Holkham teach in

I don’t fish very often during the close season break its not that I am a die hard traditionalist, far from it, the sooner the close season fiasco is sorted the better. Personally I tend to use the close season to catch up on things at home, I have a wife in a million she never complains if I want to go fishing so the only thing I can do is to pay her back by doing what ever DIY jobs she has planned for me without complaint. But after a phone call from Robert Watts a great mate and top carp Angler I decided a couple of days Carp fishing would be a nice tonic.

Joining us on the trip was Jason Harris he is employed by Robert as a technical assistant for Roberts’s fishing tackle wholesale company Carp Alley, an up and coming tackle Supply Company offering quality gear at a sensible price. If your tackle shop doesn’t stock the Carp Alley range get the owner to contact Robert via his web site www.carpalley.com

The venue for our trip would be the 35 acre estate lake at Holkham in Norfolk the ancestral home of the Earl of Leicester. The lake is set in the grounds of the 25,000 acre Holkham estate in the shadow of the famous Holkham Hall. Only a small handful of anglers are allowed to fish this beautiful lake mostly estate workers and their families. Our invitation to fish came via the Countryside Alliance, as part of the deal we had to agree to act as host to over 1500 Norfolk schoolchildren.

For the last 6 years the Countryside Alliance has organised a countryside awareness day for local school children. Each year the event is held on one of the many large farm estates in Norfolk, this year the Earl of Leicester had offered Holkham as the venue. The idea is to give the children a chance to look round the estate and learn about some of the crafts and sports that are a part of everyday country life. This year the subjects would include forestry work, falconry, estate management, farm work and angling.

Our brief from organiser Terry Lawton was to give each group a brief description of what angling was about, the sort of fish we may catch, bait selection and fish care.

Whilst doing all this we were also trying to catch some fish. The lake at Holkam has a large head of carp mostly up to double figures with the odd big fish up to thirty pounds possible, with some Roach and odd Tench as well. We had around 10 to 15 minutes to talk to each group and over the two days around 1500 boys and girls would visit us.

Robert suggested we each covered a separate subject area, he would talk about carp fishing and I would cover general coarse fishing, this would allow us to split the groups into smaller packs and hopefully grab their attention that little bit more.

In my presentation I described waggler, pole and feeder fishing, then the correct use of a keepnet. A description of the baits we could use followed by any questions completed my talk. Robert then covered Carp fishing and went on to describe rigs bait and fish care. As we were bivvied up the youngsters had a chance to see the home comforts we now take for granted on a long session.

At around 9 am on day 1 the first group arrived and from then until around 3pm we did not stop it was all go as one group left another arrived. Groups of around 15 to 20 youngsters aged between about 7 and 14 in the main listened intently and on the whole were very well behaved

During the day with Jason tending the rods and the technical bits (making the tea) Robert managed to catch several lively carp up to about 8lb. Each time a fish was hooked and on the way in Rob would hand the rod to a willing volunteer from amongst the group of youngsters and another would assist Jason with the netting of the fish. Believe me the looks on the youngsters faces said it all and I am sure some future anglers will come from amongst the groups.

During the evening the first, after a lovely meal cooked by Robert we did manage a few hours peaceful fishing, we had some great sport with the lively carp proving a real handful .Popped up maize was the most reliable bait with an odd fish taken on lob worm.

As day 2 dawned a full English would keep us going through what would be another busy day, as the first day had gone so well we had no need to change anything and would follow the same formula from day 1. Robert again managed several fish during the day, it was very rewarding for all of us to see the beaming smile on the youngsters faces who were lucky enough to be chosen to help with the fish.

As part of my presentation I had taken a large selection of baits including several flavours of sweet corn, a large tray of mixed coloured maggots and plenty of casters as well as a good selection of worms. Several screams were heard as some of the young ladies were not impressed by a large handful of lobworms thrust in their direction. Most would have loved to have got their hands into the tray of maggots and many including the adult helpers and class teachers were fascinated how and why the maggots were various colours. On showing one group a bait box full of casters one bright spark piped up with a loud “errrr deep fried maggots”, now there’s a thought.

To be honest we all agreed just how rewarding the 2 days had been, in the main the youngsters had listened with interest and you could tell by the questions they asked that several young minds were working hard to imagine themselves as future anglers. When Terry Lawton came to see us as we were clearing up he was pleased to report many of the children had reported that the fishing was the best bit they had seen, a point he said many of the guides and teachers had agreed with.

As we travelled back home I heard a feature on BBC Radio Norfolk on the event and several children were interviewed and mentioned the fishing, then a young lady in a delightful young Norfolk Accent declared that “the fishing was her favourite bit”, well to be honest that was the icing on the cake for us and finished off a most rewarding and enjoyable couple of days.

Many thanks to

Angling Direct Norwich for supplying us with plenty of bait

Carp Alley for supplying all the necessary terminal tackle

Nutrabaits for supplying the Carp baits