Fishing for Schools director trains England fly fishing youth team

Fishing for Schools director Charles Jardine took to the water with a group of elite young fly fishers over the Easter weekend. Charles is also director of the Team England fly fishing squad and he led their first full training camp at Ravensthorpe in Northamptonshire over the Bank Holiday.

It was the first of five sessions for the 16 youngsters, aged from 14-16, who will make up a team to compete in the Youth International at Lough Lein in Co Killarney, Ireland in August.

Charles said: "The training session went really well – it's a very important competition and these young people have all reached the pinnacle of the sport for their age. There is some real talent. We take their training very seriously and are trying to recreate the conditions they will find in Ireland, but it's quite hard as they will be fishing all wild fish on wild waters.

"There are 16 on the squad and we will take all of them to Ireland – everyone will have a role to play in the team, whether they get to fish or not on the day."

We wish the team the very best of luck and know they will be an inspiration to the youngsters who take part in our Fishing 4 Schools project.