WHO AM I ?

My name is Nigel Garrett (life member)

My association started with the Sherborne AA club with my dad as a 12/13yr old. 53 yrs ago The club were in negotiations with Yeovil AA to amalgamate the two, this went ahead,in the late 70s and the only time we could fish the lake was two days a year and that was for pike.

During the following yrs the late Tom Alden club secretary at the time was contacted by the estate to see if we were interested in having the fishing rights at the lake as a trial to turn it to a trout fishery failed miserably.

We arranged a test fishing day conditions were not great big banks of weed no swims pre-cut.

What we found out that day was there was a good head of big roach of what we had never seen before with tench and pike.

So we arranged a swim cleaning session and another trial fish.

The results were amazingly good Roach over 1and a half pounds every where.

So we came to an arrangement with the estate and the YSAA lake section was born.

The following years fishing was fantastic with roach to upwards of 2lbs some just under 3lbs being caught.

We then had a disaster with a sluice being left open draining the lake very quickly and decimating the roach stocks. Fishing became poor and with a lot of support from the estate and EA we were given some fish to replace the stocks these were very small but helped the fish that were left to flourish again.

At this time I was the match sec and we had some club matches at the lake which produced some great bags of fish.

During this period myself and a few of the younger anglers were trying to get some bream into the lake, but this was coming up against resistance from some of the older members of the committee and estate, but the fish that had been put in by the EA unknowingly had small bream in, so the resistance to stocking bream had been nurtured so then over the next couple of yrs we managed to get some bream from gasper lake and £500 worth were purchased and stocked and then an explosion of bream took place.

This then put the lake back to map members flooded back, matches started to be won with 70 lbs of bream we had a couple of yrs of skimmers but due to the high food levels the bream grew and match and pleasure catches rose, I was fortunate to be the first one to record a 100+ lbs of bream in a match.

By this time I had become club secretary and Lake Secretary, membership was at an all-time high with a full capacity and waiting list.

We had done a lot of work with the estate over the yrs in putting in platforms making it a perfect place to fish during the 80s and90s

In 2000 I unfortunately moved away and during the next few yrs the fishing went downhill some of the bream had died and what were left in my opinion went nocturnal and only fed at night,

There were loads of small fish to catch but no bream.

Coming right up to date the bream that are left and being caught now are big fish 10lb and above.

This is a brief account in my experience of the lake in over 40 yrs we have been involved.

I now live in Hereford now retired so will venture down to try and catch a 10 lb bream to go with a 3lb3oz Roach I caught 30+ yrs ago

Tight lines

Nigel

YSAA WOULD LIKE TO THANK NIGEL FOR HIS WHO AM I ? 

AND WELL DONE FOR CATCHING HIS FIRST 10LB+LAKE BREAM