Did you know that if every Adult angler in England and Wales
who held a Licence made a one off donation of £2 to Reels
on Wheels we could open a purpose built fishery for all to use
with areas for kids, family workshops, cafe, tackle supplies and
fully disabled pegs and toilets and then the whole complex would
be turned into a Trust. Please help us to make a difference, your
donation will be put to good use no matter how big or small. Thank
you.
In the spirit of Reels on Wheels, I persuaded Nick to get involved with OWOH this year. It’s a Magic Carpet Ride through Blogland and I thought it’d be great for him to give something back, aswell as ‘meeting’ lots of other bloggers, connecting with a wider audience and maybe being able to help someone else who may not otherwise have found Reels on Wheels…
This exciting event takes place from Monday 25th January through to midnight on February 14th and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post, with your email address, to be in with a chance of winning one of the two Giveaways. The winners will be announced here on the blog on February 15th, so make sure you bookmark and come back if you’ve entered to win! Good luck!
Giveaway 1: A 48 hour pass to fish on The Birch Syndicate Water at Peterstone Fishery in South Wales, accompanied by Nick, as a guest of Martin Cronin – Fishery Manager and former Carp Champion. See photo below:
The Birch
Giveaway 2: An autographed 12″ x 8″ photograph of Matt Hayes.
To find out more about OWOH, click HERE, or on the logo above. There are bound to be hundreds of blogs to visit, from all over Blogland and you’ve got 3 weeks to do it in!! Enjoy the ride…
I have over the last few weeks been chatting to a Local fishing club, The Gipping Valley Angling Club, I first found them by searching for news articles to put on the ROW news site, after first making contact with Steve and Mark who run the club I was invited to their Junior and Ladies presentation night.
This event was attended by over 80 people which was a pleasant surprise and the amount of up and coming anglers in all the junior age groups was tremendous some of these juniors are fishing at national level and winning. It was really nice to see a club that has a circle of membership, these youngsters had joined and been coached and were now helping and coaching the new younger members a sign of a really healthy club.
A week after their open night I went along with Mark (himself a level two coach) to visit some of the clubs waters. It was freezing cold with a good wind blowing so neither of us fancied actually fishing but both the fisheries that I visited are designed to allow disabled anglers to fish either some or all of the lakes depending on the lie of the land.
The two lakes at Barking are both day ticket waters one being a mixed lake with Roach, Rudd, Crucians and bream among the species in the first lake with the other lake mainly holding carp from a few ounces to 4 or 5lb.
Both these lakes have been designed with less able anglers in mind the banks are flat grass re-enforced with a heavy mesh giving a good solid surface to walk or roll on and every swim has a six inch kick board at the front, the swims aren’t perfect by some standards but they are more than usable by everyone.
On site there is also a fully accessible toilet with double doors to allow chair access.
On their other lakes (non day ticket) they have also made as many adaptations as the lay of the land allows including slopes down to all swims, platforms where possible and a concrete path all round the lakes.
The club has a thriving match scene for everyone including junior leagues, ladies matches and open events.
All in all a great club who are doing their best to make our wonderful sport as all inclusive as it should be.
On a personal note I’d like to thank both Steve and Mark for the welcome I got at their presentation night and Mark for taking the time out to show me round the fisheries.
To see more about GVAC CLICK HERE to visit their website.
Please Note…the views expressed in this article are my views and not necessarily the views of Reels on Wheels.
With all the press surrounding disabled access to fisheries and the fishery being taken to court and the quote about Fish O Mania, I felt I should take a long hard look at what is happening and I am sorry to say that I can see disabled anglers becoming as popular as the plague. Let me explain how I see it from my point of view.
Firstly the DDA states..
(2) Where a physical feature (for example, one arising from the design or construction of a building or the approach or access to premises) makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to make use of such a service, it is the duty of the provider of that service to take such steps as it is reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, for him to have to take in order to—
(a) remove the feature;
(b) alter it so that it no longer has that effect;
(c) provide a reasonable means of avoiding the feature; or
(d) provide a reasonable alternative method of making the service in question available to disabled persons.
Now the first thing that you will notice is that it doesn’t say you have to do this or you have to do that.
The most important word you will see is “Reasonable” now again to me that is the same as making a compromise. That works for me..I am a firm believer in compromise as people are more willing to help that way, whereas when they are bullied they tend to back off and then what happens to the less able/disabled…well we are then looked upon as being trouble makers.
If a fishery makes an effort and makes one or two swims on each of their lakes wheelchair accessible where possible surley that is considered as “Reasonable”.
I don’t want to see fisheries bullied into making changes by the DDA Laws which appears to be happening according to the latest press.
The only thing that is going to come out of this is disabled anglers being made to feel segregated again and let’s face it; it’s taken long enough to be accepted into everyday life.
I know the DDA is there to help us BUT it is being manipulated by people and some see it as an easy way of getting money from various court actions.
Think about this….
When you see me in the street in my wheelchair…what do you see? 9 out of 10 people will say…a disabled guy.
When you see me on the bank fishing from my chair what do you see? again 9 out of 10 will say a disabled guy…wrong when I am on the bank fishing I am an Angler just like the guy next door who walked to his peg.
I could go on but I think I will save it for another day.
We have just been given the most amazing prize for the fishing Festival by France Carp they have most generously donated a weeks fishing on their lake in the Limousin region of France for two anglers on a drive and survive basis.
In the lake are cats to over 80lb and carp to over 50lb so the winner of this prize could get the catch of a lifetime whilst there.
I’m sure you are all wondering how you can win this prize, well it is simple!!.
Firstly you will need to get your name down to attend the festival and fish both days contact claire@reels-on-wheels.org to book your place
Secondly you will need to catch the biggest weight of carp over the weekend we will add together the weights of your carp keepnets on both days along with any single fish weighed and returned, silver fish will not count towards this prize but will still count towards the trophies.
Alan Simpson from France Carp will be attending to present the prize to the winning angler on the Sunday.
Everyone at Reels On Wheels would like to say a huge thank you to Alan and everyone at France Carp for their generosity.
Team Reels On Wheels, made up of Nick Rowe and Jim Williams have managed to secure themselves a place at this prestigious carp fishing event.
Over 6 days and nights teams from nearly 30 countries will fish the 2700 acre Lac de Madine in North Eastern France in the hope of being crowned the World Carp Classic champions.
History
When the World Carp Classic was launched in 1998 at Lac de Madine, Meuse, it was a 48-hour, individual event, and although it was a completely new competition, 142 competitors from five countries took part. The 2,700 acres of water produced 37 fish on that occasion, and after taking six of those fish for a total of 118lbs, the overall winner, Paul Rayment drove away the first prize of a Rover car worth £14,000.
Madine also hosted the event the following year, in 1999, where there was a 30 per cent increase in the number of participants as the competition switched to pairs. A year later, in 2000, the format of the event was amended again to really test the anglers’ endurance, as it became a 72-hour competition.
The outstanding success of the competition in those formative years was certainly in no small measure down to the choice of venue, and Lac de Madine is rightfully heralded by many as being the spiritual home of the World Carp Classic.
Following last year’s success for its 10th anniversary, we are happy to return once more to Lac de Madine. Let’s hope the grand old lady, Lac de Madine, will carry on being very generous to the participants of the World Carp Classic. With more new bank space being opened up for the event, it is reasonable to expect that she will once more give forth some of her most prized jewels.
This years event takes place from the 5th to the 11th of September so not only is it a test of angling skill it can become a true test of endurance too if the fish are feeding with some competitors reporting only a dozen or so hours of sleep in the whole week and catches of well over 700lb of fish possible.
SPONSORSHIP
Team Reels On Wheels have raised the funds for this competition completely from outside sources none of the organisations money has been used, but they are still searching for a single sponsor to supply all the bait needed for the week, approximatley 100kg in total, so if you know a company that might be interested in taking on this role or you are from a bait company please get in touch with Nick through the main Reels On Wheels website to discuss this further.
I’m sure everyone (other competitors not included) will join me in wishing them the best of luck in September, I will be egging them both on from the bank as the team runner, keeping them both fed and watered and hopefully calling the marshalls in to weigh fish every few hours.
I am very pleased to announce that Reels On Wheels has a new patron. Mr Dave Gawthorn today agreed to take on this role and join Mick Brown, Zyg Gregorek, Martin Cronin and Giles Cochrane.
Dave Gawthorn
For those who do not know Dave here is a short Bio of him and his achievements
“Dave specialises in various species, Dave fishes with the seasons and gets reward from any sort of specimen. Big perch on shads or 2lb plus roach on breadflake each have their merits. However carping on a competitive level gets him going too.
Angling Achievements
I have been very fortunate to have caught a variety of species to a large size.
Other achievements are 2 Times winner British Carp Angling Championships. Lifetime member of English Carp Heritage Organsisation. Have represented NFA Carp Team England in Russia 2006 & Serbia 2007.
I’m also a qualified angling coach and attend the annual Korda Academy event and enjoy helping the students achieve their graduations.
I also write regularly in various angling magazines and often supplement them with my own photographs. “
Dave has already agreed to come to this years festival so everyone coming will get a chance to say hello and pick his brains.
I hope you will join the Reels On Wheels team in welcoming him on board and thanking him for his support. Thank you Dave.
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What a brilliant toolbar Billy’s created! All your fishing news -current – in one place… and Reels on Wheels are on it too! Thanks so much for helping to spread the word, Billy! Check out the World Fishing for Disabled Anglers (under the first purple fish…)
Best of all, you can download this toolbar for FREE! Click HERE, or on the banner below:
Happy New Year to you all and Tight Lines for 2010!
Check it out folks…one of our ways for you to make some extra money and a way for Reels on Wheels to raise some funds by selling stuff donated to us….ALL items that raise funds will be listed in the Reels on Wheels shop on the main Auction site.
After the sucess of the French trip in 2008 we thought we would try and arrange a weeks holiday in the UK where people who do not only fish for carp could come along and have a great week away fishing.
Claire has been chatting to a fishery in Norfolk who said we can fish on their six lake complex in the spring for a week, they have a specimen lake with carp to nearly 40lb and similar sized cat fish, a mixed lake with carp to good doubles crucian to around the 3lb mark, ide, bream, roach and rudd, there is a carp match lake, a silverfish match lake and also a fun lakes with a great stock of all species.
Although the fishing side of their website is a little out of date you can read about the complex HERE
The cost will be £140 for a weeks fishing on the specimen lake (24hrs) or £70 if you want to fish the other lakes (Dawn till Dusk).
Please get in contact with me if you would like to come along, we would like to know numbers as soon as possible as we need to book by the end of January.
We have been offered two dates 22nd – 29th May 2010 or 24th April – 1st May 2010 could you let me know your preference as we will work with the majority decision.
