Spring Into Fishing 2018 is a big hit!

After a successful inaugural campaign last year, Spring Into Fishing has grown from strength to strength in 2018 with record numbers attending events around the country. Despite “The Beast From The East” doing its best to hamper proceedings morale wasn’t dampened and over 600 people attended one of the five events held in March with the final South West event still to come on Saturday 28th April.

Spring Into Fishing is run by the Angling Trust and funded by the Environment Agency with support from Fishingmegastore.com. The result is six completely free family fishing activity days which have been a great way to get participants out doing something different this spring, and which help children learn new outdoor skills.

The official launch at the Northern Angling Show saw Olympic athlete Dean Macey, TV star Jeremy Wade and much respected anglers Alan Blair and Rob Hughes on hand to endorse the campaign. They all back Spring Into Fishing’s aim to give as many newcomers to angling as possible a day’s free fishing with Angling Trust licenced coaches and volunteers on hand to help. The sessions all included free tackle and bait and hundreds more like them can be found at Get fishing Near You.

James Roche, Angling Trust Partnership Development Manager for the North of England said: “It was brilliant to see all the new faces coming out to try fishing for the first time and so many kids keen to try their hand at angling. The feedback from participants and coaches has been really positive. It’s been another successful campaign and we all look forward to seeing those who picked up a rod for the first time at #GetFishing events in the future.”

Dean Asplin, Partnership Development Manager for the South added: “We battled through bad weather to make sure that all the Spring Into Fishing events took place in the end. The numbers registering and turning up to fish have been superb and we expect to see another strong turn out on April 28^th for the final event.”

You can get into fishing too, Get Fishing’s website lists hundreds of events and places around the UK to start where you can try fishing at quality assured beginner sessions for all ages and abilities.

Notes for Editors:

The Get Fishing campaign is run by the Angling Trust to increase the number of people being introduced to angling across the country. Anyone interested in going fishing can find angling events at ‘Get Fishing Near You‘. The events listed are for all participants regardless of gender, age, fitness or previous angling experience.

The Angling Trust is the National Governing Body and representative organisation for coarse, game and sea angling in England and Wales. It campaigns to protect the water environment and fish stocks, promotes participation in angling (particularly to under-represented groups and those from deprived backgrounds) and organises national and international competitions.  http://www.anglingtrust.net

The Environment Agency funds the Angling Trust to provide more opportunities for people to go fishing. Money from fishing licence sales is spent on improving angling habitat and infrastructure through projects like the Angling Improvement Fund. You can get a licence to go fishing at https://www.gov.uk/fishing-licences Fishing licences for those aged 16 and under are free.