Graham Walker FCA

When I was nine, my parents took me for a week’s holiday to Whitby where I teamed up with a lad from Middlesborough who liked fishing. We went down to the harbour, I bought a hand line and that was it….hooked!

Being self taught I now realise that I spent the first twenty years of my angling career doing it wrongly - a good day out was catching more than three fish. If only there had been someone there to teach me in those early days I would have saved a lot of time.

I did eventually reach a reasonable level of competence and in 2000 I decided that I would qualify as an angling coach, went on an instructors’ course and got my “gong”. I am now qualified to teach both adults and kids how to fish.

I currently run a kids’ fishing school at Pool Bridge in Crockey Hill, York. It takes place over the summer weekends, it’s usually fully subscribed but it’s often possible to squeeze in another - just give me a ring. It’s free, but I expect a parent to be around at all times.