The
Salisbury & District
Angling Club
Newsletter
Spring
2005.
Rick Polden
Castle Mews
29a Castle Street
Salisbury
Wilts.
SP1 1TT
Tel:01722 321164
Email:
SECRETARIES REPORT
Membership.
Last Season we had a full Game Section Totalling 1,333 Members comprising –
810 Game Associate, 305 Game Full, 145 Game Senior Citizen, This totals 1260 members.
There are also 48 Game Life and 25 Junior Game members.
The Coarse Section of the Club is the highest for well over 10 years with a total of 425 Members
Comprising of 113 CA, 227 CF, 28 CS, and 57 C Juniors. A good sign that we have doubled the Coarse Junior membership since last year.
. (We have also taken on about 20 new coarse members under the ½ price arrangement after the 31st December).
As an aid to you understanding your Membership No, this is how it is formed: -
The first Letter ‘G’ or ‘C’ is Game or Coarse
The Second Letter ‘A’ ‘F’ ‘S’ ‘J’ or ‘L’ stands for Associate, Full, and Senior Citizen. Junior or Life respectively.
The Third Letter stands for the initial of your Surname, except for Senior Citizen members where it denotes either Full or Associate.
The number is the next available when enrolling.
NEW SUBSCRIPTION RATES FOR 2005/06 SEASON.
The following new subscription rates were set at the AGM:-
Total Rates.
Game Full & Associate £132.00
Game Senior Citizens £115.00
Game Juniors £50.00
Coarse Full & Associate £64.00
Coarse Senior Citizens £50.00
Coarse Juniors £25.00
Essentially this means a £2.00 rise for Full and Associate Members and £1.00 for Senior Citizens. (see rule 5 of Membership Rules). There is no increase for Junior Members. The additional joining fee for new members will remain at £15.00.
We propose to start the Trout Season on the 1st April this year. This will take advantage of the Grannom hatches in early April on some of out Premium Fisheries.
This earlier start to the season will increase the usual pressure on the Secretary to get the renewals out in time. The year books usually only come back around the middle of March.
Those of you who wish to take advantage of the early days of the season please make sure that you send in your renewal cheques in good time. Do not panic if your cheque is not cashed immediately. They have to be passed on to the Treasurer for banking and this sometimes takes a two or three weeks.
We are looking for help with the postage again this year so please include a SAE for 35pence.(The Post Office are about to increase the charges again, I do not know at this time what it will be, but I am sure that Two First Class Stamps will more than suffice). The postage costs to the Club would amount to over £600, which can be spent, on better things for the benefit of the Club. Also, please write your membership Number on the back of the Cheque.
The newsletter, which we publish 3 times a year, is also a large expense costing over £1000 a year in postage.
To help reduce this postage expense we are placing the Newsletter on a link to our website for those on the Internet to access.
We will inform members by email how to access the link as we have done on a trial basis over the last two newsletters. This amounts to over 700 people at this time. Saving a potential £450 to the Club in postage. This link will enable members to download the Newsletter either in .pdf or MS word format.
2004/05 Fishery& Fishing Reports
From what little feedback I have had from the coarse Members, the season appears to have been satisfactory with good specimen fish coming to the net in many of our fisheries. We have a new Tench Record again caught by M A Fitchett with a fish of 6lb 4ozs.at Steeple Langford exceeding his previous record by 12 ozs.
Other weighing in slips record a Common Carp of 23lb 8oz caught by Paul Page and a Mirror/Leather Carp of 18lb 4oz Caught by Neil Oxford. Both caught at Petersfinger.
The Game Fishing Venues have produced fine catches well comparable with last season.
2004 CATCH RETURNS
The catches that were recorded in return books generally reflect the same fish/ rod ratio as last season. There are no alarming shifts from the expected ratios. The healthy population of Wild Trout continues to live happily alongside their stocked cousins, which is most encouraging.
Fishery No of Total Fish Total Total Other Fish Total
Visits Caught Returned Taken Stocked
Durnford 2454 3917 2804 693 4 R.bow 2640
40 Gray 12 Chub
Flight Pond 158 152 0 150 0 165
Stapleford 886 2045 1194 190 661 Gray 820
Ratfyn
Lake 648 739 0 0 8 Pike 19 Carp 1000
Nadder
Meds S 57 64 31 7 26 Gray 225
Wilton
Bull B 139 185 125 32 3 Gray 24 Chub 155 1 Dace
Lower
Woodford 450 662 496 42 17 Gray 300 30 Chub
Upper Bourne 105 236 82 12 142 Gray 115
Hurdcott 59 31 20 0 11 Gray 0
Tucking Mill
Lakes 314 1453 1147 303 3 Carp 1000
For 2005/06 Season, we plan to introduce return books on more fisheries such as Countess, Abbey, Barford, Ratfyn River and Nadder Meadows as well as the two new fisheries for the coming season. They will be a useful tool for us to monitor the as yet unknown performance of these fisheries. The details will be in your new Year Book.
Please use the return books intelligently, the books are purely vehicles for the recording of catches, there are no places for comments.
Some comments have been made in return books which only amount to ‘destructive criticism’ if anyone wishes to raise a point about any fishery get in touch with an officer of the club. We are happy to take any comments and if necessary act upon them if you get in touch.
The weed situation at Petersfinger is going to be addressed with a combination of treatments and cutting for 2005. We will treat parts of the fishery with Clarosan early in the spring as a trial. We do not wish to use chemicals unless absolutely necessary. The other solution is to increase stocking of bottom feeding fish such as Tench and carp to ‘muddy’ the water preventing the sunlight from accelerating the weed growth. (We stocked a further £1,500 worth of Tench this February)
LITTER As I said in the December newsletter have been dogged with litter problems on Petersfinger and Steeple Langford and particular. It’s simple – Take it home!! What clearer message can we give but that!!
The Club Fishery Rules clearly state the rules on Litter.
CAR PARKS. Cars must not park outside the gates at Steeple Langford and Petersfinger. Members must park in the designated car parks. The Club is not responsible for any member’s vehicle parked at our fisheries and we also cannot guarantee the safety of vehicles parked on private land not belonging to or leased by the Club. Any infringement to this rule will jeopardise our future access to these fisheries. The landowner is within his rights prosecute. This also applies to other fisheries where certain members inconsiderately park.
CONDUCT The majority of our Members are responsible keen anglers and an asset to the Club.
The few others are individuals who claim to be members simply by going into a tackle shop and buying a membership book. The responsibilities they sign up to when becoming a member have gone right over their heads. As an example, Anglers night fishing for specimen carp who are so drunk they are unable to attend their rods when a bite alarm sounds should not be on the fishery. This usually has been pre-empted by rowdy antisocial behaviour on returning from the pub. Club Rules to prevent this sort of behaviour should not need to be written. These people feel they can conduct themselves in any manner they wish on a club fishery. These few individuals have brought disrepute to our club and spoilt the fishing for many of our members.
All I can say that they have been warned. The Club is to embark upon a stringent regime of checks and visits to fisheries, which attract this type of behaviour, if necessary, accompanied by the Police.
Some of our Game Anglers are also not abiding buy the Rules.
On fisheries such as Durnford and Lower Woodford only fish your allocated beat and do not fish all the beats on your way to your selected beat!
Do not fish down stream.
Please familiarise yourselves with the individual rules pertaining to each fishery. They are all slightly different due to the terms of leases etc. There is no excuse to break them.
I remind all Members of Rule 1 of the Fishery Rules. As a Member of the S&DAC. You are empowered to ask anyone you meet on our fisheries for their proof of Membership. We must all contribute in protecting our Club.
LOSS OF A FISHERY
Unfortunately the Club had to cease fishing Wellow Lakes Coarse Fishery on 31st December 2004.
The agreement was due to be renewed on 1st January 2005. A higher offer for the rent of the Fishery was made over our heads by an organisation local to Romsey. A letter from the owner to the Club said that if we were to match the increased rent our agreement would continue. We agreed to match the figure offered but in the meantime in his haste, the owner accepted the other party’s offer not allowing us to abide by the terms of his letter. On reflection the new asking price was vastly inflated and did not represent the true value of the fishery. We are actively looking for a replacement for this fishery, which was enjoyed by the few who discovered its charms.
Our New Fishery Tucking Mill has seen its first full season so we now know what to expect of a full years cycle. Initially it fished extremely well with many favourable comments on how well the fish fought. As the season progressed the weed and water temperature affected the lakes especially the middle one. We plan to embark on a weed control programme for the coming season so hopefully we will have less weed in 2005.This coming season we plan to open the Fishery for 365 days as a ‘all year fishery’ starting on 1st April.
The car-park will hopefully be moved down the hill during the course of the season to the old barn hard-standing which will help those less agile amongst us!
Comments placed anonymously in the return book of the Fishery regarding the condition of the fishing on a certain day were not constructive and should have been addressed to Club Officials.
The Flight Pond at Durnford was the other new piece of fishing acquired in 2004. Considering it was only established in 2003, it gave excellent sport especially on the dry fly.
The new car park at Upper Bourne hopefully has been a help to our members. Not having to run the gauntlet of the busy A338.
Two new fisheries for 2005/06 will be available.
THE STONEHENGE FISHERY .
Premium Trout and Grayling Fishery 600 yards of true right bank of the Avon south of Durrington.
Location:
Off of the A3028 Larkhill to Bulford Road at Durrington.
Down track next to Vets. Car Park at end of track on right.
Disc Board and return book at bottom of fishery on bank.
Species:
Trout and Grayling
Restrictions:
Members only (3 Rods)
No dogs
No Wading
Upstream dry fly and nymph only.
Single hooks no larger than size 10.
Fishing dawn to dusk
Dates:
Trout – fishing 1st April to 15th October inclusive.
Grayling – fishing 16th June to 31st December inclusive. We have decided not to extend the Grayling fishing on to March because sections of the bank can become boggy and trampling will jeopardise the summer fishing.
LEOMINSTEAD LAKE FISHERY (Premium Trout Fishery)
Our second new fishery is down in the New Forest. Some of you may remember it being called ‘Leominstead’ Trout Lake a former ‘Troutmasters’ put and take fishery, which was quite famous up until the middle 1990s.
We are fortunate in negotiating 5-year lease on this fishery. It has been badly neglected but Matt and Richard have been busy preparing for it’s opening in April building new platforms putting up signs and clearing banks. Due to the state of some of the existing platforms we are placing the South bank out of bounds for this coming season. Because of the Health and safety implications we the Committee will take an extremely serious view on anyone found trespassing into the no go areas which will be clearly marked. More fishing positions will come on line final totalling about 16 within the next two years. Due to its remoteness to our other fisheries we are allowing catch and release with the option of taking two fish for the pot. (Apparently they do not taste very nice!) There will be 9 fishing positions for the first year and will be on a first come first served basis. The Fishery will open on 1st April and will be open as an ‘all year Fishery*’ as Tucking Mill. (*With the exception of certain dates detailed on the map in your New Yearbook).
I recommend that you study the rules for this fishery most carefully when you receive your New Yearbook. After the first year we will review the rules of the fishery based on how it has operated. We envisage it to be very similar to that of Tucking Mill. Those of you wishing to fish this water will have to acquire a key to the gate from the Secretary sending in a SAE. To :- The Secretary, S&DAC, Castle Mews, 29a Castle Street, Salisbury, SP1 1TT.
The Durrington Parish Council who we work with on the fishery of the same name has asked if it is possible to run a youngster’s training day for fly fishing tuition and river craft. We have been in contact with casting instructors and we are proposing one Saturday in May for this event. We plan to have the S&TA, EA, Wiltshire Wildlife and Club Members present to give their contribution to the event. Furthur information nearer the time can be obtained from the Secretary on 01722 321164 or the E Mail address