A staff member’s interest in fishing from Holy Cross Catholic School at Kincumber has led to a school fishing event involving students, their parents and grandparents.
Holy Cross Religious Education Coordinator, Chris Franklin, himself a keen angler, recently initiated a fishing event due to growing student interest in the sport.
“I thought that many families haven’t been fishing because it hasn’t been part of their family culture, so wondered whether some encouragement would get them involved in this great sport. My goal was to show families how easy it is to take their kids out fishing for an hour or so and enjoy some quality fishing and family time.”
Chris ran an information night for beginners prior to the event, teaching the skills that they would need to take their children fishing and pointing out suitable local places to fish.
Nineteen school families including 35 children and three grandparents took part in the fishing activities over a weekend with some encouragement prizes up for grabs. With support from ABC Radio’s program Big Fish and Holy Cross’ P&F, families just had to send a photo of each family member fishing on the weekend to be in the running for a prize – they didn’t even have to catch a fish.
Most families fished from wharves in Brisbane waters, with a few families fishing at Erina Creek, off the beach or from boats. The majority of families who took part indicated that they rarely went fishing and but would like to go more often after their experience.