Smiling faces are what our great sport is all about!

WHEN it comes to picking the front cover image, it can often be one of the trickiest tasks of the week. Will it fit the shape? Is the species the best for that particular week? Is the angler smiling? There’s lots to consider.

Some weeks, however, we receive an image that you know straight away is nailed-on front cover material. This week being a perfect example. If the picture of Sophia and Daisy Oaks with their clonking River Trent barbel doesn’t bring a smile to your face then I don’t know what will. It perfectly captures what angling is about having a great time on the bank and creating moments that’ll be remembered for years to come, long after the fish is returned.

It’s also lovely to see junior anglers thriving in the sport. If there’s one benefit to come from the pandemic it’s the increase in families discovering angling and taking it up as a hobby.

There’s been some fantastic work done by the Angling Trust and their Get Fishing campaign as well as by the likes of Zenia

Drury-Gregorek on social media to promote fishing as a family activity.

Indeed, I get as much, if not more, pleasure when taking my kids fishing these days as I do with any other form of fishing. There’s such a sense of amazement from kids when they see a fish which they’ve successfully extracted from a mysterious underwater world, which makes dealing with the inevitable tangles, near constant requests for snacks and ‘when will we catch one?’ questions more than worthwhile.

And don’t forget we want to share your kids’ joy by printing their catch pictures, so email them to us at: kingfisherclub@ anglingtimes.co.uk.

Of course, with less than a week left of the river season when this issue hits the shelves, I hope the image will inspire everyone to get out for one last running water session. I’ve got a particularly pungent bit of cheesepaste that needs using up so will be having a go for the chub in a local stretch of river before March 14.