During August 2008, around 60 people have taken advantage of the offer of an angling taster session from Environment Agency’s Fisheries, Recreation and Biodiversity Team, in partnership with Get Hooked on Fishing (GHOF) and the Llanidloes Angling Association. The sessions were funded by money raised from the sale of rod licences. 

Two sessions were held, on the 13 /14 August and 20/21 August, at Clywedog reservoir. The taster sessions were run by qualified angling coaches, who taught the delegates how to cast a fly and how to fish the reservoir. During the evening, people were shown how to tie a fly to fish with.

This is the first year the partnership have worked together to provide this event and it was very successful. 

Fisheries Technical Officer, Claire Quigley, says “Fishing taster sessions like these encourage the anglers of the future. This is yet another example of how we use rod licence money to improve the future of angling.

“As well as breaking the law, people who fish without a licence reduce the amount of money we have available to carry out work such as this to benefit the angling community. They are cheating their fellow anglers.”