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Fishing 4 Schools – Norfolk open day with Sportquest Holidays

“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.


Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Just some of the children eagerly awaiting to move on to the next demonstration.

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.


Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
The look on all of the childrens faces was reward enough for everyone who helped on the day.

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.


Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Children totally engaged in learning to tie their own flies and how pleased did they look once they had finished.

Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Liam had the children captivated with all the creatures found in water.

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!


Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Children learning how to clean, prepare, cook and eat fresh fish.

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.


Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Children concentrating hard on learning knots

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.


Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day

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.

Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
Sally & Jennie the perfect hosts, taking good care of everyone making sure there was always plenty to both eat and drink.
Fishing 4 Schools - Norfolk open day
At lunch time I even got the chance to break from taking all the photographs to try my hand at fly tying.

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

12 comments

  1. Tracey Buckenham Sportquest

    Thank you Garry, yes, what a lovely day to remember. Looking forward to next year already!

  2. Tracey Buckenham Sportquest

    Thank you Amanda, yes I agree that everyone involved had such a great experience on the day, lots of smiles and squeals of laughter everywhere!

  3. Tracey Buckenham Sportquest

    I’m glad you like the pictures Sally, I look forward to being involved in Fishing 4 Schools in the coming months.

  4. Tracey Buckenham Sportquest

    My pleasure Charles, i had so many wonderful happy subjects to photograph! It was a fantastic day.

  5. Tracey Buckenham Sportquest

    Yes, it would be wonderful to engage with more schools to allow more young people the opportunity to have this wonderful experience

  6. Steve Beckham

    Great photos of a wonderful day, everyone looks as if they had a good time!
    We’ll done to everyone who was involved.

    1. Tracey Buckenham Sportquest

      I think it’s safe to say the fishing magic was felt by everyone, and I even got to tie my first fly, thanks for that!

  7. Garry Mardle

    Lovely Tracey, lovely day lovely pictures, even better…………………..
    Lovely memories.

  8. Amanda Brownlow

    Tracey, brilliant photos. You can see how much the participants, children and adults alike, enjoyed themselves. Terrific day.

  9. Sally Acloque

    Tracey, what wonderful pictures, which give a very good idea of exactly what Fishing 4 Schools can do, and the fun and enjoyment of all who took part. We hope to be involved with more schools and to help more children. It was a great day, and huge thanks to all who gave their time to help.

  10. Charles Jardine

    Brilliant…..and the images bring it all, magically, back…Tracey, Thank you.
    Importantly thank you to everyone from the youngest participant to the older generations for making the time and contributing to the success it was…..

  11. Mike Smith

    A fantastic day hopefully all the hard work will pay off and bring lots more schools on
    board.
    Well done everybody involved

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