I love fishing more than my inadequate words can convey. One way or another, for 60 years, the sport has led me along the path of a blessed life, an angling adventure of amazing richness.

Equally, I hauled my carcass around the soccer pitches of north Norfolk and listened to well over a thousand referees' starting whistles. I have happy memories of boot on ball, but none to compare with those of boot in water. Angling just has a depth and a wealth of endless dimensions that no other sport or, I would say, human occupation can rival.

For me, and for many more fishers over the centuries, angling is about a connection with nature that is simple and complex both. Bait, fly or lure choice is important of course. Tackle is an essential consideration. These are the tools of angling, but they should be kept as uncomplicated as possible. The core of it all has always been about identifying with wild creatures and understanding their life in the watery world they inhabit. Angling becomes a never ending natural history story, a colossal jigsaw wherein myriad tiny pieces eventually make up the whole mystifying puzzle.

A shift in the wind. A rise in air temperature or barometric pressure. The emergence of a single mayfly. The appearance of swifts and swallows over the water’s surface. A rolling tench. A crashing carp. The rise form of a trout. These and a million more clues click with the angler as he or she learns from the seasons of experience.

All this brings me to Heidi and Matt Gallant. I’ve known this father/daughter team for perhaps five years and watched Heidi blossom into a quite lovely teenager. What has not seemingly changed is her absorption in the natural world and her love of tench. There’s something quite wonderful going on here and a great deal of the credit must go down to the sensitivity and wisdom of Matt’s teaching. A concrete example might help the story along.

Three years ago the three of us, Heidi, Matt and me, were fishing Lost Lake, a terrific but terrifically difficult tench water. The fish were bubbling enthusiastically and in the bright sunlight of an early summer morning, we could actually see the submarine shapes down there. Believe me, there were many of them, but an actual capture seemed to be well out of reach. I kept my views to myself, letting father and daughter work the conundrum out between them.

They hit on the oozing, marshland banks. They reasoned that endless minute vibrations radiating into the swim might not actually scare the tench off, but might very probably put them on all systems alert. This would be especially so as back then the lake was little fished and Heidi reasonably suggested that I tread with extreme caution.

As the fish were feeding in clear, shallow water no more than a rod length from the bank, Matt suggested scaling down the gear might be an idea. A two AAA waggler was replaced by a pole float taking a single No 6 shot. Fearing the tench might be seeing shot in the water column, even that speck of a weight was placed up by the float , out of harm’s way, letting the bait sink of its own accord.

Yes, the tench we could see were feeding hard, but on what? On this little fished pool, were they actually tuning onto our artificial baits that must have seemed unusually out of place? Almost certainly, these fish were fixated on bloodworm and Matt suggested turning over fallen branches and logs until we found a supply of tiny redworms, none over an inch long. Presented on a size 16 hook, the puzzle was solved and three tench in an hour were fooled.

Of course, there has been so much more to Matt’s mentoring and one of his soundest teachings has been keeping Heidi’s expectations in check. That day at Lost Lake, Heidi raised her PB to six pounds something. This week, Matt sent me the photograph of Heidi with her new PB at seven and a bit pounds. This great girl is working up the ladder of success step by step and each triumph is recorded, really meaning something significant in her angling journey.

None of us know where Heidi’s PB tench might settle in the future. Exams. College. Career. Relationships. Even peer pressure. What I am sure of is that she has been taught to fish in the right way and that she will never forget. And wouldn’t it be amazing if Heidi were to play Matt’s present role with her children in the future? These days, an authentic angling dynasty is a wonder to behold.