(u'Olivia Morris, 5, gets some fishing tips from North East Anglers Association member Ivan Church. They will both be taking part in the free fishing classes for children starting in Wodonga next week. Picture: DAVID THORPE',)
OLIVIA Morris is five years old, she loves to fish and she hopes a project starting in Wodonga next week will fine-tune her casting.
The Wodonga Council project is called Hook, Line and Sinker and it aims to encourage children to fish.
The free five-week project, run by the North East Anglers Association and Vietnam Veterans, is full of fishing tips and tricks for children, who can bring their own rod or use a supplied rod.
Olivia, from Wodonga, is already an old hand at hooking a fish.
“She got her first fishing rod the day she was born,” mother Lyndell Morris said.
Olivia’s grandfather walked into the hospital with the present, determined she would continue a family tradition.
The St Monica’s Primary School student took to it, well, like a fish to water.
“Her first fish was a yellow belly on the weir when she was two,” her father Blake Morris said.
Since then she joins her parents to fish regularly in the Kiewa River.
Olivia likes playing with the worms before she puts them on the hook but her favourite part is the end result.
“I can eat fish,” she said with a big grin.
She’s still learning how to cast a line from her pink rod, which matches her pink camping chair, and she hopes the classes will help.
An information session will be held on Wednesday from 4pm to 5pm at the Felltimber lake at the Felltimber Community Centre off Melrose Drive.
The project will run every Wednesday from March 13 to April 10 from 4pm to 5pm and on Saturday, April 13, from 10am to noon.
For more information about the classes phone (02) 6043 4550.
Catch this week’s fishing columns and where the fish are biting on page 98
