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My boys are desperate to try fishing but we don't have any experience/tackle etc. Do places exist where we can just turn up and hire all the gear and someone can give us a brief beginners lesson? In West yorks (Brighouse) if anyone know anywhere. Ta
Gear is not super-expensive for beginners and it is a life skill, so it might be an idea to buy some cheap gear from Aldi or something just to try it as a sport.
Not sure I ever really got lessons in how to fish, just read some books and learned from people. YouTube probably takes the place of that now.
Make sure you check the season info and are correctly licensed for where you are planning on going. Check out private lakes near you or look for tackle shops that have access to places. These people may be able to help you: https://www.brighouseangling.co.uk/
Look out for open days at a local club. Usually they pair up beginners with experienced club members and they have nice morning learning and haven't splashed out on any tackle.
The problem with being a beginner and trying to teach other beginners is that you will find it very difficult to actually catch anything and the kids could quickly become bored. My dad had a little bit of experience (just about enough to get me going) but I was then almost entirely self-taught through reading books and magazines and a fierce determination to practice until I understood things thoroughly - I would spend hours in the garden practicing my casting, I would maintain and repair my kit (and I even used O Level metalwork as a way to make myself a tackle trolley 🙂
It would have been amazing had there been Pair Up classes in the 70s!
You're right Mike, that's why I'm hoping I can get someone else to teach them (us I suppose!) 🙂
Will have a look round for an open day - I won't be buying any gear though, our house is full of stuff from failed kid hobbies already!
Ta
Check here, https://www.getfishing.org.uk/ supported by the Angling Trust.
I've done a few days with the local club helping kids, all great fun seeing someone catch for the first time.
And also bear in mind that there is so much more to fishing than getting the rod out and popping the gear into the water. Just setting things up properly in the first place (remembering to correctly spool your line before eyeing it onto the rod and setting up the float / ledger or whatever - forget to do that and you have to start over). How to tie a knot on your hook, how to space weights on a line, what float to use etc etc etc. Then there's the small issue of what do you do if you do actually catch a fish - how to hold it, how to correctly remove the hook (although that is easier these days with barbless hooks being mandatory).
Come to think of it, how the hell I ever managed I do not know - I guess there was lots of trial and error!
We've got a trout lake near us where they'll hire you all the gear. Some one there gave us maggots. We caught loads and the kids loved it.
Ive been looking into this recently. There are some fishing lakes near us that have a small lake especially for kids, stocked with plenty of tiddlers and will hire out all the gear for not much money. Hopefully a guaranteed catch but time will tell. We are on the south coast so no use to you but I would Google the local fishing lakes / clubs. There may be something similar.