YSAA NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2026

Dear Member

Hope you are well, the fishing over the last month has been pretty bad due to the weather, the first few weeks of January were very cold and our Stillwater’s were clear and frozen, our rivers were low and clear and then it became a lot milder with rain and the rivers were in flood and in the fields so a bit of an understatement to say the fishing was hard.

AGM

Our AGM is fast approaching and will be held at Johnson Park Coronation avenue BA21 3DY, What 3 Words Rarely,herds,Brands, on Tuesday 17th February at 8.15pm in the hall, doors will open at 7.30pm as the club will be giving members a free drink at the bar on arrival and a free buffet before the meeting starts, if you will be attending could you please let me know so we have some idea of numbers for the catering, my email address is secretary @ysaa-online.co.uk, we will also have our clubs prize giving, if any members have old photos or history regarding the club please bring it along as we would love to see it and put it on the history page on our website.

MEMBERSHIP

The next month or so many of our clubs memberships will be up for renewal, each member will receive a renewal email 1 month prior to the expiry date of their membership, if you are planning to renew please make sure it is done before the expiry date as you will incur the joining fee as a new member.

LAKE NEWS

For those of you that have fished the lake the beginning of January was hard because of the cold weather, but as soon as it turned milder we started to see Bream, Roach and Tench  being caught on the feeder, I have not received many catch reports regarding the lake but hopefully if the milder weather continues the fishing will get better, at the end of the month our vice chairman Geoff will be carrying out our annual spring feed program and he will be putting in 500kg of a non-oil based pellet

RIVER NEWS

Our rivers have been up and down like a yoyo but our SLAC waters were producing some nice Perch, Chub and Pike, our Ilchester stretch some nice Chub and the Yeo at Bradford Abbas Trout and Chub. We have now signed contracts for the river at Mudford and myself and Paul went down for a few hours, my god it was freezing and we didn’t get a bite, as this stretch has not been fished properly for about 30years we don’t know what fish are there and in what numbers, the last week to 10 days of January it was almost impossible to fish any of our rivers as they were in flood😩😩😩

BRIANS TOP TIP

Back from my winter break in the Caribbean and a shock to the system weather wise, if you are planning fishing for the Perch on our SLAC waters try spinning with a small lure, and travel light you might also pick up some nice Chub as well, weather and river conditions permitting, it might also be worth giving the fields ago

MATCH NEWS

Unfortunately our first river match of 2026 had to be cancelled, our next one on the 8th February will go ahead but has been moved to Sherborne Lake due to the weather, if any of our Pike anglers are interested we have been invited to take part in a two day predator match by SLAC, we need a team of 5 members, if you would like to be part and be in the YSAA team please contact our membership secretary Paul Giles

COMMITTEE NEWS

On behalf of the committee I would like to welcome two new members Phil Waterhouse and Neil Waddleton who are our clubs bailiffs and will be officially elected at our upcoming AGM.

Hopefully we will get some better weather soon and looking forward to seeing you at the AGM.

Take Care

Kind Regards

Gary