Barnstaple & District Angling Clubs AGM was held at the Ebberley Arms in Barnstaple with a very good proportion of the membership in attendance. The clubs committee are undoubtedly a hard-working and dedicated team full of optimism despite difficult times on the river.

The club has purchased a new stretch of fishing on the Middle Taw that was for many years owned by John Saunders affectionately known to local anglers as ‘Gandy’. Sadly no salmon were landed from the beat this year. Fortunately the wild brown trout fishing was superb with plenty of stunning fish over 1lb caught.

Alan Jump works tirelessly working to enhance South Aller Lake the clubs sole remaining coarse fishing lake. The lake offers excellent fishing for tench, crucian carp, roach, perch, eels and carp to mid doubles. The secluded lake set in an old quarry surrounded by mature trees is a wildlife haven far removed from some of today’s commercial lakes with their platforms and gravel paths.

Don Hearn gave a passionate and detailed report on the clubs fishing at Newbridge. Three salmon were caught from the beat this year one of the worst in living memory. There were positive reports of roach and dace being caught from the club water which is an encouraging sign as the river was once a thriving coarse fishery renowned across the country for producing huge roach many of them over 2lb.

The numbers of shad entering the river is of great interest to scientists and the presence of these fish is likely to offer conservation funding and protection for this iconic North Devon river.

The official proceedings were followed by fascinating talks from Lucy Robinson and Mike McNally both from the Devon and Cornwall Police Wildlife Team. Mike and Lucy explained how important all information is and how it can be used to piece together the complex and intricate jigsaw puzzle of crime detection.

The illegal netting of elvers was a fascinating part of the talk with the massive value of these fascinating fish fuelling a vast criminal network that exports to the Far-East.

Sadly the Wildlife Crime department is underfunded as is the Environment Agency and other regulatory bodies that try to protect our natural world.

In this day and age poachers have sophisticated technology at their disposal such as thermal imaging that can target a deer at over mile distance.

Reporting of incidents is 100% anonymous and can be reported via Crime Stoppers 0800 555111  Crimestoppers-uk.org

To report pollution incidents call the EA on 0800 807060

DON HEARNS – Report

A difficult year for all game rivers it seems and no exception on the Taw.

We started the season with a first day meet and BBQ at the new club hut in a hail shower!  A good number attended though, including Gary Herbert who drove all the way from Guildford for it. Good effort and despite the weather a brilliant social occasion enjoyed by all who came. Hopefully we can repeat this event next year. Game fishing can be a solitary affair and sharing tall tales of days gone by with like-minded people is always worthwhile as it keeps us all in contact with each other and is one of the reasons our club life is so appreciated.

We start the season full of hope, as ever, but had little reward after the spring.

A few Salmon and sea trout were caught/lost early on but little showed after June. The summer of course was low water and plagued with algae blooms as ever. We did see fish moving up in the last week of September in the spate and assume they went straight upriver. As in previous years the rain came too late for us and that seems to be the pattern these days. There is much discussion as to why so few fish are seen and the more we discuss the more complex it becomes. I had a report from the Tamar, which is a monitored river, that the return of fish was very low. It’s assumed something is happening at sea. Not sure if that is the case but it seems the west country is suffering more than the East coast. Super trawlers, climate change to gulf stream, dirty rivers or maybe a combination of everything. We haven’t had any late season sea trout reported either. I and others spent many nights on several Taw beats without a sign of one, so it wasn’t down to of lack of effort. The only thing for sure is that there is always a chance of a fish and nobody ever caught one watching the T.V.!

It has been noted that the Brownies seem to be doing ok with several fish in the 2lb to 3lb range being reported and many members have scaled down to enjoy good sport with them. More brownies have been reported than ever before in recent times and often save a blank which is welcome. The Shad showed again early in the season and are of great interest as it’s another important protected species and reports of any captures are welcomed as it helps in the fight for our water quality. The recent industrial farming introduced into the Lower Taw valley is putting a lot of pressure on an already troubled river and hopefully there is a way to make it more acceptable. The EA farm inspectorate are investigating this process and we can but hope it can make a difference.

 The Southwest rivers trust have asked us for permission to install water monitoring equipment on our waters and of course we welcome it and will assist them all we can. We are not sure where it will be at the moment, but we’ll keep you all posted. If you do find telemetry in the river, please know we are aware and avoid disturbing it. If you haven’t sent in your catch report, please do so even if it’s nil. Please include all species, also an indication of AGM attendance would be helpful.

As most of you know our AGM will be held in the Ebberly Arms, Bear Street, Barnstaple on Tuesday 12th November at 7.30pm. There is free evening parking in the car park at the rear.  This is always a friendly social evening, and we are expecting a good attendance as in previous years.

For those struggling with downtime, a reminder that Bass, Mullet and Pike on the fly are always an option and we are lucky enough to have good access locally. We hope you enjoyed your time on the water and wish you tight lines for next season.

Don Hearn

and all at B.D.A.A.

Colin Ashby presenting Dave Winter with the Salmon Trophy

The evening concluded with an auction of fishing books donated by the late John ‘Gandy’ Saunders widow. An amazing £205 was raised has been donated to Devon Air Ambulance.

Several awards were presented including the best salmon  of 13lb to Dave Winter.

Steve Maddox was awarded the Claude Pugsley roach cup and Jim Simpkins the bass trophy for a fly caught bass of 5lb. The sea trout trophy was won by Matt Cooper.

After the meeting members enjoyed reflecting upon past glory’s and future aspirations.