THE FUTURE OF ANGLING, MAYBE........

Whilst in Norfolk i had been asked to take my nephew Jack for his first fishing trip. I have meant to take him fishing for quite a while now but whenever he comes down to Essex i always seem to be doing something else, poor planning is the excuse i,m going to use. Anyway as i was holidaying just 10 miles away from where he lives it was an ideal opportunity to take the wee lad for a couple hours dangling. I also took along Louis, Sharons god son, as he was also staying with us and wanted to come along. I wasn,t sure if i could handle 2 young lads and their multitude of " why's, what's that and i,m hungry's" but i survived the afternoon and even managed to catch them a few fish too.

We headed to the weir pool on the River Bure at Coltishall as it was only 10 miles from Jacks home and i,d been informed by the chap in the tackle shop that this was a good place to try. Unfortunately there was nowhere left to fish as there was quite a few people down there already. Not a problem i thought, we,ll just take a walk along the river and i,ll hopefully spot a few fish which i could show the boys and maybe on our return there might be a swim free. Well we found quite a few shoals of small rudd, the odd chub and luckily a bigger chub of over 1lb that the lads really enjoyed stalking up on, once they learned to walk carefully and stop talking that is. But on our return to the weir pool there was still nowhere to fish, so we grabbed the kit set of on a little walk to the main river and i preyed that i could find some fish for them, as where we had been fish spotting earlier you couldn,t actually fish.

 I got Jack set up first as he was itching to use his christmas from Nanny Pat, a complete float fishing rod and reel kit. After showing him the basics and doing a little groundbaiting Jack cast his float out a few meters from the bank and sat back and ate his crisps while i turned my attention to setting up one of my rods for young Louis to use. After a couple of minutes a little voice came from over my shoulder ' my float moved, its gone under again' turning round i ushered Jack to lift his rod quick and with a little guidance he soon had his first fish on the bank. A fighting fit, bristly little perch. At first Jack wasn,t sure about touching it, but with a little reassurance that it wasn,t going to bite he soon had it held up for the camera like a pro.

 A little later Jack had another bite and soon had a fin perfect rudd to admire. He also caught another small rudd which clumsy Uncle Bryan dropped back into the river. At the end of the fishing Jack had even got used to touching the maggots as well becoming quite good at casting. Upon asking whether he wanted to go fishing again with a big smile he said a great big yes. Definately an angler in the making i reckon, and where better to ply your trade than in the middle of glorious Norfolk.









Now Louis had a little trouble with the casting at first but soon got the hang off it, and at the end of the day actually caught the most fish. Five rudd to Louis and two rudd and one perch to Jack, if i remember correctly. He also managed to bag the biggest rudd of the day as well, as you can see from the pictures below he thoroughly enjoyed himself too.

At the end of our few hours fishing the boys really had enjoyed themselves, and to be honest i enjoyed teaching them how to fish as well as a few lessons on the countryside. They both want to go fishing again, especially Jack, and they were very proud of the fish they caught. I was pleased with the way they behaved and also the way they carefully held the fish and wanted to put them back themselves so they could watch them swim away. It was good fun teaching these lads, but i was completely knackered at the end it. They wore me out..........