Warren White updates us on progress with Stone Lodge School, Dartford, who are three quarters of the way through their Fishing for Schools sessions.
Our work with Stone Lodge is supported by The Tackle Box, Dartford, who have also provided clothing, tackle and bait.
Warren tells us:
The session was held at Shorne Country Park, an excellent venue to start fishing with mainly novice anglers. Whilst the fish are not as big as our other venues, here they are plentiful and a good variety.
Although this was the third session with the school, we are now working with a new group for duration of their sessions. As there was such interest at the school, it was agreed to offer more students the opportunity to take part by providing two groups two sessions.
Before commencing, students were given a health and safety introduction followed by a talk about fish safety; all core topics for the Cast Level one course. On the practical side the students learnt the basics of whip and pole fishing, plumbing up, casting, playing, and handling and unhooking fish. The beauty of the venue is there is a lot of fish, so the students were able to practice their disgorger skills, which is important at this stage.
The group worked well together, supporting each over along the way. We had a mixed bag of levels, some novice anglers and a few that had come on the course last year and fished as a hobby. The group work well as a team, for example we saw one lad catch a fish and the other use the landing net to net the fish.
Their final session is at Grove Farm Hadlow, which will be a good experience for the students as this an excellent venue. They will continue to use their new-found skills and will also be adding some new fishing methods. Grove Farm will provide a good opportunity to handle some larger fish, which is exciting for the group.