.

 

I started to realise that some of them believe that to go fishing you needed about £500 Worth of gear to even get started, one of them even brought a bivi every day. When I talked to them they thought that you must have two rods two bite alarms or a pole that costs an arm and leg

 

If these kids go home and tell mum and dad that this is the cost of going fishing now what chance have we got in getting kids interested in our sport

 

We all know there is a decline in kids taking up fishing, is wanting hi tec gear at hi tec prices one of the problems.

 

Lets have your views or have you encountered the same problem.

 

Catch ya later glyn

[Guest davidP]

Yup, I've seen a similar thing myself.

On one occasion I was doing a spot of baliffing on a water that had a good head of carp up to low twenties (only a couple and not many teens either), but predominantly fish in the 3 to 7lb range. I came across a young teenager who had all the gear - bivvy, rod pod, optonics, matching rods & baitcasters, the full monty. I got talking to him and he said that his seasons best was 17lb which I thought was bloody good for that particular water. Before I could say that however he proceeded to complain that he was thinking of giving up fishing because he didn't have access to a water with regular twenties & thirties and he was 'fed up' with catching single figure fish and didn't feel like a proper carp angler. I was somewhat taken aback by this so I asked him what other fishing he'd done. It turned out that he had never done any other type of fishing at all. He'd seen all these picture of big carp in the papers, pestered his parents to buy him 'the gear' (not much change out of £1000) and was then hugely disappointed when he wasn't catching 20's every other fish "like they do in the magazines"!. He was completely dismissive of any species other than carp (although did admit he'd like to catch a 40lb catfish!) and didn't appear to understand why anybody would even want to float fish with a maggot or use a pole or even fish a river (unless it had carp in). Even barbel didn't interest him because to his mind they were small fish.

I spent quite some time trying to persaude him to try something else and even volunteered to take him out to various local venues so he could try different things out, but all to no avail. If it wasnt carp he wasn't having any.

 

I never saw him again.

 

It does seem these days that people want instant success and don't like to actually have to work to get it. I've coached a lot of kids who as soon as they got onto a water that needed a bit of thought just gave up and went back to the easy water. Perhaps this is a clue as to the popularity of the commercial carp waters where even the most clueless of danglers can catch without too much thought.

Another thing I've noticed is that the kids are getting totally obsessed by pole fishing. I used to run the junior teams for a largish association and when the National venue was a canal I would regularly have a full team of 12 and 6 or 7 reserves. As soon as it was on a river however where they might have to use running line then I used to struggle to put out a team at all! The last year I was involved the National was on the Witham and I struggled to get 6 kids. The fact that the Witham barely flows and is quite suited to pole fishing didn't even enter into it - they heard the word River mentioned and ran a mile! The fact is I had kids who could handle an 11 or 12 metre pole so naturally it was a joy to watch, yet give them a float rod or put them on running water and they were completely lost.

[Guest RobStubbs]

Glyn,

I think it is sad that youngsters come in to angling and go straight into a specific branch - be it pole fishing or carp fishing. I personally spent my first year or two fishing on local canals and a few lakes with light float gear before going on to carp fishing. But I still like to fish for different fish when I can - sea or coarse.

 

The big problem is the availability of carp puddles all over the place. It seems youngsters just want to catch bigger fish (normally = carp) like they've seen in the magazines.

 

There are a few good things including training schemes like yours and others throughout the country, showing youngsters what they can catch. I think the important thing is to catch them early, if they've already started carping etc then they are unlikely to be interested in general float fishing.

 

Rob.

[Guest glyn llewellyn]

hi roy & david

 

thanks for the replys,next year i hope to change thier views by getting them to float fish even if i have to take my own gear for them to use. seeing that float go under will hopefully change thier minds, it still gives me a great buzz.

 

the reason we started to teach these kids was beacause we got fed up with them poaching our lake every summer in the holidays and also the mess they left, it sounds daft but its working.

 

i wonder if there is any more lake owners who would try it. we do not charge for them to come but do insist that a teacher is present at all times and the school accepts liability wile they are on the property

 

catch ya later glyn