Educational Fishing Courses – First Fish Arrive!

Today was a brilliant day at For Life Experiences as the first fish arrived in our educational stock pond.

Tom, Steve, Callum and Stacey have been coming to FLE every Friday for a year now and have matured into great anglers but more importantly really nice, approachable young men.  At Greenridge Farm FLE is building a dedicated Angling and Outdoor Pursuit Centre including an Aquatics Room where youngsters can learn the basics about fish rearing and fishery management and our own stock pond where we can practically harvest and rear our own carp.  The youngsters get to name the fish once they have cared for them for the year and one day it is hoped that they will see the very same fish that they reared on the front covers of fishing magazines.

So today we headed down to Hampshire Fisheries to collect 250 little C1 Carp from Chris Seagraves.  Chris was a super nice guy and showed the lads around the farm and gave them a little introduction on what it is like to work in the business.  With 250 carp to their name, new knowledge about fishery management and brimming with excitment they headed back to Greenridge to put the fish into their new home.

Once at the site the lads took it in turns to introduce 50 carp each to the pond, one at a time.  They named a few of the fish and cared for each and every one, holding them in the water until they were able to swim away into the pond.

While each person had their turn putting their share of the fish in, the others cleared the vegitation from around the pond.  I was so proud to see the guys getting stuck in, really keen to make ‘their’ pond look as good as they possibly could.  Everyone grafted for the whole day, taking it in turns to introduce fish and do their part in clearing the site.  Steve even commented that if a year ago we had asked them to do this type of work they would have told me ‘where to go’ but now they understand about hard work, responsibility and all have a keen interest in fish and fisheries now.  They really have all done so well since starting to come on the fishing courses.

Once all the fish were in it was time to peg strings across the pond to stop preditors and people from fishing for them.  Working as a team they worked their way along the pond and made a fantastic job.  If you look at the pictures you can see that they achieved a lot in a day!

So there we go, it is the start of an exciting time at FLE.  We will not only be delivering fishing tuition and outdoor events, but also practical, accredited learning to encourage and support youngsters into higher education or employment. The guys will be responsible for all the fish in the pond and i am sure they will do a great job.

Laura

Tags: accredited courses, asdan fishing award, carp fishing hampshire, Education outside the classroom, educational courses hampshire, fishery management, Fishing lessons, youth group activities, youth group experiences Hamphire, youth group fishing trips