2025 season review - Soft, strong, and unapologetically long...

2025 started as it ended, in a bit of a soggy state.

The start of the year began with a coaching session. A messy affair due to the rain over the winter which made Harbourbridge look more like a mud wrestling pit than it did a fishery. Balletic shapes were thrown by flailing arms, as feet moved at 300-miles-an-hour just trying to stay upright on the slick clawing mud. Even the merest though of movement would induce a trouser tightening episode. The most animated of anyone was Chris Ward who scored a personal best with the judges of a 5.9, with a 6.0 for artistic merit. Only Jon Bass remained stoic with a feat of balance akin only to that of a Jedi. I’m willing to believe that he wasn’t actually touching the ground at any point during the day.

The conditions for the first match were little better. Admittedly there was less arm flailing, but one could not be certain of dry underwear by the end of the day. Be them soiled from within or without, most of us had laundry to do after numerous SBM’s (Squeaky Bum Moments) through out the day. Indeed, Alexander spent more than his fair share of the day dragging himself along on his butt like a worm ridden dog. Jon Bass returned home spotless of course. Josiah went home safe in the knowledge that he would have to sit through a boring (for the kids) AGM in April because he claimed the first trophy of the new season (The Alan Hilton Cup).

The second outing of the year was at Luckfield on fresh and crisp morning at the end of March. Crisp and fresh are angling code words for Flippin’ cold! A practice had shown us that the fishing could be tricky, and that the resident ducks could be triggered into violent attack mode by bringing Martin Roe along. I’ve never seen such venom from a normally placid animal. Not only that but the ducks were pretty pee’d off too…

Martin must have been wearing enough duck repellent to last the match as Josh steamed to his first of four vital wins of the year.

Back to Harbourbridge for the third match, this time for silverfish, and it was a spinning plates day for Gentle Jon and me. I knew all was not well with Jon because, only a few days before, he had vocally told me to ‘Chill’. Not the usual vocab for the Broadmayne wizard. When match day came, I stayed ‘upwind’ of him because quite frankly he didn’t look great. All the other coaches had gone down with ailments including dog-sitting, wooden eye, and throat gangrene, and one to a severe case of ‘Grandchild’…

Josh doubled up on his win tally with Austin and Alec in hot pursuit.

Match number four was a nightmare. Spawning fish, a local shoot, and tree blossom, all conspired to ruin the day. On reflection, we should never have gone ahead with this one. But the urge to execute a day’s fishing for juniors is very strong and blinds you from the obvious. The sun did put in an appearance for the first time in 2025. It was that which caused the fish to do the funky dance of love instead of their usual daytime jobs.

Josiah managed to add another win to his account with his second top score of the year.

Revels Main Lake was the venue for match five and it was also a return of the rain. Who knew at this point that we would have to endure a drought in a few months’ time? Jon was back at his floaty best, and Alexander was taking shelter beneath the Cow Parsley due a lack of umbrella. I told you he was small. Weights were down compered to those we’d hoped for. But Revels does spawn notoriously late in the year.

The rain was unrelenting and so was Josh as he chalked up his third win of the year.

What a difference a few weeks make as we settled into Todber for match number six. The heat was…well…hot and I had more oil (sun cream) on me than a Mongolian snake wrestler. I was going to need it too… We recorded some ‘proper’ weights for the first time this year and nothing less than you would expect from Hillview Lake. A few juniors were struck down before and during the match. Anything from a dose of the ‘Quickly Squitts’, to a mild case of ‘I can’t be bothered’…

Austin managed to open his account as perpetual bridesmaids, Alfie and Kenzie had to settle for the also-ran spots…

Match seven started well as I’d forgotten to pick up the rucksack that had everything in it! Good job I used to be a white van driver as I elbowed my way home to collect it. An impatient Jerry stood tapping his watch, waiting for me to arrive as the car landed from a great height in a cloud of dust. I was already out and setting stuff out for the match before it had settled.

A far better day of weather than our last visit to Revels, and a better day of fishing to boot. Austin racked up yet another win. But vitally his last of the season.

The knockout evening series was hampered by a change in the fish levels of the Stock Pond which was not all the fisheries doing. Whatever had happened over the winter, the fish were conspicuous by their absence, and so we moved to the lake with the deadest of trees in/on it. Things were not a great deal better there, so the final was held on the main lake on ‘Winsper’s Spit’. With everyone in easy shouting distance, it was a low step count night for Jon and I. It was also an evening full of ‘Bants’ and laughter…

Jack Copp, now semi-professional, returned to ‘nick’ what may be his last junior award now that he is barking with the big dogs elsewhere.

Match eight nearly didn’t happen because I had forgotten to put some maggots in the fridge and some had escaped. Death by Trudie was most definitely on the cards. Fortunately, the escape was limited to the confines of my cooler bag. But boy did they smell! They smelled worse than the laundry basket of a hormonal teenager who has lost the keys to open the windows to his bedroom.

It was like a catwalk at the London Fashion week as the temps went up and down with the scattered clouds that festooned the sky. Clouds that would inevitably cause us to be cloaked in waterproofs yet again in 2025. (Again, seriously? A drought? HOW?)

Water levels were on the pessimistic side being, as they were, half empty.

Because I am a muppet, I had forgotten to schedule the junior pairs match. So, I shoehorned it in with the Two Methods Match and a points match.

Jack Copp won the match and a rod kindly donated by Nigel Kemp, but it would Austin Scott-Kennedy and Alfie Ellis who won the pairs match. Alfie finally getting his mitts on some silverware at last!

The first milestone match for me was match number nine held on the Upper Colber stretch of the river Stour in Sturminster Newton. I love the river events because it forces the juniors to embrace different methods and baits than most are used to. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but hey, if you don’t need to poop, get off the pot…

In all seriousness, it would and is better to have a little practice before such an alien venue. Something I will try to remedy in the future.

The win went to a newcomer for the first time that I can remember. Seth Hopkins pinched the win in his first event with us, his first ever match, and his first time on a river.

This fishing lark is easy, isn’t it?

Not a points match, but a fun one all the same. The Susan Haine Rotational match was designed to encourage non-anglers to have a go, to encourage juniors to coach their less experienced partners, and to inject a little more care-free fun into fishing. I think it did the last bit very well. But it also enabled parents and juniors to find a deeper level of conflict and less than light-hearted banter, sometimes. The winners of not only the match, but of the most hurled verbal insults were Tom and Austin who were at each other’s throats from the start! It was a lovely day in memory of a lovely lady…

The tenth match of the year was overshadowed by outside events. But, once in my happy place with my juniors, I could leave most of that behind to a large degree. Even so, it was mentioned that I was not firing on all cylinders for this one.

Fresh from his river success, Seth was joined by two new faces in the shape of Owen and Dougie. All three proving that the influence of a successful junior movement was reaching further out across the county.

Josh Roe inched his way closer to the lead of the championship with yet another win on Chester’s Lake at Whitemoor.

Viaduct, a venue I have been trying to get my juniors to for a while now, was finally on the calendar and we had made it! Although the fishing did not live up to the hype I had been building up over the year, Campbell Lake is still one of the most picturesque venues you could wish for particularly in Autumn. Big Skimmers and a collection of large Carp were the order of the day and so was yet another reason to buy decent waterproofs. The rain hacked down so hard at one point that the coaches and I bravely stood beneath the boot lid of Jerry’s car for a while. A slow start gave way to spectacular fishing that I knew Viaduct was well capable of with Jack Copp putting a sterling performance to get the win.

The last points paying match of the year was moved to Luckfield because no one could face the mud of a recently rearranged Harbourbridge. After the dry summer, the weather was making up for its dry spell by trying send the Jurassic coast beneath the waves again. A full lake of juniors fished a lake that had a good head of very big Bream living within it, and they would be the target along with the odd Tench.

Kenzie returned to us after what had turned out to be a terrible year for his family. His win was another highlight of the year for me personally.

The last event of the year was always going to tricky emotionally. Despite it not being my last DDAS junior event ever, it had that feeling about it and it weighed very heavily on me. But, out of a sad day came the highlight of the year. Maybe one of the top highlights in the history of the juniors.

Alexanders win came as a wonderous surprise to everyone and was universally celebrated by all present. The sight and sound of our junior family loudly acknowledging the achievements of a little lad who does things his own way and in his own time, was truly heart warming. The fact that the news of his win rippled throughout the local angling community demonstrated the depth of feeling and recognition that our junior group has gained over the years.

Along with all the domestic matches and coaching sessions we have hosted this year, we have also had some great times with Thomas Hardye School at Harbourbridge, The Scout group from Bournemouth at Whitemoor, and a session with two lads with the Justice Service that all gave us some fond memories and experiences throughout this year.

As the title suggests, this blog is unapologetically long because it’s tough to get the last eight years into just a few paragraphs. Instead, I will try to sum it all up with five highlights that I can recall off the top of my head. There will have been more, and I will have missed some. Like Chris Ward getting beaten up by the bog tent at Todber, the lad from Atlantic Academy that threw himself in the lake at Harbourbridge, the first 200lb weight by Jack Cryer at Todber, fishing on the river for the first time, and finally getting the juniors to Viaduct.

In no particular order here are my, not necessarily, top five.

The first ever junior event at Revels drew a crowd of sixteen juniors. A number that, to date, we have never managed to beat. It was all so new and exciting, no one knew what to expect. But a group of volunteers (we didn’t have a group of dedicated coaches that we do now) came together to teach a bunch of kids about fishing and it lit the flame still burns today. I had no idea of just how much of a challenge it would be to encourage young people and their parents to try fishing in this part of Britain. We have not yet cracked it, but that day planted a seed to at least give us a good go at trying.

Not a ‘highlight’ as such, but the day that I hosted a talk on my own at Bincombe School in front of 140 students was amongst the most terrifying things I have ever put myself through. I was bricking it to be honest. But the thrill of completing the 20-minute talk and getting a lovely round of applause along with some really nice comments was a real buzz. A little girl with curly hair pulled on my sleeve and when I turned around, she simply said, “I really like your talk” and then ran away was delightful. I drove home absolutely fizzing until I turned on the news. The headlines were that all the schools in the country were to close due to the Covid pandemic. I closed my eyes realising that it would mean the end of everything that I had planned for that year or longer. Of course, much worse was to come. But in that moment, it was devastating.

I could never form a list of highlights without including the day we spent at Todber with the stars. On Jerry’s advice, I swapped the dates for Whitemoor and Todber around so the juniors could see some of the brightest stars in our sport. Legends like Des Shipp and Will Raison, along with names like Paul Holland, Nick Speed, Adam Rooney, Matt Godfrey, Andy Neal, with local stars like Jack Stamp and Steve Tucker all came with their respective sponsors and their range of poles. The juniors were able to mingle with their heroes, even if they didn’t know who some of them were! Des Shipp gave Harry Cryer a pole to use and even came down to hand out the prizes to the winners. Heck, even I got my picture taken with the man! It was a cracking day with some great fishing too…

What a day that was…

Celebrating our first ever champion, Theo Cox, was a strange affair. Because my home situation with Trudie was such that I could not be there, a remote presentation was handled by Glenn Richards in Chickerell for those who were local, and the rest were given their awards at home. All of it was filmed and I taught myself how to use editing programs on my laptop to create a very bad version of the Oscars: Fishing edition.

It was great fun to do, but it highlighted the very strange times we were living through back then and how we made the best of it at the time.

My last cherry-picked highlight is Jack Copp.

One of the OG juniors, I’ve watched Jack develop to potentially be something very special. He and Dave helped me get my coaching certificate when I needed someone to assess my coaching techniques. I watched him hone his skills and slowly sharpen into a proper angler. My highlight of his highlights was winning the two-day festival at Whitemoor last year, probably his highest achievement so far. It hasn’t always been peachy mind you. He has been frustrating at times, not to mention a cheeky little turd.

But, if my personal achievements as a coach are measured by just one junior, it has to be Jack…

A bonus highlight are all the juniors we have coached over the years, and all the friends we made from it. Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the privilege of witnessing a junior catching their first fish and being the coach that helps them achieve it. All the juniors that have made friends from being in the group, regardless of their duration with us.

I usually like to use close up pictures over those taken from a distance away. Reviewing the blogs and pictures for this review, I realised that the long-range shots of all the juniors fishing are a product of planning, commitment and passion for the sport. It fills me with great pride to know that I had something to do with each photo of a junior captured in a moment of joy with their fish, focused on their float or tip in a match, or just being in the company of each other.

My fishing family…

It is because of all this that it must carry on and I am making plans to make that happen. As soon as I can, I will let you all know what those plans are…

What words do I use to thank all the coaches for their support that I haven’t used already? It may be that for some their journey may have ended. I sincerely hope not.

They are simply the best group anyone could want to achieve the success we have.

Any compliments given to me I will acknowledge on their behalf…

Thank you to Jim at Harbourbridge, Jason at Revels, John at Todber Manor, Tom at Whitemoor, Shane at Orchard lakes (we will get there!) Matt at Viaduct, and the committees of Sturminster & Hinton Angling Society and DDAS for your support.

Alan’s Angling and Revels tackle shops for help with the juniors.

Thank you to every person who has donated tackle over the years and are too numerous to mention. You have helped us to get many juniors out to enjoy our sport and given them the start that they need.

Trophies for 2025:

Revels Most Improved Angler:

All the trophies tend to sort themselves out naturally. But there is one award whose fate is left solely to me. As we travel through the year, certain juniors tend to rise to the top with regards to the improvement they make from the coaching they are given.

Alfie has impressed with his improvements more than most this year and he was my first choice. But, having read the Mud-Slingers from the start of the year for this review, I realised that Freddie only joined us at the start of 2025. The report states that he was unwilling to touch either the bait or the fish in the beginning. To go from that to almost getting hands on the specimen award with a good Carp from Luckfield needs to be acknowledged. So, they will have to share the spoils for only the second time in junior history. So, your winners for this year are, Alfie Ellis & Freddie Campbell.

Alan Hilton Memorial Cup (First points match of the year) – Josiah Wells-Parkes

Martin Vine Memorial Cup (Last points match of the year) – Kenzie Toulson

2025 Christmas Match – Alexander Adey

Susan Haine Cup/Rotational match – Austin Scott-Kennedy & Tom Kennedy

Junior Pairs Shield – Alfie Ellis and Austin Scott-Kennedy

Revels Evening Knockout Series – Jack Copp

Senior/Junior Pairs Match – TBA (To be fished by the end of March 2026)

Jerry Bracey Specimen Award – Seth Hopkins, Perch, 3lbs 1oz, Viaduct

Brian Copp Cup Silverfish Champion – Josh Roe (46lbs 7ozs) Junior Points Championship Runner-up – Austin Scott-Kennedy (198 pts/2 wins)

2025 Junior Points Champion – Josh Roe (198 pts/4 wins)

I hope everyone has a safe and fun filled Christmas, and a happy and healthy new year when we will be back with new ideas so, together, we can dream it all up again…

Graham…