How to Get More Kids Into Fishing
Channel: Fishwish
Date: 2020-11-05

How to Get More Kids Into Fishing

If we want to get children fishing, we need to be introducing them to fishing while they are at school.  Every other sport seems to do a comparitively better job!

Fishing with School Children - Lockdown Fishing with Schools

Covid 19 has the country in lockdown and every angler is asking “can I go fishing or not”, but while they await the answer from the Angling Trust, and Anglers Mail print their last ever magazine, the show must go on!*  

Fishwish is fishing with school children at the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal and delivering their weekly outdoor education provision.  The easiest type of fishing for children is to use a telescopic whip or pole – it offers achievable goals and an excellent platform for basic technical understanding of angling that they can progress from.  Teaching life skills to school pupils is the aim of these sessions though, which is why fishing is good for children.  No other outdoor learning activities offer such a broad range of sub-topics relating to the school curriculum.  It is NOT just the fishing that they are there to learn and they are also fishing for health benefits too.

Once the school fishing group have arrived, we reinforce their learning about safety near water and ground rules before setting the aims of the session in relation to the environmental conditions and their personal goals.  For some children it might be plumbing the depth or landing the fish, but it is as much about improving patience, concentration, determination, self confidence etc.  The pupils benefit enormously from these sessions and that’s not just my opinion, it’s what we are told repeatedly by various teaching and health professionals, as well as the parents of those who we are teaching.  
The school fishing group take part in this activity every week throughout the academic year and in addition to developing life skills, embedded learning covers topics in Science, Maths, and English.  
  
Pressures on families are at an all time high and there is very little information out there fore teachers or parents wanting to know where children can learn to fish.  If you would like further information for your region, please do get in touch and we will gladly help.  These challenging times are naturally and rightfully grabbling the headlines, but the opportunity here is also taken to highlight the terrible pollution of rivers, caused by agricultural run off and sewage overflows.  There is an opportunity for change and a brief mention is given to a campaign, to save our river and stop them being treated like open sewers.

  *Fishing in lockdown is permitted in groups as an education provision during school curriculum hours.  There is no fishing allowed in groups for any other purpose.

For more information or if you would like to purchase a fishing gift voucher to use for a booking at a later date, please visit www.fishwish.co.uk

#fishwish #fishingwithschools #lockdownfishing