CHRIS BOWMAN knows only too well what a difference angling coaching courses make to everyone they touch.
The Professional Anglers Association (PAA) coach and fishery management consultant explained: “Through my coaching activities, I have witnessed, time and time again, just how angling can improve the quality of people’s lives – not just the participants but those around them. “Anyone can achieve success in angling and with that success comes an improvement in both self-confidence and self-esteem. It’s that feel-good factor, that sense of achievement that is so important. “Anglers, and all those working in the tackle and allied trades, must shout the benefits of our sport from the rooftops and let Government know the rewards that participation in angling can bring. I would like to see everyone, but especially youngsters being given the opportunity to take up angling.
Chris is proud to be a member of the PAA but has also just helped set up Borderlines – a not-for-profit company with the aim of removing as many of the barriers to participation in angling as possible for everyone – with particular emphasis on the disadvantaged, disabled and those requiring rehabilitation.
Response from tackle dealers and manufacturers to these initiatives has been mixed – some forward thinking companies like Shakespeare, Chris Wynne at Carlton Hill Fishery near Carlisle and Nutrabaits could not have been more helpful.
“Companies, tackle dealers and fisheries like these, realise that some of those 900 people that myself and my colleagues have introduced to angling their waters and caught their first fish on their baits and tackle will want to.
Chris began his angling career by trout fishing on small Cumbrian streams. He has spent many years as a specimen angler, which is reflected in his coaching and guiding activities, and his search for Lake District or Scottish pike, big chub, bream and carp.
An increasing amount of time during the winter months is spent coaching and guiding anglers who want to sample the delights of fishing for grayling and chub on the River Eden.
Chris said: “As well as my adult coaching and guiding activities, I am committed to introducing youngsters to angling and over the last two years alone I have been involved in showing more than 1,000 youngsters the sport.
“When talking about junior tuition, I do not just see it as teaching youngsters how to catch fish. On all of the introduction to angling courses I run, whether coarse, sea or game, youngsters are introduced to the environment, taught about the water cycle, plants, invertebrates, the fish themselves, as well as tackle, tactics, watercraft, angling etiquette, fish handling, conservation and how to behave in the countryside.
“I try to instill a caring attitude and a respect for the environment so that those youngsters will become good anglers in every sense of the word. If done properly, introduction to angling courses can bring a sense of belonging and a caring attitude to the participants that continues away from the angling environment.
“They do not just teach angling but life skills as well, thus having tremendous social implications. I believe this is a message those of us working in angling and its allied trades must get over to the schools, potential backers and the Government. It’s not just about catching fish, it’s the whole package.”
Coach for hire Chris Bowman Chris Bowman (right) offers grayling fishing instruction on the Eden. T&G fish those waters again, and will want to purchase the same tackle and baits again.
What’s more, they are going to recommend them to their friends. It’s a snowballing situation that leads to increased sales.”
Things are going full circle, Chris is now getting youngsters who attended his junior angling courses visiting for their work experience.
Chris concluded: “Some have become very competent anglers, they will become the angling coaches, tackle dealers and fishery managers of the future. We are not just showing people how to catch fish, we are casting better futures and, if all of us within angling and its allied industries work together on this, things, as they say, can only get better.”
GETTING INVOLVED
Chris has been a PAA coach since attending a coaching award scheme course at Brooksby
College, Leicestershire in October 2000. As well as running his own fishery management consultancy and writing weekly angling columns for both the Cumberland News and Carp Talk magazine, he also runs Longtown West Pond and jointly runs the Netherby Clay Pits carp syndicate.
Over the years he has served in various offices for the Carlisle and District Coarse Angling Club (CADCAC) and has worked on the Environment Agency’s Regional Fisheries Ecology Recreation Advisory Committee.
However, an increasing workload has recently forced him to curb some of his voluntary activities.
In November 2004 he received the Peter Ecroyd Trophy, awarded annually for services to angling within the Eden catchment.
Chris began his angling career by trout fishing on small Cumbrian streams. He has spent many years as a specimen angler, which is reflected in his coaching and guiding activities, and his search for Lake District or Scottish pike, big chub, bream and carp.
An increasing amount of time during the winter months is spent coaching and guiding anglers who want to sample the delights of fishing for grayling and chub on the River Eden.
Chris said: “As well as my adult coaching and guiding activities, I am committed to introducing youngsters to angling and over the last two years alone I have been involved in showing more than 1,000 youngsters the sport.
“When talking about junior tuition, I do not just see it as teaching youngsters how to catch fish. On all of the introduction to angling courses I run, whether coarse, sea or game, youngsters are introduced to the environment, taught about the water cycle, plants, invertebrates, the fish themselves, as well as tackle, tactics, watercraft, angling etiquette, fish handling, conservation and how to behave in the countryside.
“I try to instill a caring attitude and a respect for the environment so that those youngsters will become good anglers in every sense of the word. If done properly, introduction to angling courses can bring a sense of belonging and a caring attitude to the participants that continues away from the angling environment.
“They do not just teach angling but life skills as well, thus having tremendous social implications. I believe this is a message those of us working in angling and its allied trades must get over to the schools, potential backers and the Government. It’s not just about catching fish, it’s the whole package.”
