DOZENS of youngsters tried their hand at a new hobby over bank holiday weekend with an introduction to fishing from Swindon angling clubs.

With coaches proficient in fly or coarse fishing, children aged five and up, and even older people who had left the sport and were looking to return, came to Coate Water to try their hand on Saturday.

Now in its seventh year, the initiative had been run by Swindon Borough Council before funding cuts forced them to withdraw the service.

It was then taken up by Chester Middleton with the help of local angling clubs, who have been volunteering for the last three years to keep it running.

“It is really fishing for everybody, because we invite people to come along and have their first go if they have never done it before,”

said Chester.

“We do it every year on Bank Holiday Saturday, and we have got an angling trust and five or six coaches who can fly fish or coarse fish, so we suit every need really.

“We have Swindon Enterprise Angling Society, who have supplied the bait for the event to take place, and Plaums Pit Angling Club in conjunction with myself to put the event on.

“We have been doing this for three years now, but the event has been running for seven years. The council used to run it, but couldn’t carry on because of the funding issues.

“Being a local coach in Swindon, I have taken it up, and it is all done through fundraising and volunteering.

It is all done off our own backs, the clubs pay the coaches or the coaches give their time for free.

“The day has gone brilliantly, despite the weather problems earlier in the week, and we were fully booked up until lunch with around 35 to 40 kids. We wanted to keep this group running, because if somebody has never tried fishing before, where else are you going to pick it up? We wanted to keep the opportunity open for people.

“There are thousands of places where you can go and fish, but this is about bringing people together in a group so they can try something new.

“People need to come and use the lake more, and on bank holiday weekends you can have thousands of people coming through, which is great to see.

“Once they have had a go, hopefully some of the clubs can pick them up and take them on as part of their junior sections. It has always remained really popular in this country, and there are more people that go fishing than go to watch or play football.