All Things Piscatorial
Your One Stop Coaching Site
Newsletter - 1st Birthday Issue
[Click on the gold words for links to more information]
What an incredible 12 months it has been. All Things Piscatorial.com has become more than I could have imagined. I had a vision of promoting angling coaches and putting new blood into our sport, but to see it come together the way it has is simply amazing. The site is currently getting over 1,000 hits per month.
When building a website of this nature what you really need is for the big hitters to support it to give the site credibility. Let’s be honest, angling has a habit of knocking those who try and make things better. We all know the reasons for this and that is why I am completely neutral – coaches from Coarse, Sea and Game are one – we are all angling coaches. That’s why All Things Piscatorial.com promotes everyone equally - and All Things Piscatorial.com is all about promotion.
With the help of many others via the angling press, other websites, national radio, and of course, you - the ATP members - the name of All Things Piscatorial.com means only one thing – Your One Stop Coaching Site.
Here are just a few of the highlights and some of the feedback from those who use and promote All Things Piscatorial.com.
National Radio - talkSPORT 1089am
One of my biggest achievements over the past 12 months has been to promote coaching events live on national radio – talkSPORT radio. This is something that has proved to be a massive success and could not have been possible without the incredible support that I and ATP.com have been given by the host of Fisherman’s Blues – Keith Arthur. I would also like to thank Nigel Botherway who is Keith’s stunt double when Keith is away. Both Keith and Nigel have championed the site from day one and I am very grateful for their support.
Keith Arthur has sent us the following birthday message:
The concept of 'All Things Piscatorial' is verging on genius (but don't tell Steve Gray) as it offers coaches a platform for their skills and services. Of course that is all very well, because unless the name 'gets out there' it might as well be in that wood where trees fall and nobody hears them. Luckily, through my radio show, I have been able to act as a step on the way to promoting the site, and it has worked massively to everyone's benefit in the following ways: listeners who heard the name and wanted coaching services could access it easily and rapidly; coaches who required people to coach were contacted by some of my listeners, and then both thought I was Mr Wonderful simply because I was the catalyst!
It's a great feeling, believe me.
I hope Steve will allow Fisherman's Blues to continue to announce the events run by coaches using the All Things Piscatorial.com site next year, I hope the listeners attend the events, and I sincerely hope they all continue to think I am Mr Wonderful, when in fact it's Steve Gray that they should be thanking.
Happy Birthday and, more importantly for the future of our beloved sport,
Many Happy Returns!
Tight lines
National Federation of Anglers
I am very pleased that the NFA have given ATP their 100% backing. I have built up a great relationship with all the key staff at NFA HQ. So much so, I have offered them a platform to promote their work and add their press releases to the forum for everyone to read. I am also very pleased that they have added a link to ATP from their website.
Click here to read the message of support from Julian Taylor - NFA
Professional Anglers Association
Click here to read the message of support from Derek North - PAA
It is hard to pick a highlight from the past 12 months, but without doubt one of them is having All Things Piscatorial.com added to the new EA handout ‘Fishy Facts’.
At coaching events over the spring and summer the guys from the EA handed out their angling packs and each and every person who read the information read about a website that provides coaching to suit everyone’s needs.
That website is www.allthingspiscatorial.com
Thank you to the Environment Agency for promoting All Things Piscatorial.com. I am very pleased and proud that All Things Piscatorial.com is deemed worthy of a place in your publication.
The Angler's Mail regularly promotes the coaching events calendar within their ‘What’s on This Week’ section. All Things Piscatorial.com was also rated the best coaching website in a recent Angler’s Mail poll.
My thanks to Tim Knight and everyone at the Angler’s Mail, for your support.
The forum continues to provide everyone with a place to meet via cyberspace. It has been a successful tool for promoting the work that ATP members are doing around the country via the ATP members in the angling press / websites section. Not only that, you can read all the latest news in the world of coaching and angling in general.
Why not log on and check out the latest news. You are, of course, welcome to post your own comments, news and views. If you would like me to set up a profile for you – let me know.
One of the things I wanted to achieve from the outset was to hold days when fellow coaches could get together for a day’s fishing and have a chance to meet new people and discuss the coaching in their area.
I am very pleased to say that my hopes were realised and we held the first Coaches' Get Together in
When you consider that ATP members travelled from
As well as having a great day out, I wanted to do some good for a local good cause so, on this occasion, we supported Les Webber’s ‘Angling Projects’ that had recently suffered a break-in when much of his tackle was stolen.
Between the coaches who attended, we managed to donate a number of items of tackle and some much needed cash.
For those who do not know of Les Webber’s wonderful work, please check out his Angling Projects website.
After the success of the first ATP Roadshow, in September we pulled in to Hampshire and the Whinwhistle Fishery for the second Coaches' Get Together. ATP member Jim Rice put in a massive amount of work to pull this day together. The Teenage Cancer Trust were the ones to benefit from our fundraising. I am very pleased and proud to tell you that we raised just over £1,000. The money was raised in a number of ways – including me having my head shaved!
Once again, coaches travelled from far and wide, most notably Ian Coates who travelled down to Hampshire from
In 2007 the Roadshow will move northwards and the first stop will be to Wood Farm Fishery in
Then we shall be up in the north east of the country at the Angel of the North Fishing Lakes run by Ann Adlington.
For all the details and to put your name down for
Looking further ahead to spring 2008, we will be travelling to
We are looking for an event location for September 2008; if anyone would like to run an event – please let me know.
We have an amazing cross-section of coaches listed within the site - at present over 80 in all. There are coaches from the NFA, NFSA, S&T and NFSA covering most parts of the
I hope that, over the coming months, other coaches will sign up to All Things Piscatorial.com and make the site even stronger.
If you are in any doubt of what All Things Piscatorial.com is doing for angling coaches and coaching then please read the following views from ATP members.
Ian Boden – NFA Senior Coach - West Midlands
It has now been about one year since I first heard from Steve Gray about joining a website called All Things Piscatorial.com (yet another coaching group starting I thought). How wrong I was.
During its first year I have seen the website grow like I could never have imagined. When I first saw the site up and running there were only about 10 coaches listed. Now there are some 80+ coaches registered. What a great job Steve has done, not only for me, but for angling coaching as a whole.
Not only is it a site for all disciplines of angling coaches, but also a place for old and new coaches to look for information about how to start as a coach, where to look for business and how to go about improving your chances of survival in the coaching game, plus the added bonus, Steve even advertises your events on national radio and now in the magazines every week.
Before All Things Piscatorial.com started, there were coaches trying to work it out, but not communicating with one another because we, as coaches, all thought that we were the only ones working in the game, as there was no central point of contact for a coach to go to gain information about their needs or for the public to find coaches.
Yes, some might say, there was. The NFA, PAA, STA, NFSA, JADB, and about 20 other angling groups, all offer help to coaches or coaching projects. Who did you ask for help or where would you start? Then along came Steve Gray, a qualified fishing coach who, in my opinion, was fed up with the system. Filled with a passion to help out others in the same position as himself, Steve wanted to offer somewhere for all coaches to meet, talk and discuss topics that would have been an almost impossible task to do, as most of these groups would not even give the time of day to each other.
The site was born on 7 December 2005, although it was not until 1 January 2006 before the posts started to appear on the forum and, within one month, the site had reached 1,000 hits – this being due to Steve getting Keith Arthur involved with the site and getting the site mentioned on talkSPORT radio through Keith Arthur’s show ‘Fisherman’s Blues’, every Saturday and Sunday. (Let me tell you – if it gets Keith Arthur’s thumbs up, then it must be worthwhile.) It only took until September for the site to reach 10,000 hits. (Who said the site would not work?!)
As time has passed, not only are more coaches registering to the site and the much needed public who are looking for somebody to teach them to fish, now there are council jobs for angling coaches to apply for, fisheries asking for coaches, feedback about events that coaches have run, a calendar of future coaching events and so much more.
I am proud to be a member of All Things Piscatorial.com and would like to thank Steve for starting the site, something that most coaches have thought about, but for one reason or another never got around to starting.
Richard Watson – Licensed Angling Coach - PAA and NFA Member
What can I say, is it really only a year since the start of the site? What fantastic progress has been made in that time! Regular mentions on Keith Arthur’s ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ radio programme together with regular references in the Angler’s Mail. I don’t know what moved Steve to begin his crusade to bring angling coaching to the masses, but I, for one, am glad that someone with his energy and foresight has decided to do it. One could argue that this is something that our respective national governing bodies should have done themselves, however, I think that it is too important a project to be left to their tender mercies. It needs someone who is passionate and dedicated to the job rather than be left as a ‘fill-in’ job for someone with other, ‘more important’ responsibilities. I appreciate that Steve has a full-time job to do as well as run this site, but he is so dedicated to it that it must take up a lot of his ‘free time’.
The concept that Steve had of bringing PAA and NFA coaches into one site is a good one. Why should we be separate? We go through the same process that enables us to call ourselves coaches and are subject to the same organising body, Fishcoach.org.
As to the site itself, Steve is to be congratulated on the professional look and feel of it. There may be others who, like me, had thought that Steve had passed the job of actually creating the site and writing the software to someone else. This isn’t so though, he has done it all himself.
In addition to making the whole thing work, he has managed to get some big names involved with the site. As well as Keith, who I mentioned above, there is also input from Nigel Botherway and Julian Taylor. All of those named realise the importance of coaching to the long term health of angling. Getting them involved has added even more credibility to the project and increased the awareness of the general public.
The site covers just about everything we coaches could wish for. In addition, if someone should come up with an idea or a recurring problem, then Steve is more than happy to adjust the site contents to incorporate it. The angling clubs with junior sections is an example of this as is the specialised coaching section. It allows the general public to easily look up a qualified coach for their area. It allows angling presenters and others to direct people to a place where the importance of coaching and a listing of those qualified is readily available.
The Forum attached to the site is an integral part of it to me. It is somewhere where we can exchange views on subjects and get the odd piece of advice where necessary. That is something that no other organisation provides, the opportunity for like-minded people to talk about coaching without being ridiculed as can happen on some other forums.
I have happily directed people to this great site from other forums and will continue to do so. It is a shop window for coaches and long may it continue. Congratulations Steve on your first anniversary and I am sure that there will be lot more anniversaries to come. Keep up the good work and keep recruiting coaches for the site. There are still areas of the country where there are no coaches listed.
For me personally, the first year of All Things Piscatorial.com has been one of great satisfaction. I have proved that coaches from all disciplines can share common ground and join forces to push the promotion of coaches on to the next level.
I will never forget a lovely little girl called Lauren who came along to an EA coaching day at
Hi Steve,
A big thank you for Saturday – here’s how our day went:
For some time, Lauren has wanted to try fishing, after a family friend took me ‘fly fishing’ – unsuccessfully. It’s probably wise to say at this point that, as a dad, my knowledge of fishing is on the same level as nuclear fusion. The National Fishing Week seemed the perfect opportunity
After some web research the
Having never visited
Arriving at
Lauren hit the ground running – and didn’t stop. For the whole journey to Hatfield I told her that we might not catch many fish; Lauren, on the other hand, was full of faith.
Steve put the rod into her hand and she was off; the maggot hit the water and within one minute – BANG – a fish. ‘WOW’ says Lauren. Then another, and another, and another; five fish, then ten. Not huge, but that was not the point of the day. During the session Steve answered all her questions. For those who don’t know Lauren, these came in rapid fire: ‘Do fish have teeth?’, ‘Are fish colour blind?’, ‘What’s that bait called?’ Steve explained all and much more. EA Phil came across and passed a rod to Steve, who presented it to Lauren, who – for once – was lost for words. Only for a minute though. Thanks to the sponsors for that.
As more and more families arrived, the EA guys Phil and Jim walked them to the other instructors along the lake. Finally, after two hours of fishing, our time was up and we said our thank yous and left, heading to the car park for a bike ride and lunch. But not before EA Jim presented Lauren with a folder containing a personalised certificate of the event, a wall poster of
Hatfield Forest is a great location with 1,200 acres, perfect to just wander around, climb trees, bird watch and whatever takes your fancy. The café, two minutes from the coaching event, was impressive. How many cafés do you know that sell Pimm’s by the jug?
After cycling and lunch by the lake, Lauren asked EA Phil (who remembered her name) if she could have another go. The answer was ‘YES’, so off she goes back to Steve, showing off her certificate and fish poster. Steve again answered her questions, telling her about all the fish present on the poster. Then it was back to fishing, more fish. Steve boosted Lauren’s confidence by telling her that the boy who took over from her only caught one fish during his session. Not that she needed boosting, she was back into the fish – not huge, but we were aiming for quantity.
At
The whole day made a serious impression on Lauren, she was full of it on the journey home, recounting the day back to me. Reaching home gave her a new audience – her mum – who, within 30 minutes, was in the garden having a lesson. Within an hour family friends arrived and they also had a lesson from Steve’s protégée.
The day, from our viewpoint, was perfect – the location, the EA staff and the instructors. Steve made a great impression on Lauren and she’s still quoting his advice, as our local tackle shop owner found out when we visited and she purchased some maggots. He mentioned that the red ones were good for catching Tench. ‘Why?’ says Lauren, ‘Fish are colour-blind and Steve, my instructor, says so and he’s on the radio’. What could the guy say?
Using the free rod and Steve's knowledge, Lauren’s already made a trip to our local country park’s stream, catching four Roach with more to come.
Thanks again to Steve and the EA reps, Phil and Jim.
As Lauren says: ‘Fishing is not boring, it’s Fun!’
Cheers
Steve & Lauren
Enough Said!
If you want to be part of the future of this website – check out the Coaches' Zone.
Don’t forget to listen in to talkSPORT radio’s Fisherman’s Blues this Saturday 9th December 2006.
I will be live in the studio talking about this site and coaching in general.
Fisherman’s Blues is on every weekend on talkSPORT radio 1089am / 1053am between
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All Things Piscatorial.com
