School Of Fish

School Of Fish

A coaching school for anglers, run on our waters. Adults and juniors, complete beginners welcome, and your first session is free.

Most people who want to fish never start, because the tackle is baffling, nobody wants to look daft on the bank, and the sport assumes you already know someone who fishes. School Of Fish exists to remove all three problems.

Sessions run at our own coaching pond on Goldie Lane, next to Ferry Meadows, taught by qualified coaches. Tackle and bait are provided, so you turn up with a coat and sensible shoes and nothing else. Everyone is welcome at every session, and there are adult-only sessions if you would rather learn alongside other adults than a field of ten-year-olds.

First Time Fishing

A free one-to-one session with all tackle and bait provided. No membership, no kit, no experience. Just come and catch something.

The Diploma

Twenty-five badges covering everything from tackling up to watercraft, worked through at your own pace so you can see exactly what you have learned and what comes next.

Skills School and the Squad

Juniors move from their first session into regular Skills School, and those who want to compete fish for the Squad, the junior match team.

A coach working one to one with a junior angler on the bank
One to one, from the very first cast
An adult learning to cast with a coach at a club event
Adults too, not just juniors
A junior in a Squad Member shirt fishing a pole
Squad members fish for the club
Two coaches watching over a junior angler at a summer session
Never short of someone to ask

How to get fishing

  1. Register. Sign up for School Of Fish Peterborough and pick a First Time Fishing slot.
  2. Turn up. Coaches bring rods, bait, nets and mats. Wear something you do not mind getting muddy.
  3. Catch a fish. That is the whole aim of the first session, and it is a low bar on a pond stocked for exactly this.
  4. Keep going. Work through the Diploma, come to Skills School, and join P&DAA when you are ready to fish our waters on your own.

Every coach holds an enhanced DBS check and works to the published School Of Fish safeguarding policy. Ours sit alongside it on our policies page.

Get started in Peterborough Member login

Coaching qualifications

If you would rather teach than be taught, School Of Fish runs three qualifications: the Angling Support Assistant, the 1st4Sport-accredited Lead Angling Coach, and the School Of Fish Tutor, a Level 3 award for coaches who want to train other coaches. Insurance, an enhanced DBS and a year in the Coaches Community come with the coaching courses.

We are always short of coaches, and it is the single most useful thing a member can do for the future of the sport.

Full details of the programme, the Diploma and coach training are on the School Of Fish website. Questions about sessions in Peterborough: participation@fishinginpeterborough.co.uk.