COMMUNITY SPIRIT IS VITAL FOR ANGLING

Angling clubs traditionally hold their AGM’s at the start or end of the season and these events are an important social gathering for the membership. The meeting is a reset point for the club enabling members to guide the committee as to the direction the club should follow and an opportunity for the committee to engage with members.

            I attended two AGM’s in the past week the first was that of South Molton & District Angling Club on February 10^th and the second was Dulverton Anglers Association on February 12^th.

            South Molton & District Angling Club’s 57^th AGM was held at South Molton’s Masonic Lodge. Close to thirty members attended and it was very much business as usual as club Chairman Ed Rands addressed the members and introduced the committee officers as they delivered their reports.

            Before the formal meeting commenced Daniel Skeat’s and Karen Saunders of the West Country Rivers Trust gave an informative presentation outlying the valuable work undertaken across the region via the Teign and Taw Fisheries plan. The funding for much of this work is from the governments Water Restoration Fund.

            Karen and Daniel gave an outline on work with the farming community to effectively manage maize crops to reduce soil run off that is causing serious issues for salmonids spawning sites.

Electro fishing results across the Taw catchment gave some room for optimism with fry counts encouraging across some sites.

The Taw shad eDNA survey results were inconclusive with only a tiny percentage of samples giving a positive indication of the presence of shad. It is known from anglers catches and observations that both twaite and allis shad are migrating into the River Taw and as this is an annual event spawning is probably taking place though there is not yet conclusive evidence.

The West Country Rivers Trust are working closely with the North Devon Biosphere , National Trust and other organisations to improve river and wetland habitat.

The club continues to thrive in an everchanging world with members enjoying excellent wild brown trout fishing on the River Bray. The long dry summer impacted upon fishing during the latter part of the season though a few migratory fish were contacted during the final days as rivers responded to rain.

The Dulverton Anglers Association AGM was held at the Anchor Inn, Exebridge, on Thursday, February 12^th.  The venue meeting room was packed with close to fifty members keen to support the club and hear a talk from Pete Tyjas the new editor of Trout and Salmon Magazine.

The hard working committee briefed the members on a successful year with the club in excellent financial health. The club now has close to 300 members who enjoy access to fishing on nine beats of the Upper Exe, Barle and Haddeo.

Habitat improvement was high on the agenda and it was clear that there is a dedicated team who carry out regular work across the associations waters.

Devon based Pete Tyjas was given a warm welcome and delivered an inspiring, entertaining and informative talk on West Country Fly Fishing, his life and Trout and Salmon Magazine.

The future of Fly Fishing and the direction of Trout and Salmon was high on the agenda with social media and AI constantly influencing society and readers habits. Pete oozes passion and optimism for the future believing that there could be a shift back towards traditional print media as what is seen online becomes increasingly false.

Angling can by its nature be a fundamentally solitary pursuit and yet its community is vital for it to thrive. Fly fishing like all disciplines of angling continues to evolve as long established traditions are challenged. Club meetings, talks, shows and tackle shops are at the heart of angling and fresh ideas are essential for the pastimes future.

The West Country Fly Fair is being held at Roadford Lake this Sunday and is always an enjoyble curtain raiser to the Spring and Summer Fly fishing season.

Dale Kiff won Bideford Angling Clubs 48hour Rover with a  Bass of 5lb 10oz.