On Sunday some of the coaches from All Things Piscatorial met at Steve Gray’s fishery at Shepperton for a social/fish-in.
Dave and Annie Higham came down from Oham Lakes in Lincolnshire and stayed with me for the weekend. We know each other from various PAA functions, including the Urban Escapes weekend last June.
Richard Watson came all the way from Suffolk and Jim Rice made the journey from Southampton. Steve Rowland, Steve Gray and myself are all relatively local, but you can see the commitment that this site already generates. This should serve as a good example to other coaches on the site and more importantly to the various governing bodies in coaching.
Two of Steve’s bailiffs also turned up to give support and we were visited by angling journalist and TV presenter Nigel Botherway.
Since the event was first organised we heard that Angling Projects run by Les Webber had been the victim of a burglary and had lost most of their tackle. We all have a great deal of respect for the work done by Les and his colleagues and it was decided that we would all bring some bits of tackle to donate to this worthy cause. Les arrived to pick up our donations and got involved with the discussions that followed.
I won’t give too many details here of what was discussed but neither the PAA, NFA nor Fishcoach.org came out very well.
As for the fishing, it is just as well that none of our potential customers were present as all five of the coaches who actually fished blanked. To be fair the discussions were so interesting that no one really fished seriously and there had been a severe cold snap the night before. That’s my excuse anyway and already the forum on ATP is full of other versions.
Well he said there was fish in here.
Some of the coaches not local to this area were amazed by the wild green parakeets that are abundant in these parts and after I was seen putting some chicken drum sticks on the barbeque certain allegations were made that I strongly deny. I just hope that the RSPB don’t take them seriously…
All in all it was a really worthwhile day and it was great to be able to put faces to names. Much was discuseed and I am sure all who attended came away richer for the experience. Plans were made to hold another day in September organised by Jim Rice in Hampshire.
I think I can speak for all that attended when I thank Steve for organising the day and say that I am looking forward to the next one.
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