YOU batter believe it because there is nothing fishy about this!Keen fly fisher Grant Coleman, 91, certainly has his heart in the right 'plaice' as he has spent the last ten years catching fish and giving them away to family and friends in exchange for a donation to St Elizabeth Hospice.

YOU batter believe it because there is nothing fishy about this!

Keen fly fisher Grant Coleman, 91, certainly has his heart in the right 'plaice' as he has spent the last ten years catching fish and giving them away to family and friends in exchange for a donation to St Elizabeth Hospice.

Proving that his hobby hasn't just been for the halibut, he has just handed a cheque over to the hospice for an amazing £1,353.

Although he rarely goes fishing now, he is keen to reel in some help from others in the community to follow in his footsteps.

Mr Coleman, of Market Hill, Woodbridge, said: “I will be 92 on my next birthday and therefore I have reluctantly decided that gutting my own trout is no longer an option. “I would encourage any fisherman or anyone else that has any spare fish to follow my lead and give them away in exchange for a small donation for the hospice”.

Brought up in Dublin, Mr Coleman, a member of the Suffolk Fly Fishers Club, began learning the skill of fishing when he was just six years old.

However when he moved to London to become an accountant, he gave up fishing and didn't return to his favourite pastime for 50 years.

When he eventually retired and moved to his wife's home county of Suffolk, he started to regularly fish at a trout lake in Trimley St Martin. It got to a point that he was catching too many to store in his freezer so after gutting them and having them smoked at Orford's smoke house, he began to give them away to family and friends.

Mr Coleman said: “I didn't want any money for the fish but some people said they wanted to give me a donation for them. I decided to give that money to a good cause. I chose the hospice because it seems that so many people get cancer and I wanted to help.”

Since he and his wife, Barbara, moved out of their home so she could receive full time care, he has stopped fishing, but is pleased with how much he has raised.

He added: “As a child I was taught that the idea of giving money to charity was one of life's responsibilities.

“When I told people I was giving up, they seemed keen to carry on the tradition of catching fish in return for a donation. I hope it does continue.”

If you want to help raise money for St Elizabeth Hospice, call the fundraising office on 01473 723600 or visit www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk.

Have you raised money for charity in an interesting way? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

Mr Coleman has caught between 500 and 700 fish throughout his life

His biggest catch was a rainbow trout, weighing 8lbs 8oz

Trout are considered a cold water fish, meaning they require low water temperatures to survive

Lakes as opposed to stream or brooks are ideal trout habitat

The British record for the largest trout is 33lb 4oz