Getting Juniors Into Fishing

As a way of boosting junior participation in fishing, Caerphilly and District Angling Association recently ran a junior carp competition on Caerphilly Castle's Moat Lake. The club had a huge response online from young anglers wanting the opportunity to compete and all available spaces were filled quickly. 1st place prize was paid entry to a 2022 British Young Carp Angling Championship qualifier, paid for by the club along with help preparing from one of our qualified angling coaches, plus a season's free membership for the club!

Fishing started slowly - plenty of Carp making their presence known by cruising around on the surface, teasing the young anglers. Tobias Ursell, fishing the North Lake was the first to see some action - fishing Chod Rigs he had a screaming take in the first hour but sadly the hook pulled! Tobias would go on to hook another 3 fish during the match, but unfortunately the fishing gods were not on his side today and he frustratingly lost each one, unlucky Tobias but a commendable effort from one of the youngest anglers competing on the day

Daffydd Jones deserves a big mention. Despite having had reconstructive surgery on his arm, he showed tremendous heart to soldier on through the entire match and was also unfortunate enough to lose a good Carp that took him into a weed bed!  Unlucky Dafydd.‍️

Isaac Steven, just 11 years old had drawn one of the fancied pegs and had numbers of fish shoaled up in front of him. Fishing Slip D Rigs on a helicopter set up, his perseverance was rewarded when a common of 13lb 2oz succumbed to give him pole position a couple of hours in.

With the temperature steadily rising as expected the fishing proved to be difficult. Despite this, every single competitor deserves special recognition as they fished their socks off, not letting themselves become deterred. On this occasion the fish simply did not want to play ball, and it was young Isaac who went on to seal the deal and secure the title with his second fish of the match, a dumpy Mirror of 11lb 13oz that he played superbly, with the added pressure of a crowd of onlookers also enjoying the unseasonably pleasant weather!

The ‘lines in’ shout was called just before 7pm and everybody gathered on the North Lake for the presentation. Isaac Steven was declared the Champion, his brace of fish giving him a winning weight of 24lb 15oz to secure the title, and heaviest fish - his smile lit up the Moat, well done Isaac, congratulations!!

Tobias Ursell was awarded second place, as he had hooked more fish than anybody else, and despite losing them this lad has a big future in fishing - well done Tobias, a superb effort.

All the junior competitors received prizes for taking part courtesy of local sponsors of the event and are looking forward to the next opportunity to compete as the club look to make these junior events more regular."