In October of each year, as part of the Let's Fish! programme, Canal & River Trust organise a team of three Global Communities Celebration fishing event, sponsored in 2024 by Daiwa.
As well as teams representing the home nations communities, young people with ancestral connections from nations from all over the world can take part to represent their communities.
When is the 2024 event taking place?
The event will be held on Saturday 19 October on the Shropshire Union Canal in Staffordshire and Shropshire.
Automatic qualification
There will be 15 places up for grabs for the best placed points scorers in each category in the Let's Fish! regional events each year. Ask your local Let's Fish! coaching team for more information.
Eligible nations
As this is a Global Communities Celebration, we're aiming to have as many overseas communities from across the globe represented as possible. In 2022 and 2023, apart from the home nations communities, the following overseas communities have been represented by at least one participant. Ideally each community would be represented by a team of three participants in each of the four age categories.
- Australia
- Bangladesh
- Canada
- China
- Dominica
- Estonia
- Fiji
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Grenada
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Kenya
- Kurdistan
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Montserrat
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Turkey
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United States of America
- Zimbabwe
To be eligible to represent an overseas nation community, you must have a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent with ancestral connections with the nation you wish to represent. We happily aim to further expand the number of overseas communities represented as Let's Fish! expands reaches even more communities.
Is potential help with equipment available?
Yes, and you can find more information about our Let’s Fish accelerated development programme here. Please note that anyone applying to receive free fishing equipment will be required to also attend the National Celebration of Young People and Fishing and will be charged accordingly if they do not attend.
Age categories
There are four age categories:
Cadet (7 to 10 as at the date of the national celebration)
Young junior - 11-15 years of age on the day of the national celebration
Full junior - 11-15 years of age on the day of the national celebration
Youth (16 to 20 as at the date of the national celebration)
Opening ceremony
There will be an opening ceremony held at around 9.30 am on the day of the celebration. At least three members of each global community will be invited to carry a national flag. Individual participants will however be required to provide their own national flags.
Event rules
There is a link to the event rules here.
Pre-registration
If you have ancestral connections (parent, grandparents, or great-grandparents) to any overseas community, and you wish to be considered to represent them, please email [email protected] as soon as possible. We strongly recommend you also attend the National Celebration of Young People and Fishing as preparation and priority will be given to those young people who chose to attend this event.