River Youth Festival.

[Teifi-Terrorist]

(Rex; I hope that you can add something to this please, as I think you know more about it than me)

The weekend of May 31st/1st June saw yet another Youth Rivers’ Festival being held in Tregaron (West/Mid-Wales). Building on the success of the previous years, this year was no exception – great turn-out, great weather (not great for fishing though), and great camaraderie.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the event; it’s basically for the members of the Welsh and English youth river teams (I think it’s logistically too far etc. for the other nations), where they all meet up, learn new tactics/methods etc. spending a weekend together, fishing and having fun.

Thanks to the organisers for going to such an effort to organise the event, and for giving their time so freely. It really is a cracking event, and long may it continue. Also, thanks to Tregaron Angling Association for allowing use of their waters for the event.

I managed to pop-up for a few hours on the Saturday to collect some photographs for the event, with the following being a small selection:

The gang:



Some pics of the river and the fishing:









































TT.

[speycaster]

great pics steff it looks like a good time was had by all, nice to see the effort put in for the young rods of the future

[Salarex]

Great pics as always Steff - don't know how you found the time to take any with all the tutoring you were doing!

Poor Tregaron didn't know what hit it - every scrap of accomodation was taken, including all the B&B's in the surrounding villages! It was really great to see the kids from the Welsh and English teams getting on so well together, and the collection of knowledge embodied by the coaches from all over (including Steffan) was staggering. Every kid received personal attention for part of the time. They were divided into small teams, and spent Saturday morning being taught river craft, entomology, dry fly, bugging, nymphing and other skills, then the teams went off with the coaches to fish all afternoon to various beats of Tregaron AA. SUnday they were sent off to fish as they wished, while Tregaron AA put on an excellent pig roast followed by a fund raising auction with kit at excellent value raising funds for both teams.

It was wonderful to see the skills blossoming in so many young kids - it is events like this that matter for the future of game angling.

Steffan, I will send a link to this thread to Dave Mee and perhaps he can put up a link with EYFA.

[Leighton]

Steff,

Fantastic photographs - theres no end to your talents!!

Its nice that organisations & indeed individuals are taking interest in the development of our youth teams. The team members should consider their selves very fortunate.

A credit to all involved.

[Mofisher]

Peter Jones???

Great pics and it looks like a great event.

I was somewhat surprised to see what i think is Peter Jones, casting an eye over the youngsters.
I worked with him many years ago, while an apprentice, and have not seen him for years, but good to see him looking so well, and still enjoying his fishing. A real character, who informed me that Steff was going to be a top angler many years ago, and he was correct.
If anyone sees him, give him my best

Neil

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Rex; thanks a lot for that mate, much appreciated - I knew that you could shine some more insight than I could. In regards to the photos - to be honest they were taken for the event organisers to utilise as they see fit, so just tell them to drop me an email and I will help in any way I can - the ones shown may be a bit too small, the originals would be 8-12mb jpegs. They would all be provided for free, of course.

Neil; fantastic! you know Mr.Jones! :> the man is a legend, and still catches more sewin than most locals put together! A friend of Peter is a friend of mine, welcome to the forum and thanks for getting involved. I owe a lot of what I'm doing today to Peter, he was a great tutor, and is a great friend.

Leighton; thanks for the comments, much appreciated. We really need more events like this, and we need to provide any and every avenue to get the youth of today involved in our magical sport. Long may it continue. |\

Steff.