FEBRUARY LAKES REPORT

Hello fellow game fishers,

 

February has been a busy month at Winterborne Zelston. It is remarkable how well the lake has recovered from the floods. The fishing has been excellent for the most part although the cold windy conditions has made it tough on occasion. Your reports are below.

 

• It was a pretty windy north easterly and it certainly made casting difficult and teaching very difficult but we all still had a great day, we fished from about 10:30 to 14:30, and caught our bags. Between us we caught a very nice 5lbs, four at 4lbs or thereabouts and one 3lbs 4. They mostly fell to very large, bug eyed monsters. Most amusing moment, Jack scaled a tree to retrieve a very tangled,  long discarded fly, put it on and caught a fish with it.

 

• It was a nice breezy day resulting in 2 fish per angler, 3.04, 3.06, 3.06 and 4.00.They were all taken on small weighted nymphs, 2@hares ear, 1@pheasant tail and 1@black and holographic red. All hooked in the scissors and in good condition.Lovely day, thank you.

 

• 2 at approx. 3 lb. Not much success initially, but very quick once I found the fish. They had been on the downwind cottage side, but I think the cold wind set up a current putting the cold water that end and the fish moved?

Anyway, deep and on the upwind side they were. 4 casts – 2 fish.

 

• Lost a couple of feisty lunkers who threw the hook in mid air but I did manage to land a beautiful Brownie of I estimate between 4 &5 lbs which was returned plus a couple of RT of 3lbs.

 

• Took my two on a new fly I invented! a squirmy worm booby! To be known as the "squiby"fished on the sinking line down deep----deadly! Fish about 3 apiece,as Miranda would say "such fun!" Jim.

 

• I've joined Wimborne and district this past week. I fished Winterborne on Thursday which was a good start. 2 fish, 3 and 4lb.

 

• I arrived at WZ at 1045 and there was quite a strong Westerly and a bit of rain. I lost a fish at the net off the right hand pontoon and then managed to get two at 3.4 and 3.1 in the corner by the cottage. All on a black Apache.

One was foul hooked in the tail so I assume it must have hit it with it’s tail and as you would expect gave a hell of a fight taking me to the backing twice.

They were both in good condition except the larger fish had no pectoral fins.

 

Opening Day at Rawlsbury Wednesday 1st March.

 

It is that time of year when we can at last enjoy the 4 lakes at Rawlsbury. Chapmans and Cowleaze have been restocked with our hard fighting rainbows for catch and take purposes and the browns and rainbows in Sandys and Viners have been fed over winter. A big thankyou to Gary. These of course are our catch and release lakes, so can I remind everyone to please use barbless hooks! Also, as you enter the farm at Rawlsbury on your right is the Fishing WC please make sure you SIGN IN.

 

Last Friday we held our first work party at Rawlsbury in preparation for its opening day on the 1st March. It was a very good turn out and I must thank all the volunteers for their efforts. Bob organised the weed clearance and with the use of various rakes managed to haul in quite an amount of weed. I have attached his report of the activities in Addendum B.

 

Couple of other things to remember, at this time of year wooden decking on the jetties can be very slippery. They have been brushed and cleaned but do use with caution. If you spot any cormorants please don’t forget to drop me a line about the sighting or inform the club by using our website.

 

Future Work Parties.

 

In order to give more members a chance to participate in our work parties we have decided to give more advance notice. The dates agreed so far for Rawlsbury are 24th March, 28th April, and 26th May. If you are interested in joining us on these days please let me or know, the more the merrier!

 

Ticket prices rising 10%.

 

On the 7th February the WDAC committee agreed a price rise of 10% for the purchase of trout tickets. My report to the committee explains the background to the decision and reaches the conclusion that because of increasing fish prices by 20% it will be necessary to put up prices.  Essentially the 2x Fish Ticket will rise from £20.00 to £22.00. See Addendum A.

 

ANNUAL GAME MEETING

 

On the 14th March at 7.30pm the Annual Game section meeting is going to be held at the Royal British Legion Hall, Corfe Mullen. (BH21 3HQ) Doors open at 7pm giving us time beforehand to meet up and exchange pleasantries. As this is an ideal venue to raise any questions about the club’s game fishing, please let me know by email and I will endeavour to include them on the agenda.

 

Tight lines!

 

 

Paul

 

 

WIMBORNE AND DISTRICT ANGLING CLUB

ANNUAL GAME SECTION MEETING

 

Tuesday 14 th  March 2023 at 19.30 BRITISH LEGION CORFE MULLEN

 

Game Secretary – Paul Baker

 

To be chaired by Mike Hirsh Chairman

 

Items:

 

1. Welcome MH

2. Apologies PB

3. Review of the Trout Section 2022 interim accounts, catch returns,

     Price of tickets for 2023-PB

4. Review of works at Winterborne Zelston 2022 - MH

5. Work Parties and Maintenance 2023 and goals for fishery – PB

6. Water quality and the long hot summer – lessons learned PB/MH

7. Signal Crayfish at Rawlsbury - MH

8. Proposals for trout fishing taster day for non-trout fishermen on Saturday

13 May - PB

9. AOB

10. Close of Meeting MH

A fly-tying demonstration by Gareth Evans will follow the meeting.

 

 

Addendum A

 

The decision to increase trout ticket prices from 1 April 2023.

 

1.0 Introduction

 

1.1 The Club’s Games Secretary is delegated the responsibility for setting the price of trout tickets. However, due to prevailing financial uncertainty, and the nature of a proposed subsidy I considered it appropriate to put this matter before the Club’s Committee, which I did on the 7 February and where it was agreed to:

 

• Increase the price of the two fish member’s ticket from £20 to £22 and the other tickets for guests also to be raised by 10%. Further for the next twelve months the Game Section surplus is used, if needed, to subsidise the purchase of trout, particularly the larger specimen fish that are stocked.

 

• That the Games Secretary advises the Annual Meeting of the Game Section accordingly at its forthcoming meeting, with the caveat that matters will need, in any event, to be kept under review due to the uncertainty over future supplies.

 

 

1.2 Last year the Club stocked trout to the value of £7118 and ticket sales covered this and provided a positive balance in addition of £1173.  The trout section balance is of course part of the Club’s overall finances, nevertheless it is  a clear indicator of how the Section is operating.

 

1.3 The graph below shows a year on year rise of 20% in triploid fish prices from our supplier. In February 2022 a delivery of 70 fish which included 35 fish between 1-1.5kg and 35 fish of 1.5 – 2kg cost on average £8.58 each. In 2023 a delivery cost £11.62 per fish. This was calculated from 25 fish of 1-1.5kg, 25 of 1.5kg – 2kg and 5xfish of 2kg +. Clearly, the Club is experiencing escalating costs and if we are to include the larger fish above 2kgs this will further add to our expenditure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.0 Costs Further Considered

 

2.1 The costs of fish per kilo is only part of the equation and the first of the other items relates to catch rates of the anglers fishing. In short, as we know, not all members catch two fish every time they purchase a two fish ticket, inevitably a small minority are blanks or fail to catch their second fish. Catch rates vary from year to year and from the different trout waters.

 

2.2 The calculation is further complicated by how many fish are lost to predation and general mortality. The Club’s Game Section Policy recognised a 20% mortality overall as being quite likely.

 

2.3 An additional and completely different complication also relates to trout supplies more generally. It is important to keep this matter under review because of ever greater uncertainty associated with supplies. I intend that the Club should  to stay loyal to our existing supplier, but I am also aware that we cannot ignore value for money and the problems associated with production of goods generally related to energy and other costs. Therefore it is imperative that I continue to monitor the situation.

 

 

Addendum B

 

Report by Bob Spurgeon.

 

After experiencing a very dry summer, followed by floods and then a freeze-up, our first Working party of the 2023 season at Rawlsbury was always going to be interesting. What we found was a fair amount of weed, some annoying algae and massive amounts of silt! The silt at the “near” end of Chapmans, seemed to have covered the weed, so it remains to be seen how the weed will develop in the months ahead.

 

This was probably the first time that we had tried sawing the weed roots at the same time as using rakes to clear the cuttings. The light early season growth seemed to suit that approach and we avoided a massive matt of weed left at the end to somehow remove from the water. Together with Gordon’s work on the strimmer, Nigel on the mega-rake, Jan serving food and others active with rakes and forks it turned out to be an excellent day out. I hope everyone enjoyed the work and the company.

 

We have always known about the clay island in the middle of Chapmans and last summer Gary said he saw the swans standing on it. Last season we discovered another similar bank nearer to the lodge. Yesterday we “explored” that central island a little bit more with the weed saw. This all helps as we develop the best methods to manage the fishery.

 

Fish were stocked into Chapmans and Cowleaze making use of tubs to carry them the last few yards, so we know there are fish in them! Afterwards we threw pellets into Viners and Sandys. On the day the Viners fish were shy, but those in Sandys went bananas!

 

We would like to thank everyone for turning out and doing such a good job, which brings us the subject of further work parties. Friday seems to be a popular choice and it helps to fix the dates in advance, so the next Working Parties will be held on 24th March, 28th April and 26th May.

 

Unless something dramatic happens, the March Workparty will be at Rawlsbury again. We are bound to need a second go on Chapmans and it is quite possible that Cowleaze will be growing by then. In the meantime please get those rods out and enjoy yourselves.

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