If you hear only stories of division between angling disciplines, it may come as a pleasant surprise to know the Angling Times Team asked us "fluff chuckers" to come over to their on-line forum to give advice on their newly created Game Fishing Board http://forum.anglingtimes.co.uk/forumlive/
Not only did we receive a warm welcome from the "maggot drowners" we soon found ourselves overwhelmed for requests on advice such as; tackle, how to get started and where people could get lessons to help them break into Fly-Fishing without spending a lot of money up front, i.e. a "Try before you Fly!" option. It soon dawned on us that a "beginners day" was the only way forward!.
Trying to keep things informal and affordable, we were able to find people prepared to travel from all parts of the UK to give up their May Bank Holiday to "Buddy-a-Novice" at a small Stillwater in the East Midlands region.
From London, Liverpool, Malvern, Birmingham, Lincoln and Derbyshire we had our "Buddies" travel purely on a voluntary basis to lend a hand on the day, then just as we were wondering which one of us was going to get the short straw on the casting lessons, we got word that a professional APGAI instructor was offering his services. Andy Smith www.fishconsulting.net agreed to be our Lead instructor and suddenly our rag-tag bunch of amateurs could breath a sigh of relief.
I cannot emphasise enough how having a professional instructor such as Andy made such a difference to the students. While not forgetting our buddies who equally gave freely of time and tackle, the tuition given by Andy/APGAI is first class.
As for the venue, again we were lucky, we didn't have far to look to find a small picturesque still water just a few miles off the A1 near Grantham. A lovely little trout lake tucked away on the Lincs/Leicestershire border in the village of Buckminster was the perfect venue to "borrow" for the day courtesy of the owner Buckminster Farms and the Fishery Managers Nigel and Sue Smith (Tel: 01476 860297, Email: fishing@buckminsterfarms.co.uk). Buckminster is quintessential England and the estate lake is neatly maintained, safe, easy access, well stocked and has very easy casting over 90% of its area, all-in-all the perfect beginners venue. Buckminster Farms offered the students £10 "2-fish" tickets and Sue and Nigel even provided BBQ where Sue cooked some of the fish we caught in delicious oriental sauce with rice and salad.
Making sure we had safety in mind, we had trained first aid people amongst the buddies, everyone wearing caps and sunglasses, and a very thorough safety talk on the do's and don'ts for the day by Andy Smith. Casting Lessons on the ample grassy area was followed by lunch and at this point Andy being pleased with the progress by all the students, we tackled up and headed for the lake. The EA had provided all the students with a license dispensation for the day, so trained/armed and legal we set about the noble art of fly-fishing.
It wasn't 30 minutes into the fishing Session when our youngest student of the day, seven year old Joe Robinson was into a fish!, helped by his Dad who was one of the buddies on the day Joe scooped himself first fish prize presented below by Andy Smith. Windy conditions eventually got the better of us and by 4pm most people had caught fish or lost them in the process of landing as the fighting quality of the Buckminster Trout got the better of a few people.
Finally, we have to say a huge THANKYOU to Steve Cole at Angling Times and Russell Hill from Trout Fisherman who donated 3 Fly-Fishing rods as prizes, we also had a Scierra fly vest, Game Fishing book, Orvis fly patches and a Fishing Day with Dinner thrown in for one of the Buddies all donated by www.anglersvoice.com.
We will be working with Trout Fisherman and Angling Times to try and repeat this in different areas around the UK so if you know of any Coarse Angler or fishing beginner that would be interested in joining one of these days, please join us on line and we'll see what we can do. Anyone living in the Lincs/Leics/Nottingham/Northampton area who wishes to have paid lessons on a one-to-one or small group basis would be well advised to contact Andy Smith and arrange a day at Buckminster Lake.
Kevin Swinscoe