the average age of anglers

#41

Tony, did pete run gailey matches at some stage?

#42

Tony, did pete run gailey matches at some stage?

Leopold,

Same name, totally different guy.

#43

In the late 80s through to the late 90s my club, Izaak Walton(Stafford)AA had a guy named Pete Bryan (some may know him, he is a lecturer at Rodbaston College) take on a a group of youngsters to not just improve their skills but match fishing skills and techniques too, on a wide range of waters. Pete was ultra keen and I can't speak high enough of what he did. Under his wing (the Club bought him a team bus to take them around) they went all over the place fishing and learning and eventually fishing matches that were appropriate to them; they visited all sorts of venues, some easy and some deliberately difficult. It didn't take too long for these youngsters to start improving and as such more and more joined. What started as an excercise in getting youngsters more involved in the sport escalated beyond belief. Many of those 'lads' are still fishing, some in matches, some pleasure fishing. In that short space of time Simon Allen won the Junior National as well as others, the team won the last ever large Junior National in 1995. That group of lads included Andy Moors and Kieron Rich, both went on to win the Kamasan Matchman of the Year competition and masses of other huge matches and Festivals and like Simon, still fishing matches today. There are many more lads, from that squad, still fishing.
Pete 'retired' soon after that National win quite simple to watch and spend some time with his own kids as they grew up.

In my mind this is what is needed today to get youngsters fishing matches, with it becoming harder and harder to get jobs the time and the potential is there.

One big problem, where do you find another Pete Bryan? If they can be found surely match fishing has more future than we all believe.

Bill, a similar situatuation happened when i was a junior angler with Lymm AC, we had a guy called Harry Newton look after and teach us on all sorts of venues including Lymm Dam, Leeds Liverpool Canal and the Bridgewater Canal plus travel to junior nationals was provided (River Trent etc). Very happy days and a certain Stuart Conroy was part of our junior squad.

Nowadays the younger anglers catch a few carp on pellets then jump onto the 20 peg scene on their local puddle...... frightening !

joffmiester · #44

and then get board hopefully pete marlow will be back sooner rather than later

joffmiester · #45

the other point about commercial fishing is the angler is catered far better ,he has so much of a say which pegs to leave out what lakes to put in.i just wonder if every peg was in every match would you still see the same anglers winning so often. this sort of behaviour makes commercial fishing a unfair playing field to most .lake view is finished because the anglers ruled the fishery the same 10 to 20 anglers fish week in week out the average angler keeps away its not rocket science to see whats happening

Mancunian · #46

Another negative on some commercials is "rovers" where the angler can choose their peg. This plays even more into the hands of the venue experts and further discourages your average angler knowing he cannot compete. :(

joffmiester · #47

a level playing field would be a start
but then you would get well everyone wants a days fishing ::)everyone has been at work all week so they want to catch a ton of carp

witham matches in thewinter where i used to supply metal cake trays to stop you sinking in the mud every peg throughout the pound length fishing wag and mag freezing winds where men were men

you just can't forget memories like that

#48

Trouble these days is its much harder to do anything to help kids due to all the rigmarole you have to go through due to the perverted dirty twats on our society