The National Celebration of Young People and Fishing 2026

The UK’s largest fishing event for young people, the National Celebration of Young People & Fishing event takes place every September.

Everyone who participates will take home a celebration medal provided by Tackle Guru, or trophy, a Tackle Guru goody bag and special collectible event certificate. If you are skilful enough to land a gudgeon, a special 2026 edition Guru gudgeon mug will be yours to keep.

Our aim is to make sure participants have a fun day, improve their skills and confidence, meet new friends and hopefully land some fish.

Winning a special prize or being crowned champion, in your age category would of course be a dream come true, but taking part in this unique occasion is something that every young person aged between 6 and 20 is now able to do. Let's Fish! is there to help each and every one of you along your journey to the celebration.

Age categories at the celebration:

Cadets (aged 6 to 10 years, as at 01/01/2026)
Young juniors (aged 11 and 12, as at 01/01/2026)
Full juniors (aged 13 to 15, as at 01/01/2026)
Full youth (aged 16 to 20, as at 01/01/2026)
Emerging youth (this category is designed for the new anglers aged 16-20 who have limited or no experience participating in events of this type, or those aged 11-15 who are unable to attend on the Sunday.

The cadet and youth events will be held on the Shropshire Union Canal in Staffordshire on Saturday 12 September. The event headquarters where the prize presentation will be held is the Harper Adams University, Newport TF10 8NB.
The young junior and full junior events will be held on the Shropshire Union Canal in Staffordshire & Shropshire on Sunday 13 September. The event headquarters where the prize presentation will be held is the Harper Adams University, Newport TF10 8NB.
Participants may take part in an older age category but cannot take part, or be eligible for prizes, in a younger age category. Young juniors many participate in the full junior category but not vice versa.
We will hold a Facebook Live draw for fishing positions on the Let's Fish Live Facebook Page page on the evening of Wednesday 9 September, starting at around 5pm.
We encourage those taking part to form teams of three, ideally through their local Let's Fish! club, school or community group. There will be a special prize for the top performing schools, in both the cadet and junior event.
Entries will open 1 March 2026. The first 150 to book on will receive an automatic invitation to the 2026 Daiwa Global Communities Celebration. Those of you who took part in 2025 and those who are part of the 2026 Fishing For Families Schools cohort will be guaranteed a place until 30 June 2026.
Participants, their parents or guardians must make themselves aware of the event guidance around how much help it is acceptable for young people to receive.
If you register early for this event, you will automatically be invited to take part in other Let's Fish! regional fishing celebration style events.
To read through the rules of the event, click here.

Booking your place

Bookings will open 01/02/2026

Learn to fish next steps part 7 - Catch big fish

What happened at the 2024 National Celebration?

Film transcript
Welcome to the National Celebration of Young People and Fishing, the biggest event for young people in the country.
This year's event has got almost 400 people. We have cadets aged 7 through to 10. We have young juniors aged 11 and 12, full juniors, 13 to 15, and finally, the youth aged between 16 and 20. And they're all participating to win the most important prize in fishing, which is a gudgeon mug, which everybody gets if they can land a gudgeon here on the Shropshire Union Canal.
It's all about young anglers coming together and having fun. It's not about the winning, it's the taking part that matters, very much like the London Marathon.
There's a few elite kids who have got ambitions to represent their country, but predominantly it's people starting out who just want to experience what a wonderful day's fishing can be, by a canal in wonderful Shropshire sunshine.
It's been going since 2017, and we had just 17 kids that year. And that was the year we started the Let's Fish program, and we decided we needed an event to really focus people on as part of a participation pathway.
The numbers have increased every year since then. We hit 200 in 2021, then 288 in 2022, 330 in 2023, and we've managed 370 in 2024. And next year, with Teddy's help, we're going to manage 500.
That's the target for next year. 501 is the target for 2025.
Here we are on day 2 of the National Celebration of Young People and Fishing. We have 215 juniors. Some of them are young juniors, aged 11 to 12, some of them a bit older, 13 to 15. They're all fishing for four hours.
There's individual competition and prizes, but also there's a team of three element. So every youngster is in a team of three, and it's treated as one big section, 215 points for the first place down to one to the last.
So everybody's going to be fishing from 12 noon until 4, and then we're going to be weighing the fish in.
It can be fantastic to see which teams, which individuals, which clubs have really done themselves proud.

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The National Celebration of Young People and Fishing 2026

Booking your place

What happened at the 2024 National Celebration?

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