Members of Ysgol Bro Gwaun’s fishing club had fintastic fun learning on their first trip fishing to the town’s breakwater.
A group of 14 students ventured out on their first fishing trip, following on from two previous sessions where they honed their skills.
In the first session pupils went out on to the football pitch to practise their casting skills in readiness for their first fishing trip. Among them were some skilled fishermen as well as some who had never held a fishing rod before. They also had an opportunity to practise some knots that would be needed for future sessions.
In the second session ex pupil Dai Harries OBE was kind enough to come in and show the group some of the fishing rods, reels and lures he has collected over the years.
Dai has been lucky to have fished all over the world and has done a lot of big game fishing.
The club members were surprised at the size and weight of some of the rods and reels and asked if they would be allowed to have a go at using them. To make this possible we needed volunteers to be big game fish.
The volunteers wore a harness and were attached to the fishing line. The fisherman sat in the fighting seat and waited for the ‘fish’ to run. They then had to try and reel them in. This proved to be very difficult with one or two being pulled out of their seat into the ‘sea’, in this case the grass.
The pupils were amazed at the power generated by the fasted ‘fish in the sea’ (pupils on the field) and how fit you had to be to reel a big game fish in to be tagged and released.
One question asked at the start of the session was, have you ever lost a rod and reel? This was answered during the ‘fishing’ session, when a ‘tuna’ made his first run and pulled the rod out of the fisherman’s hand.
The third session was a trip to the breakwater to put the skills learned into practise.
After an hour of persistent casting and reeling it was time to go back to school with not a single fish caught. The closest members got to bringing home some supper was a foul hook on a spider crab which dropped off just before it could be reeled in.
After all that work on such a hard day, a stop off for an ice cream on the way back was a must.
“We look forward to the next session where James Roberts is coming in to do a fly fishing demonstration and to help pupils try their hand at it,” said YBG’s Min Walsh.
“We would like to thank all the people that have been kind enough to donate fishing rods, reels and fishing gear to the school. As you can imagine this can be an expensive hobby, so we are very grateful.
“Also, to the people that have been kind enough to give up their time to come in and talk to and give demonstrations to the pupils involved in the club.”
If anybody does have any spare fishing equipment or is in a position to offer members an opportunity to come fishing at their pond, please get in touch with Min Walsh at Ysgol bro Gwaun.
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