PHOTOS:
Roger Pratt
Roger proudly displays his Sport Pembrokeshire certificate

There can be few people in Pembrokeshire who know the foibles of angling on the Western Cleddau more than Roger Pratt because after over 30 years as a water bailiff and then fisheries officer charged with looking after it he is now the chairman of the Pembrokeshire Federation of Angling Coaches.

Roger came to Haverfordwest from Shropshire and readily admits it was a great move because he loves the county.

“But I had an interesting first week in the job of water bailiff,” says Roger, “because I parked my van in Haverfordwest and when I got back some disgruntled poacher had let my tyres down!”

More fish then – and more poachers!

But things soon settled and he got to know his area, which ranged around the coast from Fishguard, across to Dale and into Haverfordwest - and as well as his work in checking fishing licences, stopping old lags from the illegal act of lamping and gaffing fish in the dark, plus illegal netting across water courses, he had to watch out for and report pollution of any sort.

“It was a time when there were far more fish in the rivers,” he told us, “and it was no surprise for local anglers to catch good numbers of fish on every angling trip, whereas now a friend of mine told me recently that he had caught only one fish in 13 sessions during the season.

“One of our jobs was taking poachers to court and I could write a book about some real characters and some inventive excuses about why they had fish in their possession but no licence!”

Other sports and a need for angling coaches

Outside of his involvement with the Pembrokeshire Federation of Angling Coaches, Roger is a keen badminton player at the over 50s club in St Clears, where the oldest player is 82, whilst his wife Jenny also used to play and enjoy swimming. Elder son Tony is best known in the county as a very good rugby referee and like his brother Robert enjoys his golf.

Interestingly, Roger has never been an angler himself but for a long time had felt that there was a need for qualified angling coaches to show people, especially youngsters, the way to fish properly at the same time as respecting their environment.

As part of his work remit with the National Rivers Authority, Roger had previously organised some coaching in Carmarthen where over 100 people attended and learned from experts like Ian Heaps and the late Peter Hunt, whose wife Barbara is still involved.

“We also did promotional work with the county’s ‘Fish Week’ and it was amazing how things started to grow in terms of people wanting further information.”

First meeting brings success

“There were a number of very good coaches in course, river and sea fishing,” he said, “but there was no cohesion and so as part of my role I organised a meeting where over 20 keen anglers and coaches came along and we formed the Pembrokeshire Federation of Angling Coaches under the auspices of the Welsh Federation of Angling Coaches.

“I chaired that meeting for all of 30 seconds until a committee was appointed, because I couldn’t be an officer because of my work.

“But we had excellent natural leaders in Peter Tidman (chairman), Eric Williams (treasurer) and the redoubtable Nica Pritchard OBE as secretary, who all set the example in their willingness to give so generously of their time.”

Huge work in the community

Since that time the coaches’ federation has done a huge amount of work in the community, not least in schools, scout packs, working with people who have special needs (up at the superb facility they have in Treffgarne), plus single-parent families and foster children and their parents.

“The scouts and schools are offered six sessions to develop their angling skills alongside the need for keeping safe, respect for the riverbank and a range of other things,” Roger told us, “and as a first time experience into fishing for many of these children they clearly loved it.”

“Within a short time most of them have landed their first fish and some have even caught more than one.

 “It is all done in a cheerful environment because we hope these youngsters might be our anglers and coaches of tomorrow!”

Looks of joy – and a wide programme

“We have also had kids with us from major English cities who have never heard of the Environment Agency or Natural Resources (Wales).

“But they are quickly captivated by taking part and I’ve never seen such a look of joy when some of them catch a fish!”

There are now almost 20 qualified coaches at Level One whilst Roger, John Codd and Tom Woods are Level Two coaches after a six-day course in Cardiff, whilst John O’Connor is close to qualifying as a tutor, which would be a great help for the county.”

“We are so lucky to have such smashing people prepared to give so much of their time and we also have great support from a range of fisheries who don’t charge us for their facilities and we in turn hope that new anglers will so enjoy what’s on offer there that they will make many return visits.

“One of the best innovations has been the way that our involvement has grown so that when we started we had two major sessions with the public whereas we had 42 last year.

“They include ‘Fish Week’ and the ladies’ ‘Casting for Recovery’ programme organised by Nica Pritchard which is brilliant to help ladies recovering from breast cancer – what a great innovation!”

And finally . . .

One only has to chat to Roger for a short while to see his enthusiasm for the Pembrokeshire Federation of Angling Coaches, where he became chairman when he retired from his work a couple of years ago.

He talks of the wonderful enthusiasm shown by others who are involved but omits his own name. He was nominated as an unsung hero in the Sport Pembrokeshire awards and there is no doubt that he deserved the recognition because of his efforts – and long may he continue his work on behalf of anglers in our county!