This years DDAPS Youth fishing fun day on 19th July 2015 once again proved to be as popular as ever, despite being held on the same day as this years Dartford festival.
In total some 300 budding young anglers attended the event and they were duly rewarded for their efforts with some excellent catches. Fish of varying shapes and sizes were being caught almost immediately and it wasn’t long before we began hearing tales from younger guests (and some a little older) about how they had caught their 1st ever fish. By late morning the air was filled with noises of excited children commenting on the one that got away, or how they had caught more than their brother, sister, or friend respectively. It was also nice to see such a mix of young anglers, some of whom we have seen in previous years and also some new faces who heard about the event by word of mouth.
To see friends and families spending the day together in such beautiful surroundings and having so much fun together is what this event is all about, it’s not all about catching fish, it’s just as much the experiences that you have on the way. Not that there was any lack of fish being caught. Sophie Crane won the coaches award by catching her 1st ever fish, and went on to catch a hatful including a carp of 7lb. The Fish of the day award went to a Lydia Everton with a huge 11lb carp which just beat her brother, who caught a carp of 8lb. However, lady luck was on his side as he managed to win the star prize in the free raffle. The coveted Angler of the day award went to a Jack Hinchey who also caught a large carp of 7lb as well as numerous other good size fish on his 1st ever fishing trip. Congratulations to you all.
At the end of the event all 300 guests were given the complete tackle set up that they had been using on the day, so no one walked away empty handed. This was courtesy of the Tackle Box in Watling Street Dartford so a big thank you to everyone at the Tackle Box for all of their generous support. DDAPS would also like to thank all of the volunteers without whom this event would not be possible.
We look forward to seeing you all at next year’s event.