RIGS!

This is my first attempt so be gentle with me.

No not Martin Riggs hero of the Lethal Weapon films, not even leaking oil rigs in the Gulf but fishing rigs.
This is my life(or at least a large part of it) I go fishing a lot, I coach fishing to kids and I teach Science.
These are some of my 50+ rigs all carefully measured, weighted and balanced for various different venues, depths and potential catches. Today was our "trips day" from school, I got to take 9 young men out for a day's fishing. As ever they were enthusiastic and a joy to be with. Some are experienced anglers but the majority have had two one hour coaching sessions and a 1 hour practice and today they had to fish a competitive match.....against me!... for 4 hours!!!
To be fair we made sure four coaches were on hand to help if they got into difficulties but they didn't need them much. At the end of the day Roy(a cantankerous old sod),Sam (a retired teacher...stress he claims), Charlie(who has had a heart attack) and Gordon (a real misery) were laughing and getting on with the kids like a house on fire. They all commented on how polite, intelligent, witty and pleasant the boys were, and I know the feeling was mutual. If only more people could see a group of 11-15 year olds taking part in this sort of activity perhaps youngsters wouldn't get such a bad press.