YSAA NEWSLETTER JULY 2024

Dear member

Hope you are well and fishing as much as you can, if like me I would love to be fishing a lot more but unfortunately work does not allow this, roll on retirement.

CLUB NEWS

The committee has just welcomed a new member in Chris Ball he has taken up the club’s treasurer’s position, Chris has taken over from Richard Patman who has decided to stand down after many years serving the club and we would all like to thank Richard for everything he has done, many of you will know Chris as he has been a member for many years and for those of you that don’t he lives in Christchurch and travels up two or three times a week to fish the lake, he is a regular at our matches and before he retirered he worked for Southern Electric as a business development manager.

PROJECTS

When we the committee took over our main aim in the first year was to get the club into the 21st century and I think we have achieved most things we set out to do, new website, online membership, maintenance projects, getting members more involved in the club and making sure they were receiving as much information as possible, for example we have had members helping with events, swim clearance and making donations further more we have more than doubled our membership in just over a year. Our next project and one that may take a bit longer is getting some of our rivers back to where they used to be as many are unfishable in the summer due to all the vegetation and weed, over the last 20 years or so the club and authorities have neglected these especially the river from Yeovil to Sherborne, there are many factors to why this has happened, the Environment Agency don’t maintain rivers any more unless there is a flooding concern, it is down to the land owners, then there is cost and now many will not give permission to maintain as re-wilding is a big thing now, so in the next few months the club will be asking members if they would take part in a river survey to find out where they fish or would like to fish, what they would like done and what stretches of river they would like to see cleared if we are given the go ahead.

LAKE NEWS

The lake in late May early June is a funny place to fish as it slows up every year without fail but saying that there is still a lot of big fish being caught, you just have to be lucky and pick the right day, our members are still reporting good catches of bream, tench, hybrids and even big carp. A few of the reports I have received are of 7-8 big bream to 10lb, tench and hybrids to 6lb in a session, one member landed a 23lb plus mirror carp when fishing for bream. Another member had 12 bream and a couple of nice tench. More and more tench are being caught and the bay is the favourite area and most are close in on the edge of the Lillie’s, I have been lucky enough to see a photo of a low 40lb mirror carp that was caught on the lake a few weeks ago but unfortunately I cannot give any more details, we know there are big carp in the lake and I believe there is a lot more than people think, on a hot day you can see them on the surface down in the shallows, Please send me your catch reports and photos as other members always want to know how the lake or rivers are fishing.

MATCH NEWS

Our points matches are hard going at the moment with many blanks but that’s fishing, bream and tench have won every match this year and normally it’s hundreds of roach and Rudd but they have not made their appearance yet, all the matches this year have been won on the feeder with worm and red maggot, the 7th points match was won by Gary Dowding with just over 24lb,

At our last committee meeting it was agreed that the match prize for the point’s winner will be increased and 4 runners up prizes given, all prizes will be in the form of fishing tackle vouchers

1st £150, 2nd £100, 3rd £75, 4th £50 and 5th £25. The results will be announced at the Christmas match and presented at the AGM along with the winners shield, highest individual weight and highest overall weight shield; the committee felt it was only right as the match guys turn up regardless of the weather week after week and have fished in some horrendous weather. (Many thanks)

RIVER REPORT

Our river secretary Paul has been away so I have been out and about and in a few places the rivers are clear and quite weedy, lots of silvers are being caught at long load and some big bream, fishing the deeper water above the sluice is a good bet the same applies to our slac water at wick lots of silvers to be had, I had a few hours one evening along the swage works stretch to the railway bridge but unfortunately it was very overgrown and I struggled to find many swims, I had a few roach and a couple of small chub on a whip but the fish were few and far between.

TENCH FOR THE LAKE

Our chairman Graham will be ordering in the region of 700 tench in the next few weeks and depending on our suppliers we are looking at a delivery in late autumn early winter when the water temperatures are right, also when our supplier has the fish available which will be down to their netting schedule.

LATE NEWS

I mentioned earlier that the Rudd and roach were yet to make their appearance, I am pleased to say they are beginning to show as our 8th points match was won with 10.10 of quality roach caught by Dave Greenham, Joe Fuoco had 9.00 so very good news for the whip boys. And in the last week we have seen the smaller fish come in really close with roach, Rudd, skimmers, perch, hybrids and small carp, the whip boy are very excited now.

Many thanks enjoy your fishing

Kind regards Gary