Last week I had a last minute telephone booking from a chap called David who wanted me to provide a day’s coaching for his Dad’s birthday. He wanted to bring his brother in law as well. I met them today at Twynersh at 8 a.m. and the day that followed was the most hilarious coaching session I can ever remember.
They are all Bangladeshi, although David and his brother in law Rashed were born here in the UK. It’s great to see people from the Indian sub continent on my courses as we see so few Asians in our sport.
Abdur and his son David are accountants and Rashed is an IT consultant. Not the recipe for a fun filled day, you might say as neither profession is noted for their uninhibited enjoyment of life. Well you would be wrong! We started laughing during my introductory talk and carried on through the casting exercises. The banter between the father and the two boys (to me, anyone under 40 is a boy these days) was in direct contrast to the false stereotype of the strict muslim father. What an infectious laugh Abdur had!
Anyone who has been fishing with me will know how I like to mix humour with the serious matter of catching fish but given such an appreciative audience I was in my element.
I set them up with 5 metre whips fishing very shallow with maggots, always a good method for beginners. The two boys started catching fish straight away as they were fishing each side of some lilly pads but Abdur had no cover for the fish in his swim and had no bites at all.
This earned him a few comments from the boys and after about thirty minutes I started feeding his swim with pellets and increased the depth he was fishing at. A soft hooker pellet replaced the maggots on his hook fished hard on the bottom. The result was these three bream all much bigger than the fish the youngsters were catching. He beamed with pride and the boys fell quiet. One up for us old ‘uns.
Throughout the rest of the course we laughed and laughed, casting lessons with the fixed spool reel really caused my sides to ache as the three students made fun of each other’s efforts, all without a hint of malice.
David had the last laugh with a bream from his Dad’s swim and all too soon it was time for them to go in order to avoid the traffic on the M25.
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