An autumnal chill hung in the air on the drive to Luckfield lake for our last official coaching session of the year. The beauty of the morning mist draped across the countryside is never lost on me, and it was one of those mornings when being alive is a truly an honour. Even the early morning sun seemed to be reluctant to spoil the dewy light as it peeked sleepily through broken clouds.

I may have been the first to the car park this morning, but I was late to the party with regards to the fishing. The mist was so dense that you could only just make out the swims on the far side of our pretty little lake but, sure enough, peering back at me through the gloom was the unmistakable silhouette of a Heron.

I’ll bet that he was feeling the same way we all do when we are first to a venue. That the lake was no longer his own as the peace had been shattered by a tubby walking advert for Preston Innovations. He stayed for a while though, switching from peg seven, to six, and then to five, before finally bailing out altogether as the noisy midgets started to arrive.

I will tell you now, as much as I love being the Junior Secretary, it is a thankless task in so many ways. One year there is not enough matches, so you provide less coaching. Then there is not enough coaching, so you provide less matches. We had not had a coaching session for a while, so I thought that today would be well attended. 

It was not.

I have always said that if even just one junior wants to be coached, then I will do it. But it is disappointing when out of nearly 50 names on my Spond list, only four juniors show any interest. I know there are some juniors that have gone off the boil this year. There are others that are ready to fly the nest. But there are many more who desperately need coaching that clearly feel they do not need it. May be because there is nothing to win from a coaching session? (other than knowledge)…

Whatever the reasons for this rather meagre showing, there were four Shrimps that desperately wanted to be bored almost to tears by someone who finished last in a match recently (well someone has to!). Just for the record, I know what happened. I know how it can be fixed, and I have at least eight excuses as to why ‘it fished so badly’. All poached from the ‘Alan Winsper book of professional excuses; Vol 23, collectors platinum edition’.

After seeing some of the frightening attempts at silvers fishing at the last match, it was obvious to me that a little tuition was needed to explain why it is probably not good practice to use a float with a 3mm bristle for 1oz Roach. 

Four almost identical floats were shown to the group, but with vastly different uses. 

1mm solid nylon bristle for small baits like Pinkies and Maggots for silverfish.

1.2mm Hollow Bristle for small Carp, F1’s, and larger Silverfish with Maggots and expanders.

1.5mm Hollow Bristle for expanders, and hard pellets for Carp and general fishing.

3mm Hollow beast for big baits like 8mm pellets, corn, and meat for larger fish.

We also talked about the importance of fishing with a curve in your line when targeting fish in the margins or on slopes to reduce the number of foul hooked fish. 

For once my timing was about right because George let out a yawn just as I sent them on their way to their pegs to fish… I’m learning…

At 11:30 we were joined by nine-year-old Freddie for a taster session. Despite wanting to try out every piece of equipment I had within the first four minutes, did very well for his first time out. He caught lots of small Roach and even a hybrid.

Alexander and George did not stay to the end of the session. So, by the time I had finished the taster session with Freddie, they were on their way home. I apologise for not being able to spend time with them personally, but I know they were well looked after by Tim and Chris respectively.

I do know that Alexander hooked his first maggot by himself, threw some bait in around his float by himself, and thanks to Chris, had a great day. Well done…

George, resplendent in his junior team hoodie, fished on peg five in the corner and, from what I know had fun catching a few silverfish. One of which required a landing net!

I did apologise for not getting round to them sooner, but Tim ensured that they had a good day….

The two Jon’s (I’m sure there were two of them because every time I looked up one of them was with Mia, and the other one was coaching Austin. There may have even been a third Jon because, apparently, he nipped off to have a routine Covid jab and I didn’t even notice his absence!) spent time with Austin and witnessed a contender for the specimen trophy in the shape of a 4lb 4oz Bream. There were other Breams too, along with a ‘Houdini Carp’ which vanished halfway through a fight.

Austin endured a long chat (constructive criticism) about his last match, only time will tell if it was taken onboard…

Being a generous soul, Austin was kind enough to leave a few kilos of pellets under his seat box for the wildlife to eat. Sadly, the now obese rats can't fit into the traps that have been laid for them, and we last seen rolling on their backs crying 'Please dear God, no more!' Also, the heron has been grounded due to being too overweight for take off. 

We may have to put a sheet down in future...

You could tell the time of year was winter adjacent because Brian was wrapped up in more layers than a Pig in a Blanket, inside a sausage roll, inside a burrito. Apparently, the distant summer shorts have now been packed away for the winter. I asked him if he ironed them first but, seeing as I had to describe to him what an iron was, I’m guessing that was a no…

Mia had the attention of one of the Jon’s towards the end of the session and, playing with a cube of meat on the hook, managed to latch into something that weighed a bit more than the Roach everyone else was catching. There was thick pink elastic emerging slowly from the end of her pole and thoughts meandered to personal record fish.

It popped his head up and it looked like a beast compared to everything else we’d seen today. It plodded around round in circles, and I plodded off to get the weighing equipment. 

Once in the bucket, it didn’t look as big as we’d all hoped it would be. 12lbs was the target and, sadly, it would fall short by 20ozs or so..

Nice Bloke Tim stepped in to show Mia how to correctly handle the lumpy Carp and pictures were taken.

With the fish returned, Mia was ready to quit because the day wasn’t going to get better than that in her opinion. But there’s always time for another…

Good job Princess!

Si Wag was busy for a lot of the day coaching one of our taller juniors. I'm not great with names, but I know a face when I see one. So much so that I even have one of my own...

It makes no difference how much you roll up your trousers above your wellies, or put on a squeaky voice. I know that was you Tim Broughton!!!

I am so proud of the group of coaches that we have. I get a lot of the praise for the fact that we even have any junior events at all. The organising is the easy bit to be honest. It is the execution of each session that is the key to our success, and I cannot do that alone. We are all volunteers, but I choose the dates and ask these guys to surrender their time which, whenever they can, they do willingly and with commitment.

Any success the juniors have either now, in the past or in the future, is down to our excellent group of coaches. Bravo gentlemen, bravo…

One thing that I forgot to mention during the session was an incident that happened to Mia’s uncle John only the day before.

The policy of the juniors is to let the coaches retrieve any snagged gear rather than letting juniors do it for themselves. This is for good reason.

During a session at Viaduct, John had snagged his rig and pulled to release it. What resulted was the float embedding itself deep into John’s left hand so only the carbon stem could be seen. 

After a trip to hospital, and with only the stem removed, John will need to return to have the rest of the float removed at a later date.

It was an accident and could happen to anyone at any time. But by putting your foot on the line and pulling so that the float or feeder will hit your boot or the bank, is preferable to it hitting your face or hands. A lesson learned I’m sure…

It was bizarre packing away after everyone had left, it was so quiet. I knew it had been a good day because time had flown by in an instant. I did manage to tweak my neck as I packed away, which wasn't fun. Now I'm paranoid about someone creeping up on me from the right-hand side...

Our next event is on Friday the 1st of November at the famous Viaduct fishery near Somerton. I would encourage everyone to try and make it because the fishing can be epic. The day we are there would normally have been the start of the winter ban on pellets. But, because the session is for juniors, we have been offered a special dispensation to use pellets for just one more day than usual. 

this means that all pellets, and wafter, pop-ups, and sinkers are allowed.

All other rules will apply.

I know the event is on a weekday, a first for us, but I hope that everyone makes an effort to be there. The reason for a Friday match is because we can have the prestigious Campbell match lake on a day ticket (Normally not allowed). If we wanted the lake on a Saturday, we would have to pay for the whole lake. I’m sure that a match fee of £57 for 5 juniors would put people off a tad…

If we get the numbers, it could be a good venue for the 2025 Senior/Junior pairs match though….

Until next time…

Juniors Sec…