Ted and the ‘the spiky stripy ones’!

Ted was a real live wire, a lively 8 year old with an abundance of energy that meant sitting still for more than five minutes was a real struggle! His parents joined us for Ted’s first ever fishing session and expected us to be done in half an hour at the most. Two hours later, Ted was still glued to his seat-box and counting every fish – he wasn’t sure whether he was on 31
or 32!

For this session we kept things simple – fishing to hand with three sections of pole, using double maggot for whatever came along. I’ve got a ‘banker swim’ on Tolpits that hasn’t yet let me
down, and Ted was soon swinging in some lovely roach, rudd and perch. As every young angler should, he found out how to be careful when unhooking ‘the spiky stripy ones’! The main lessons – apart from watching out for perch gill plates and dorsal fins! – were about putting maggots on the hook, watching the float closely at all times for those fast bites, and keeping an eye on the pole tip when swinging fish in to avoid those annoying tangles in bankside trees!

‍