A warm New Year welcome to all of you, and welcome to 2024 with the upcoming season!
With winter hopefully coming to an end and the Christmas and New Year festivities behind us, it is now time for us to look forward to the upcoming season and any trips you may already have planned or are planning.
For us, the 2023 season was fantastic and incredibly busy, with a huge number of clients coming through the school. While we were offering guiding and lessons to a variety of abilities, we were also planning and undergoing a full refurbishment of our new premises. This expansion is amazing for us, and this year, you will see, as you may have already noticed on social media, some teasers of the new shop. This will include one main showroom, a YETI room and a wader room. Alongside the expansion of The Northern Fishing School premises, we will also have a full retail outlet for clients and customers. Here, you will be able to find everything you need for any fishing trip, be it domestic or international. The products we stock will comprise a comprehensive range, all individually selected by the NFS Team, products such as NAM, CND, VR Reels, Patagonia, Redington, and Yeti, to name a few.
Additionally, with the expansion of the shop and retail side, we are offering more hosted trips to locations such as the River Spey, River Tyne, Brazil, and Seychelles. We still have rods available for these trips, so if you're interested in joining us, please contact us for more information.
Even more exciting news for the 2024 season is that Marina Gibson and Stephan Dombaj now have the fishing rights to the Bywell Beat on the River Tyne! Over the last few years, the Tyne has been making a huge comeback in terms of the number of salmon caught. With the beat now in the capable hands of Marina and Stephan, who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, they are poised to revitalize this beat. We will be offering guided half and full days on the Bywell Beat by highly experienced guides. Marina and Stephan will also be hosting a few Salmon fishing courses there throughout the year to cater to all abilities, whether it's your first venture into salmon fishing or you're looking to take your skills and knowledge to the next level to capture these ever more elusive silver tourists. If you would like to know more about this, please reach out to us, and we will be more than happy to assist you.
With more hosted salmon fishing trips available, we are also hosting three weeks on the River Spey, one week in July and two weeks in September. These weeks have been very well received, and we have already sold over 70% of the available rods in the short time since we released the dates. A trip to the River Spey on a prestigious beat is always on the salmon angler's bucket list, but be warned, once you go, you cannot help but go back again year on year.
The winter season is a tough time of the year with bleak, cold, and wet weather, seemingly never-ending darkness. It is the perfect time to go through your tackle room, sort it out, tidy it up, and more importantly, get out and keep practicing your casting. Practice on some grass or on the water—practice, practice, practice!
With our new tackle shop and carefully selected products in stock, you will be able to get true, honest advice along with a try-before-you-buy experience with a wide range of products.
From all of us at the Northern Fishing School, we wish you tight lines, wet nets and screaming reels for the 2024 season.