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Dear Member
We have had an unprecedented year with Covid 19. This time in 2020 saw us thinking about our security as a club and unsure what fishing opportunities would be available in the year. This spring looks much more promising. Although we may still have some restrictions hanging on for a while, we seem to be nearing the end of the Covid crisis and many of our members will by now have had their first vaccination and be feeling more confident about the season ahead.
The club has come through reasonably intact. We have had to run things by remote control, fishing has been restricted, we initially saw a hit to our finances but with member’s loyalty and some Government help we are entering a new year with renewals and income so far on target.
Game section news.
We expect to open the majority of our water for April 1st. There may be some flooding here and there but if the weather is kind it looks as if we will have a good start to the season.
We have secured our brown trout supply and will be stocking 2000 fish into the areas of poorest trout habitat and high angling pressure, that is Durnford, West Amesbury, Abbey, Countess/Ratfyn and Stapleford/Druids.
We still await confirmation that the EA will be installing the weed cutting booms but things look positive and we should be able to trim the weed this year.
The keepers have started the final preparations on the game beats, the grass has begun to grow and there are a number of fallen trees to clear but it should all be ready for the opening day.
The game lakes have been open and have been used by local members since the Christmas lockdown started. Catches have been on target at 1.5 fish per visit although we have not stocked since December. The lower angling pressure has meant that the sport from those earlier fish has been extended. We will start the stocking programme again this month anticipating more visits as the Covid unlocking begins.
Check your new yearbooks for the rules at the lakes. The two have now been brought into line in terms of visits allowed and fish catch rules. We will continue the same management programme as last year and will close for the months of June, July and August. This decision is for fish welfare, to rest the lakes and because it is the time that the rivers are at their best and the keepers at their busiest.
The game lakes are a fine balance of inputs. Even if members only fish the two lakes to their maximum allowed number of visits and never try the rivers, one could have 72 visits with a two fish limit for £285. A per visit cost of £3.95. We don’t try to emulate the great commercial venues for rainbow trout. Our ambition is to offer a reasonable chance of a fish or two for the member who enjoys the still waters and when the rivers are out of sorts or out of season.
In order to keep a run of fresh catchable fish we have set our costs, stock levels and the rules accordingly. Kill first fish, maximum take two and stop at five carefully to offer all members a reasonable chance. Please note the general fishery rule that if you have killed two fish you must leave the water applies equally to lakes and rivers.
This year we are holding our game membership at 1500. We have drifted upwards in recent years but we are very conscious of fishing pressure and will be sticking as close as possible to this target.
This season stocked fish will be marked with a red “Floy tag” next to their dorsal fin. You will see a little coloured plastic tag sticking up. These are the fish to take if you want one for the pot. This system is cheap and allows us to use different colour tags for different seasons. Recording this information helps us learn about our stocked fish movements and survival rates.
We have scaled back our ambitions for projects in 2021. We plan to complete the footpath raising at West Amesbury, look at repairs to some hatches and fences at Durnford, and continue to improve the habitat above Ham Hatches. The new return path through the wood at Amesbury will take you through a picnic glade where there will be a table and benches for a peaceful lunch break. There will also be some platform repairs at Leominstead and some bridges attended to at Stapleford/Druids.
On the more distant horizon there is a chance of significant spending by the Highways Agency on our Avon waters above and below the A303. We are working with the Wessex Rivers Trust to develop these proposals which may see restoration of gravel beds, pools and riffles to those waters with some engineering interventions to ease fish passage at the various impoundments. This has been something we have worked towards for some time with the berms we have already built at Countess/Ratfyn contributing to the end goal.
It is our club’s 80th anniversary and you will see this commemorated in a colourful new yearbook. We are thinking of installing an 80th anniversary hut/lodge on our land above Ham Hatches at Amesbury. We are mulling over this potential project and would be interested to hear if members would support this idea and would perhaps consider donating towards its cost?
Club online shop
Our online shop is changing at some point in the near future.
It has served us well with membership renewals, guest tickets and various other items, for example entomology training courses, open days etc. Over 85% of membership renewals are done online every year which saves significant administration time and ensures faster processing.
Unfortunately, we were recently notified by our two existing online shop suppliers, EKM and Worldpay, about very high increases in their service charges. If we are to continue offering best value for money membership, we must challenge all our operating costs.
We redesigned the online shop using alternative platforms and are currently performing daily tests to ensure that the transition is as seamless as possible for our members. We will be sending you more details when we are ready to proceed.
Online payments will still be restricted to Debit Cards only to further save on costs.
New Shop Front Page view.
Game Membership Renewals Page view.
Coarse section news.
Welcome to the coarse bit of the spring newsletter 2021. We made it, and hopefully we will soon be moving into the new normal and away from lockdowns, but enough of that, to the fishing!
I am not going to recap everything from before the AGM, but 2020 was a busy year and not always in a good way.
So, to the here and now, catch reports have been thin on the ground due to the lockdown, but nice Roach and Chub have been coming from the City stretches that closed on 14th March because of the national river close season. Petersfinger has been producing some nice perch and pike to lures and bait, Langford has seen a few pike being caught and it seems as though everything is starting to wake from their winter slumbers.
Since January not a lot has changed on the work front. We have applied SILTEX to Petersfinger and Dandy’s to help improve the aquatic environments. A lot of work has been carried out at Nightingale as it was showing some concerning trends that hopefully we have stopped. Looking ahead to the next few months we still have a long list of jobs to get completed over the close season and beyond.
Work has begun in earnest on the CFRASP (Roach spawning project) as we have now got the boards and locations ready for when the Roach start spawning, a little bit of environment improvement works and then we have to hope that mother nature will smile on us.
Nightingale lake reopened on Monday 15th March after all the work, I have to say thank you to the keepers and volunteers for everything they have achieved in a short time frame.
And that is it really from me for now, we will be asking for volunteers over the next few months to help with projects on the lakes, this will be pushed out on Facebook and the forum closer to the time.
So, until the next time stay safe and I will see you on the bank somewhere.
Ben Bentley
Vice Chair Coarse
Match section update,
All fishing has been stop/start this season, but at least match fishing was well handled by the Angling Trust. Their regular media guidance was clear, and the advice given was followed by match anglers throughout the country. It was enjoyable to have one event at Petersfinger after such a long period of closure and people caught numbers of small, roach and perch. The Club, as most members should hopefully know by now have invested a lot of resources and money into the lakes which with good luck will reap rewards over the next few seasons.
Unfortunately, the Club are not blessed with numbers of home venues where matches can be held during summer months. However, with advanced planning we do have a number of reasonably close commercial fisheries that can be booked for competitions and it’s those that keep us busy during the warmer months.
As is always the case as October approaches and we head into the cooler months it’s the river season that brings out numbers of anglers who dust off their river kit. Firstly, though it’s up to a small group of diehard volunteers who get out on working parties to prepare swims after the ever faithful summer growth has a jungle type appearance.
This season there was an increased attendance averaging 40 anglers which is a difficult number to try and squeeze onto either the river Avon or Nadder, trying to give anglers some fish to catch and of course the burden of Covid-19 hanging over us all. For the second year an individual winter league was held running alongside of the river matches and 26 anglers competed for points based on the weight of fish caught. Obviously, this did not go exactly to plan with two National lockdowns affecting the results but there have to be winners. So well done to Andy Brooks and Andy West who tied on points, the former running out the winner with a bigger weight advantage.
For the future, let us hope Covid-19 eases worldwide and as for river fishing changes are a foot on our local river Avon. The Salisbury Council, Wiltshire Council and the Environment Agency are developing what is called “The Salisbury River Park”, wholesale changes will be made to the lower stretches of the river from Fisherton Recreation Ground to the Maltings. I advise all river anglers to look at the plans on the Wiltshire Council website and prepare to embrace the changes. The work starts summer 2022 and continues in summer 2023, so be prepared. I have to plan early with the Match Fixtures for the Club Yearbook, so the matches for winter 2022 and 2023 could look considerably different than normal.
Paul Barnard
Match Secretary
The Academy
It is often said that 80% of fish are caught by 20% of anglers and last year’s catch returns would seem to bear this out. Why is this? Well, it may be down to luck, but more likely the skill of those anglers. You may be aware that SADAC wants to introduce a programme of training and support for members to help improve the overall skill level and help members get the most from their membership, The Academy. We had hoped to launch The Academy last year but Covid put pay to our plans and unfortunately the phased relaxation of the Covid restrictions has also meant that we can’t do anything ahead of the mayfly hatch. So, the plan is to run a pilot game angling course once the mayfly madness is over and, if this is well received, to roll out a programme of courses through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022. We are focusing on game angling initially as we have a large number of game members and pool of qualified game instructors. Once we have some qualified coarse instructors, we will extend the Academy programme across all disciplines, subject to demand. Further details of the programme and how to book will be on the website in due course. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me if you are interested in the programme or have any specific training you are looking for.
Kris Kent
Bailiff report.
2021/22 will be seen as the time when members meeting up with our bailiff team once again.
Be assured we are looking forward to getting out on our waters meeting you all again, renewing acquaintance and greeting members joining us for the first time.
We have a full team of bailiffs allocated to rivers, lakes and Game / Coarse fisheries.
The sign-in books which were not used at the start of last season, after May 13th, were reinstated later in the year and will remain in place for the new season. They are highly important as they ensure that fishing is exercised smoothly and they also provide valuable information with regards to catch returns.
Bailiffs have been out on some of our local waters during the most recent lockdown, in the process of taking their daily exercise.
Contact with members of the bailiff team has been through email and telephone because of the stay at home instruction from Government.
Certain restrictions still have to be applied once the fisheries reopen and we are recommending that when we meet up with members again we check your membership books from “a safe social distance”. However, we will not sign them until all COVID restrictions are lifted.
We will endeavour to assist and advise new members with information about our waters and help where we can.
We would still like you to compete the necessary personal details in the front of your membership book by providing an up to date photograph signed across, your EA licence number and the expiry date recorded in the data.
Tight Lines and stay safe.
Brian Phillips
Bailiff Co-ordinator
DISCARDED OR LOST TACKLE
A timely reminder of the dangers of lost or discarded tackle came in a recent local news story, (Salisbury Journal 10th March) about a dog swallowing a hook and line in our area. Skilfully removed by vets the dog is fine but it reminds us of the dangers. It is understood the dog picked up and ate a baited hook.
The only safe way to dispose of tackle is to take it home, try your very best to recover anything lost and inform keepers if it is lost but out of reach. We recover a lot of tackle from trees and other snags, it’s very tempting but try not to cast too close. We have released birds and bats from lines with flies or baited hooks lost in trees and sadly found some dead.
It’s up to all of us to keep our reputation high in this area
