All Things Piscatorial

Tinca Tinca in Hatfield Forest

 

Hatfield Forest was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.  It belonged to King Harold, passing to William the Conqueror after his defeat at the Battle of Hastings.  It is probable that Henry I created Hatfield Forest as a Royal Hunting Forest in around 1100AD and introduced fallow deer to the land.  The name ‘Hatfield Forest’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘hoep-field’.  Its modern meaning is 'heathfield', 'hoep' meaning heathland, and 'field' meaning, not field, but open space in sight of woodland.

 

Today, the only invaders were a merry band of angling coaches from the London & South East region of the National Federation of Anglers – plus two intrepid EA officers and plenty of willing people who wanted to taste angling for the very first time.
 

I, and my fellow coaches, have attended this event for the past three years and each time we have a great day.  With the agreement of the National Trust we are allowed to fish a small lake that is not normally fished by the general public.  The lake holds the usual small fish such as Roach, Rudd and Perch. It also has a number of lovely Tench (Tinca Tinca) which, I am pleased to say, made an appearance to give the pupils a real taste of a fish pulling their string.

 

I spent the day avoiding the Tench – or, should I say, they avoided me!  But my pupils more than made up for it with a vast number of Roach.

 

  

 

One such pupil was Lauren – Lauren made the trip to Hatfield Forest with her father Steve.  They had heard me promoting the event that morning on Fisherman’s Blues on TalkSPORT radio and decided to make the journey from Essex to spend the day in the forest cycling and, of course, trying fishing for the very first time.

 

 

What an absolute star Lauren was!  Just five years old, yet she took to fishing like a duck to water and in no time was putting maggots on the hook, shipping the pole out, hooking and unhooking fish.  When dad eventually got on the box she was offering her advice and instructing him to watch the float at all times!

 

Steve emailed me the next day to say that once they were back home, Lauren took her mum out into the garden to give her a lesson with the free whip that was given to her by the sponsors of National Fishing Week.  Not only did mum get a lesson – she also gave two of her friends a lesson as well!

 

 

 

 

 

It looks as though the future of coaching is in good hands.

 

All-in-all the day was a great success with a lot of people trying fishing for the very first time.

 

As Lauren says:

 

‘Fishing is not boring, it’s fun!’