Dan Taylor story
20th of Dec, 2011
Dan asked me two years ago, if he could go on a fishing trip that I was organising. Back home in Cardiff, Dan had sat with his uncle while he fished but had never had a go due to his visual impairment. Dan was determined that he would be as good a coarse angler as his uncle. We worked on casting techniques on the first trip out, and Dan had the bonus of catching two small carp. On subsequent trips we looked at different reels. He liked the Abu closed face but they were not very good at handling the bigger carp, so he stuck to the task of the fixed spool. When he wasn’t fishing, Dan studied magazine articles, and worked through some information I gave him, starting from the laws of angling, through to the environment and water cycle. Dan could manage a short pole if the light on the water was right, and was the first person to catch on the RNC club pool, in fact he caught in excess of 35 fish in two hours. Dan was also active in helping me to get an accessible portaloo for the pool, which we are awaiting delivery of.
Dan left the college last June, and went back to Cardiff. I caught up with him at the college presentation day, and he told me the news that I had wished for. Dan told me he was going fishing once per week with his uncle using some rods and reels I had given him. He said he is now catching more than his uncle and felt very proud of this achievement.
