“The outdoors makes a wonderful classroom and nature is an amazing teacher”
Every now and again it’s our pleasure to be personally involved in a great fishing event and to be able to volunteer at an open day to promote Fishing for Schools in Norfolk was a particular privilege.
The Day begins
Situated in a beautiful area of the Norfolk Countryside the event was held on the 9-acre lake run by the Lenwade Pike club and generously hosted by the lake’s owner, Sally Alcloque in collaboration with the Countryside Alliance.
Our hosts invited many fishing experts and enthusiasts from around the local area to demonstrate their skills and impart their enthusiasm for the sport to over 50 young students from local schools. The children were able to get involved in 7 different fishing-related activities including fly casting, knot tying, entomology, float/rig making, fly tying, a cooking demonstration and most importantly lots of time on the bank actually casting to and catching lots of fish.
The children all immersed themselves in the day with total enthusiasm and the sounds of laughter and squeals of excitement could be heard all along the lakeside as fish after fish were being landed. For many of the children, it was the first time that they have had the opportunity to see and touch different species of fish and on this day they got to witness Perch, Rudd and Roach first hand.
Each student had the opportunity to tie their own trout fly which they were able to take home, they also were able to touch and to see up close each species of fish under the watchful eye of Liam from the Rivers Trust who also demonstrated the great number of insects and larvae gathered from the lake that morning.
There was even a chef who demonstrated how to fillet and prepare a fresh Trout for cooking and prepared his own delicious recipe for smoked Trout which the children were able to taste. Mike Smith a qualified Fly casting instructor taught the children how to cast a fly line something that adults find a challenge, its safe to say that many children were a natural at this art!
The day also included instruction on how to tie rigs, join hooks to nylon, how fishing rigs worked to catch fish. Watching and seeing how quick children can and do pick up new skills was amazing.
To keep the day as much fun as possible, Charles Jardine, the Fishing for Schools director also ran an art session with the children, which as you can see the children loved the hands on approach.
Supporting Fishing 4 Schools
Fishing for Schools enables young people to experience through fishing, the magic of nature and the countryside at it’s finest.
If you would be interested in helping or supporting the amazing work Fishing 4 Schools is doing or would like to find out how to get your school involved then please feel free to contact Catrin Robinson at the Countryside Alliance email: fishing@ca-foundation.org
It was such a lovely day, we would just like to thank everyone involved and extend a huge thank you to Sally Alcloque for allowing her home, grounds and lake to be used for the day.
Contact us
If you would like to discuss anything further or would like to ask questions, you can contact our fantastic team on 01603 407596 or email info@sportquestholidays.com and one of our team members will get back to you.
Kind Regards
Tracey Buckenham
