All Things Piscatorial

Happy Birthday Scott.

I received an email from a talkSPORT radio listener – Jenny Lenney, asking if I could take her son fishing for his birthday. My first thought was this was a young lad who wanted to try fishing for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Scott was in fact celebrating his 40^th Birthday and he had not been fishing since he was 7 years old.  As a lad he fished lakes in the Stevenage area but sadly was not very successful (who is at 7 years old).

We set the date and I chose the location, we fished one of my favourite stretches of the River Thames in Oxfordshire.

The only down side of this wonderful place is the boat traffic, hence the 6am start.

The plan of the day was to show Scott how to catch fish all day by fishing both sides of the river.

Firstly and before the boats started to move up and down the river we fished the feeder on the far bank. Of course that is easier said than done when you consider that Scott had never fished the feeder, let alone fished it correctly. 
I showed Scott how to set up the rig and how to mix the ground bait required for the session. 

Then and before we baited a hook, Scott spent some time getting used to the art of casting a feeder in the same place time and time again to build up a nice area of bait that the fish will be drawn to.

Scott soon mastered the art of casting after a couple of small adjustment from me.  We were then ready to bait the hook and fish over the baited area.  In no time Scott was catching fish for the first time in over 30 years.

The plan was to fish the far bank until 10 am and then switch to the near side bank for the rest of the lesson.  Although he fished the far bank on the feeder,
I advised him to keep feeding a few maggots every few minutes down the inside track.  This feeding paid off, because as soon as we switched to the pole and fished the near side shelf, Scott was soon catching fish on the float with ease.

All the time Scott was learning and catching – Jenny was soaking up the wonderful wildlife along the river bank. We shared the river bank with water voles; in the skies above us we spotted red kites, buzzards and kestrels. The river itself provided bird life in the shape of coots, moorhens and a family of great created grebes - Fantastic.



All in all, I really enjoyed being part of Scott’s birthday.

This what Scott ad Jenny thought of his day -

Dear Steve,

Just a quick email to thank you for the days coaching on Saturday 26th August. I hadn't done any fishing for many years and received the days coaching from my mum for my big 40 !!!!

Your patience and help were very much appreciated. Having caught around 15 fish the most ever in my career.

I have bored everyone silly about the pike that got away.

I have decided to start fishing again thanks to my excellent day out.

Don't think i was a star pupil but really had fun i would recommend it to anyone who had an interest.

Best Wishes

Scott Lenney

Hi Steve

Just a quick email to thank you so much for a really great day, not just for Scott but for me as well, we both haven't stopped talking about it. I just wish it wasn't over and we were going there next week. You said you would give him a day to remember and you definitely did.

Scott is going to send you an email so you can put it on your site after he stops telling everyone about what a great day he had and the pike that got away!!!!!)

Thank you again for putting Scott at ease and giving him the best present I could have wished for.

Love, Jenny