Angling

CAST Angling Project is a unique and innovative alternative provision that uses angling as a tool to support young people in their education and love of the outdoors. Angling is not only a fun and relaxing activity, but also a great way to learn about nature, science, geography, history, and more.

We fish in over 40 different fisheries across Nottingham and Derbyshire, including both lakes and rivers. We fish all year round and teach learners a variety of fishing styles, such as float fishing, feeder fishing, whip fishing, spinner fishing, and more. We adapt these fishing styles to catch all different types of fish depending on the time of year and targets of our young anglers, many of which predominantly aim for carp, pike, bream, barbel, perch, trout, and silvers. We support learners from complete novices through to talented anglers, many of whom now spend their spare time fishing with friends and family. CAST is committed to facilitating this and has previously donated and/or purchased fishing equipment to our dedicated anglers.

We also do regular fishery maintenance at various sites to improve the conditions and accessibility for anglers, fish, and other wildlife. We have completed such maintenance on our own lake, the Newstead and Annesley Country Park Fishing Lake, where we have installed and repaired pegs (fishing platforms), paths, borders, and disabled accesses and proactively support the life of many species of fish. All young people are taught good animal welfare practises and we consistently advocate for this.

Through our partnership with numerous other fisheries, we also do maintenance work around site lakes, streams, and waterfalls by pruning epicormic growth, removing weeds, and installing disability-friendly paths and pegs.

Many of our learners benefit from the freedom of the outdoors where they feel more comfortable than in the classroom environment - angling has be an excellent tool to support their learning and personal growth.