The Fishing Coach

Last week I was sent a request to renew my membership of the coaching governing body fishcoach.org and I noticed that my First Aid qualification had just expired. I spent a couple of hours in a series of panicked Google searches but managed to book a course with Surrey First Aid. Many thanks to Sam Cannon for her assistance, I have attended the course today and now I am “legitimate” again.

The course was held at the Charterhouse Club in the grounds of the famous Charterhouse School. It was an excellent, very well-run course and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

If you'd like to leave a comment on this post, here's how.

Once again the show was a disappointment, smaller than even last year with fewer of the large manufacturers present. It did not seem to attract so many customers either and those I had time to speak too were dissatisfied with what they got for their entry fee.

The highlight of the show for me was sharing an early morning flask of coffee on the first day with John Wilson. He was already on the Masterline stand when I arrived and we had our corner of the show to ourselves for about twenty minutes. We discussed the decline of the Hampshire chalk streams as far as grayling fishing is concerned. He has found that the river Test has suffered the same fate as the river Itchen. As we are both centrepin enthusiasts the time passed quickly and I found him very easy to talk to and obviously a very knowledgeable angler.

On the Masterline stand he pointed me to a new range of rods marketed by Masterline on the J.W. Youngs label. They have three trotting rods suited from 2lbs to about 10lbs or more main line. I was very impressed but I don’t think I will be replacing my beloved Harrisons just yet.

If you'd like to leave a comment on this post, here's how.