Kids hooked on Fishing 4 Fun!

IN the movie Nemo, we learned fish are friends, not food, and a local project is hoping to show children that fishing can be fun too!

A local angler recently ran an innovative new programme to raise awareness of mental health and encourage families to engage with each other through fishing.

John Murphy from Drogheda and District Anglers Club worked in conjunction with Barry Casey Community Sport Development Officer (CSDO) for the Louth Local Sport Partnership, to raise the awareness of mental health and mindfulness.

It was also to celebrate the anniversary of the club, which is 80 years in existence and they are looking to hopefully continue the programme next year and open it to more schools to get more child to take part.

This idea was to encourage the families to interact with each other and get involved in the fishing programme through the workshops as set out by the club.

John ran a series of events for the Fishing 4 Fun programme with their signature event held on April 27th to mark the opening of the fishing season.

On April 13th, they held a workshop for the game angling at The Barnattin Reservoir from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. They had over 26 juveniles and eight adults in attendance.

The coaches from the Angling Club demonstrated the setting up of fishing rods, how tie knots, set up traces for fishing, how bate hooks and how to cast the fishing line.

On April 20th, the club held an introduction to course angling at the Rosehall Reservoir from 7.00pm till 9.00pm, where they learned to pre bait four swims (pegs) on Wednesday and Thursday to attract the fish into the areas where they would be demonstrating the art of coarse fishing.

Coaches also were demonstrating how to use swim feeders for fishing for tench fishing the coaches also demonstrated how to rig up waggler float fishing.

Finally, on April 27th, they were back at the Barnattin Reservoir where they held an open competition for juveniles from under 12 years to 16 years of which were boys and girls along with their parents and guardians.

The event ran from 7.00pm to 8.30pm and everyone who participated in the event caught at least two fish as they restocked the reservoir with more fish so that all children got a catch.

Everyone was presented with a trophy and or a medal and also all the kids got goodie bags for their efforts on the night after the competition was over.