Ten years of coaching (part 2)
Local Government work can be very challenging as it often involves young people with problems but recently I am getting more and more schools using my courses as a reward for good behavior with all the other pupils. Sometimes I have just one student at a time and sometimes a small group of up to four. In the latter case, when not everyone likes to handle maggots or fish, I am often rushing about all day unhooking fish and re-baiting hooks. This is particularly true if they are all catching lots of fish and I choose my venues very carefuly to try and ensure they do.
One of my favourite venues is Royal Berkshire Fisheries in Winkfield near Windsor. This is a series of three lakes full of fish and coveniently close to Slough where a lot of my Local Government work is currently located.
These photos show that the venue has a good head of roach, sometimes a single young angler can catch twenty or thirty as well as some big perch.
The fishery sometimes produces a really nice rudd and carp are always on the cards, but beware, the cafe in the background is closed on Mondays.
I also did some work (I can’t help laughing every time I use that word) with a school from Wallingford in Oxfordshire at a new venue Orchid Lakes where I was ably assisted by Nick Watkins.
Few fish were caught by the eight students and I was disappointed with the fishery as I was assured by the manager when I visited it a month before that it was full of silver fish. On top of being charged £10 per student there was another cost. It mentions on the website that…
…but it doesn’t mention that it costs £3 per angler, nor was it mentioned on my first visit.As an added service to anglers, transport is made available to take you and your tackle to your chosen swim
If you'd like to leave a comment on this post, here's how.
