CoachingEADAC's Angling Coach Column
The EADAC Angling Coach
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For those that don’t already know me, my name is Jim Rice and I have been a member of the Club for approximately 6 years now and have been Coaching course angling for around 5 years as a fully Licensed Angling Coach.
I am now coaching full time in the South of England and like to specialize my fishing mainly with “Special Needs” schools in the Southampton area.
The club have kindly allowed me to use Church Pond at Stoneham for small groups, as the pond is ideally situated and has a relaxed atmosphere, some members may have already noticed us walking down to the pond.
Also the Club “juniors section” continues to thrive on Saturdays catering for youngsters aged 9 to 15 years.
The stamp of fish in Church are quite small which suits our needs as most of the juniors prefer to use the whips, and then progress up to the Waggler etc.
To date 9 lads from the junior club have gone on to join the main Club as Juveniles, hopefully as responsible anglers who will respect and enjoy club waters.
Over the coming weeks I hope to be announcing the Junior Sections progress via the clubs website and to generally promote the development of angling within the club to both juniors and seniors alike.
There seems to be a definite gap within the club of potential match anglers
Of the 16 to 20 age group, and as the juniors are the clubs futures I feel strongly that they should be given the correct guidance.
I look forward to sharing a “fishy story” with anyone who wishes to stop and chat, and to offer any advice if required.
EADAC “Top Tips”
If anyone has any useful tips that they would like to share with other members, whether it be Carp fishing, Waggler or Feeder, please send them in to me using the contact Email address above and I will put them up on the website.
Angling Developments
In recent years a government initiative meant that all sports coaches should be regulated by their own governing body. In 2008 the Angling Development Board was accepted by Sport England as anglings governing body. The result of this is that all coaches now need to be properly trained and licensed to teach angling so ending the days of informal, uncosted arrangements for junior fishing clubs. Therefore, in view of these additional training and material costs it is no longer reasonable to expect an individual to bear the expense of delivering coached angling. The Eastleigh & District Angling Club supports its angling coach with access to teaching venues and a material contribution Benefits
It is widely commented that the demographics of angling club members are skewed toward the middle aged. It is clear therefore that there needs to be a way to ensure the survival of the club with an influx of younger members who can takeover as they mature; a sustainable approach to membership renewal. Regular coaching with a sizeable throughput is just one solution to ensure a percentage of young anglers return as members later in life.
Developments further afield
The Angling Development Board is working to increase the number of trained coaches nationally mainly to address some of the pressures on the sport and tackle its poor image. So there are now more trained coaches becoming available and clubs are being encouraged to give them support in developing links with local education authorities.
Community Angling Action Groups: As part of this drive to raise the profile of angling a number of initiatives are being promoted by the Angling Trust. These include the creation of Community Angling Action Groups which will promote angling in schools by integrating it with the syllabus and providing opportunities for youngsters to sample the sport.
National Fishing Month: There will also be a series of local coached angling events to coincide with National Fishing Month 17 Jul to 15 Aug 2010.
Club Mark: Sport England's Clubmark is a cross-sport accreditation for sports clubs with junior sections in recognition of being a quality club. This might be an aspiration for our club in the future.
There are many more developments in our sport currently being progressed right now and I will try to update you as they come to fruition. Meanwhile, if you would like to learn more or get involved as a volunteer then please contact me or visit the Angling Trust website.
Juniors Fishing Club Competition 2009
The Juniors Fishing Comp this year was proving to be even more popular than last year as our normal venue Church Pond, only holds 10 swims, which meant the club granting us the use of Smiths Pond for the morning.
A total of 15 juniors booked in for the match on Saturday 3rd Oct, and drew their pegs ready for the off at 10.00am.
The majority of youngsters were on the whip fishing with maggot, but one or two of the older ones chose to fish the Waggler with maggot, corn or Pellet.
Being Smiths Pond they had fish straight away and continued to catch small Roach, Gudgeon, and the odd Crucian Carp throughout.
The weather held in our favour and at the whistle at 1.00pm , everyone including many parents had a most enjoyable morning.
At the “weigh in” everyone was eager and excited to see each others fish, and it proved to be quite a “Stampede” during the weighing.
The Crucians turned out to be quite thin on the ground, and the Tench didn’t show, but that didn’t stop every contestant weighing in.
The top 3 weights were;
1st Kai 0.900grm
2nd Chester Bradbrook 0.540grm
3rd Bradley Hanson 0.400grms
On behalf of all the Juniors and their Parents/Guardians, I would like to say a big
Thanks very much to the EADAC Committee for the use of Smiths Pond, the loan of
The keep Nets, and once again the splendid trophies.
I would also like to thank all those EADAC members who have donated their unwanted items of fishing Equipment to the Juniors Section, it has proved to be very useful.
Please continue to hand any unwanted Fishing Tackle to Mick the Bailiff at Stoneham, thanks very much.
Jim Rice.