Angling is starting to get more youngsters hooked
IT is comment commonly heard among older anglers who, looking around the bank, often say: “There’s no youngsters joining our ranks and we’re all getting old”.
In recent years there may have been some truth in that as junior angling permit sales fell. But recent data suggests the situation is changing.
Certainly, junior national license sales are on the increase and my club’s junior membership has seen a marked improvement.
One of the reasons perhaps for the "old men’s” comments is that they are looking in the wrong place. Most of the inspiring young anglers are now more interested in big fish rather than matches.
One young man who is certainly showing his peers how to do it is young Louis Greenhough, who recently caught a beautiful 6lbs 8ozs carp fishing 8mm wafters with the method feeder on Ravenfield’s Bridge Pond.
It’s great to see success like this, let’s see some more.
Back with the senior scene, there was carp, carp and more carp at Wentworth on Monday.
Glynn Larder had the largest, a 16lbs fish, which together with soms skimmers gave him a winning weight of 23lbs 10ozs.
Graeme Harbert added one of 10lbs to his 20lbs 15ozs second-placed catch while Ray Poole had a 10lbs 12ozs fish in his third placed 17lbs net. The section winners were Dave Howiit and Geoff Whitehouse.
Alan Roberts’ 76lbs 15ozs net was sufficient to give him the first place in last Tuesday’s match on the Island Lake at Kiveton Hall Farm Fisheries.
John Hardy had 54lbs 1oz for second and Mark Stevenson 51lbs 7ozs for third. Peter Morley was fourth with 45lbs 3ozs.
Thursday’s match saw Peter Morley take the honours with a 62lbs 15ozs bag which pushed Steve Gill’s 43lbs 1oz into second place and Steve Ogden’s 39lbs 13ozs into third.
The section winners were Tony Reeves, Paul Massey and Steve Hopkin.
The latest round of the Walkley Summer League was fished on AJ’s Lake at Candy Corner – and it was a photo finish.
Paul Massey just edged a win with a weight of 62lbs 7ozs, beating Carl Roberts’ 62lbs 6ozs by just one ounce. Phil Murphy was third with 52lbs 6ozs.
The section winners were Daz Oldham, Andy Batham, John Dawson, Scott Oxley and Chris Roberts.
Brandon Denton was the winner of Sunday’s open match held on the Riverside Lake at Lowfield Lakes with 67lbs 10ozs.
Joe Sedgwick wasn’t far behind with 64lbs 14ozs which left Ben Fox’s 32lbs 8ozs third and Chris Nardoni’s 22lbs 17ozs fourth.
More Angling in this week’s Advertiser