SPRING 2025 NEWSLETTER

As the new season looms this newsletter is focusing on some changes to the way the club is doing things and some features that are new. As a lot of you have seen Clubmate has been a feature to help the club streamline its affairs and communication with members. Andreas will be detailing what it means to the club and yourselves. Each year sees a turnover of anglers and we have differing levels of skills and expectations, there are some established events with new that are now being offered as a pathway of learning. In the main it is directed to fly fishing as the bigger membership but would hope to expand it to the coarse section. Of course we have the Small Fry section which is coarse based and perhaps could be expanded to fly fishing.

EARLY SEASON FISHING

The newest for this year is to have an Early Season Webinar to help new and existing members to understand fly fishing techniques for the various venues we have for the first months of the season. It will cover expected water levels, conditions, fly life, guidance on tackle and flies to use and an overview of our venues. There will be a run through of the rules, as they vary from venue to venue and some personal views from experienced club members. There will of course be a Q&A after.  This will be a real benefit to any member to sharpen up for the coming season. Tuesday 25^thMarch 18:30 to 20:00 is the date so get it in your diary.

Panellists.
Andreas Topintzis – General Manager
John Stoddart – Vice Chairman Game
Baz Reece – Associate Member Representative

Webinar Registration below.

We plan to have the next one to cover the mayfly season and early summer.

Webinar Agenda.

• Expected weather and river conditions.
• Overview of fisheries.
• Rules and etiquette.
• Clubmate and membership yearbook.
• Fishing the early season (fly hatches, imitations, places, times, tactics).
• Q&A session.

Fly Fishing Academy Training Courses

These are group based one day courses with classroom learning and practical hands-on training from qualified instructors Lindsay Moore and Rob Doyle. Two instructors and 6 participants in each training course.

The courses are split into two sessions. The morning session is classroom instruction on how to approach a chalk stream, etiquette, equipment, aquatic flies and how to imitate them etc. This is done by group discussion and slide projection. The afternoon session is casting practice and river skills on the lower Durnford beats. We will be initially holding 4 courses in April 2024, on April 2, 5, 9, and 12.More courses will be offered if these dates are filled.

These courses are held at the Cart Shed.

The cost of each course is £50.00

The Club Annual Open Day
Saturday 17th May 2025

Starting at 09:30 at Amesbury Abbey Nursing Home, Amesbury, SP4 7EX (map4 in your yearbook).

Programme includes: Fly Casting Tuition, Fly Tying, Entomology and a delicious BBQ.

Open to all members, game and coarse, plus their Guests.

It is an opportunity to meet up with club officers to enjoy various stalls and events. A convivial affair to meet up with other members.

Cost £30.00/pp

Book online below.

‘Bashing the Balsam’

Swathes of this invasive plant has been found on the Wylye and last season a team of volunteers cut back large areas of this plant which can undermine the integrity of banks and stifle natural plants. Andy Stafford is chief ‘basher’ and will post dates to come along to help eradicate this nuisance plant.

Coarse / Mixed Fisheries

A reminder that coarse fishermen are invited to the club open day in Amesbury. Details above in the fly section.

On the 31^st December 2024 Phase 1 of the Salisbury River Park Project officially came to an end. The project work, however, is far from over,  the proposed Ashley Road open space with Play Park is still a fenced off compound in which heavy plant is still moving tons of earth, the footbridge that will connect the new paths and boardwalks to the old boardwalk is still closed and large areas of unfinished planting are still behind barriers. Even so the official finish meant that the Club was able to gain access to a significant part of our most important winter coarse fishery on the Avon in Salisbury. Over the last three seasons we have often temporarily and sometimes permanently lost access to the River at both the Fisherton Recreation Area end and also the Central Car Park end. During this time of reduced or absent footfall the Cormorants and Otters have clearly taken advantage of the opportunity and when we resumed fishing these areas especially the stretch that was permanently inaccessible. It was very noticeable that open water swims seemed to contain very few fish and those swims that were blessed with heavy cover held significant concentrations of fish. For the Matchmen this was frustrating as the draw became even more critical and it was a real feast or famine situation. It must be said, however, that some superb bags of Roach were captured by both the Matchmen and the General Angler with several videos of the fishing appearing on YouTube, most notably one of the Angling Trust CEO enjoying a memorable day trotting for Roach from the old Boardwalk section. Although for those that know the winter river well it was noticeable and somewhat worrying that the usual shoals of Dace and that beautiful winter staple the grayling were in very short supply.

The in channel works namely the cutting and diversion of a new Summerlock stream to feed the newly created wetlands, the removal of the Balance Gate known to all as ‘The Sluice’ and the replacement of the Blackwell hatches with simple Penstocks that will have a much reduced effect on the flow have all altered the characteristics and nature of the river. It is far too early to say how this will affect the fishing in the longer term and we will be monitoring the situation as we secured an assurance at the commencement of the project that any proven detrimental effects could be rectified by adjusting the height of boulder weirs in the central car park section.

Overall there is no doubt that when nature has been able to soften the very raw post works moonscape of the new Park that it will be a genuinely very pleasant place to walk and enjoy views of the river and its inhabitants. For us as a club it could also increase our available fishing in this area as the New Summerlock Stream is longer and deeper in places than the old cut and will undoubtedly offer new swims, especially with the increased Winter flows. We will be seeking to include the new bank space into to our lease of the fishing from Salisbury City Council during our next renewal negotiations.

SMALL FRY CLUB

The Small Fry and junior sections of the club continue to grow with total membership reaching well over 100. We are now able to call on 12 volunteers including 3 fully qualified Lead coaches plus 3 Event Support Volunteers and our success is based on a combination of hard work and strong support from the club committee, as well as the generosity of members who contribute to the Small Fry Fund, either directly or by donating tackle to sell or use. We have also been lucky to receive significant funding from The Angling Trust and we will be putting this to good use over the coming months as we continue to focus on improving both the quality and quantity of our sessions.

We are initially organising 3 introductory evening sessions in April and May, full details will be in the year book, forum and Clubmate. Subject to demand, we are hoping to repeat this in the summer. The most likely venue will once again be Petersfinger Lake, weather dependent of course.

This year our intention is to focus on helping our young members transition from enthusiastic first timers to confident and competent young anglers who, dependent upon their age and parental permission, are able to safely fish unsupervised. In order to achieve this we are hoping that more young members will be able to attend additional coaching sessions on a variety of club waters. Our goal is to arrange one per month and full details will be available on the club website. Attendees will be expected to have the majority of tackle required but obviously assistance will be available to ensure they gain maximum benefit.

This leads me on to the need for young anglers to have the right equipment without breaking the bank and, thanks to the generosity of various senior club members. We would like to be able to offer them a small range of secondhand tackle at very low prices that will be perfectly adequate for their needs. Sadly we have seen too many examples of inappropriately expensive items being purchased on the basis of poor advice given via various sources of social media or advertisements, or tackle that is completely unsuitable for our waters. This is definitely work in progress but please watch this space.

Finally, other aspirations include the possibility of arranging junior competitions, the creation of webinars each covering a specific element of coarse fishing, and maybe even an organised trip to a totally different venue to receive advice and coaching from people who have achieved success at a national level. We have to dream!

That’s it from me, Nigel Turner, and the rest of the Small Fry team but please contact us on smallfry@salisburydistrictac.co.uk if you have any questions. Otherwise we look forward to seeing you on the bank, and thank you again to everyone who has helped the next generation of anglers start their journey. Tight lines and stay safe.

New “Clubmate” system.

Why the Clubmate system change? We have historically managed three key systems for the Club’s administration. 1) The online shop, 2) The member database and 3) The accounting system. Up until now every one of those early 1900 memberships required manual checking and entering data in all three systems taking hours every day and risking inaccuracies. Clubmate offers an improved software solution with the integration of the online shop and the member database. It has proven to be the best option for the size and complexity of our club significantly improving administration and accuracy. It is used by many clubs and backed by the Angling Trust. It has additional online features which we are gradually implementing. It can hold our fishery information, maps, rules, access arrangements, catch returns, bailiff activity etc. Information can be amended instantly rather than having to wait a year to go in the new membership book.
Many of our members are aware of this change already through discussion at our game meeting and elsewhere. So far we are close to 1,000 membership renewals via Clubmate and the system is delivering the expected benefits. We realise that some members may find technology difficult to manage. We will therefore continue accepting cheques, direct bank payments and cash payments. The yearbooks will continue to be printed so you will be receiving them by the end of the month. Look out for your local postman!

Clubmate Profile Image.
As part of the process of registering on Clubmate you will be asked to provide a profile image. There have been some interesting examples to date. I am sure your dog is devoted to you; your grandchildren are all adorable and your last holiday snaps look amazing but we require a passport type photograph in the same vein as you are required to provide in the hard copy year book. This is needed so that bailiffs can check your identity and membership. Please understand it validates your membership and if it is absent or not suitable you may be asked to leave the fishery.

S&DAC Clubmate Help Desk

The Helpdesk email address that was created to assist with Clubmate problems has greatly relieved the pressure on the office communications of phone and email at what is always this very busy time of renewals.
Checking through the cries for help the biggest issue appears to be members mis-reading or the ambiguity of the initial instructions which were provided to us from Clubmate.
The one-time password leads the way in this confusion. Members are expecting to have received this email before logging into the system, this is not correct.

For those that are still to renew:
Head over to the Clubmate Login page.

Bailiffing.

Andy Stafford is now the ‘Air Marshal Hugh Dowding’ of the bailiffs co ordinating his big wing of volunteers to strafe the fisheries and deal with ‘bogies’ who have transgressed the rules. Apart from that they have an important role in checking fisheries and identifying issues reporting them back. If anyone should wish to join the team then contact Andy Stafford.

The S&DAC Members Forum

This has been an established way for members to interact, post fishing experiences, ask advice, to see notifications from the club and much more. Although we know that members have signed up only a small fraction of the membership use it which is a bit sad. It can explain why some members are unaware of notifications and important messages.  Many anglers live away from Salisbury and can post to ask what the water levels are like or seek advice it is a fantastic tool to use and we encourage you to log on and check regularly.
If you are a member of the forum but have not logged in during the last year your account is in danger of being deleted as outlined in the Terms and Conditions.
To retain your access just login before the 31^st March 2025.

If you are not a member now is the time to join the community. Register below.

In an ideal world it would be good to have Clubmate and the Forum under one login option but unfortunately this is not possible at the moment.

Finally, and just as important.

You can see that the club is committed to benefit the members in training and learning as well as the other work on developing fisheries in maintenance, water quality and the pressures angling faces. Clubmate is a great benefit to streamline business to allow more time for management to ensure that other important business is given the time it needs.

We know that all the majority want is ‘just to go fishing’ which is what it is all about but please be mindful of your obligations as a member, read and understand the rules, follow booking in procedures at the fisheries, use Clubmate  and the forums for updates on fisheries. As important is to report poaching and any bankside safety issue, details of how to do that are in the club year book. Early season has thrown floods at us in the past where fisheries have had to be closed due to safety issues and when reopened have had a traffic light system on affected fisheries as they each open up again at differing times or even closed again.

At time of writing the water levels are returning to normal and the ravages of the storms are being addressed by our magnificent keepers. Hopefully we have had the worst but with our wonderful weather can be cruel.

We look forward to the new season and all that it may bring.