DDAS Monthly Newsletter – May 2021

Newsletter: The e-mail facility on Clubmate gives us an opportunity to communicate more easily and more often with the club members. So I thought I would put together a newsletter for the club and if it was well received try to send them monthly to let you know what is going on in club, on our waters and with the club members. The committee meets every month and minutes of those meetings are produced, however mainly for reasons of confidentiality they are not published in the public domain. This newsletter is an attempt to share some of that information with you.

Any feedback would be most welcome whether it’s via e-mail, on our Facebook page, verbal if we meet on the bank or by any other means. 

At present this newsletter is only going out via e-mail and the club website. If you know of club members who don’t use e-mail or possibly don’t have internet access perhaps you could print a copy for them or show them the website on a phone or PC. I am looking at using normal post, but to be honest the effort and cost of doing this every month may well be prohibitive. 

Memberships: 
Clubmate: The implementation of the new online membership system is going well, but has not been without its problems. It has been a steep learning curve over a tight timeframe to get the new system in place and the processes working correctly. Please be patient, Paul “Whisky” Haigh is doing a great job at processing all the memberships and next year it will be a lot easier.     

Membership: If you have renewed your membership for the 2021/22 season the club handbook and your membership card will be in the post this week and you should receive it by 1^st June. It is a bit late this year as we had a delay in getting the handbooks delivered from the printers. 

Fishing Licences: Although fishing licences can be renewed at any time of the year, most of us do so at the same time as our DDAS membership. Please don’t forget to renew your licence, it is required to fish all of our waters.

Matches: Upcoming matches:-

• 30^th May – Committee Match – Luckfield Lake – The lake will be closed all day
• 4^th June – Eric Sherwood Evening Series 1 – Revels
• 6^th June – Aldermaston 1 – Whitemoor
• 12^th June – Away weekend “knock up” matches – Goodiford Mill (Devon)
• 20^th June – Bastick Cup – Viaduct
• 25^th June – Eric Sherwood Evening Series 1 – Revels
• 2^nd July – 48hr Carp Match – Avalon Fishery (Somerset)

For full details go to the club website - Match Programme (d-das.com) - Or contact Glenn Richards (Match Secretary) or Steve Sudworth (Club Captain)

News about our Waters: Steve Sudworth and Johnny Johns, with help from others, have been doing some sterling work around Luckfield Lake, especially on the platforms, and this work will continue throughout this year, in fact it never stops, there is always something else to be done! 

A reminder that unhooking mats should be used at Luckfield Lake and other venues where required by the owners. We have a good stock of specimen fish in Luckfield and we should be taking the best possible care of them when on the bank.   

Tom Foyle and myself have been liaising with the Watergates Lane residents (Luckfield Lake access road) on ways to improve the state of the lane. Currently we are waiting on Dorset Council to respond to a request for help as they have maintenance responsibilities for the lane as it is one of their bridleways. The pot holes on the lane are only exacerbated by drivers going too fast, so please keep to the 10mph speed limit on the lane. Also please park as indicated on the posters and by the bay dividers at the lake entrance, it can get busy there and parking correctly means everyone can get in and out.

In early May there was a weed cut, by boat, on Lodge Lake at Kingcombe Farm. While this made the lake more accessible we envisage a second cut being required in the summer.  Therefore Saturday 26^th June has been pencilled in for a working party to do a second weed cut there. We will be looking for club members to help with this work, so watch out for posts asking for volunteers in early June.      

One of the things I am frequently asked by club members is “what’s happening at Silverlake?” The new lakes are looking good at present, there have been water retention issues, but we are hoping for some positive news later in the summer. Please be patient, it has been a long road, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel and you can still fish Heath Lake on the estate.  

Although it is not one of our waters the recent diesel pollution incident at Radipole Lake should be warning to us all to keep a watchful eye on the waters we fish. A large number of Pike were killed by the Radipole incident, something about their gill structure making them particularly vulnerable to this type of pollution. If you see or hear of any type of incident like this please report it immediately to the club committee (contact details on the website) and/or the Environment Agency (24hr incident hotline 0800 807060).

2020 & 2021 Presentation Evening: As you are aware for the second year in succession we have not be been able to hold the AGM and presentation evening. Therefore at the last committee meeting the decision was made to hold a Presentation Evening later this year to present the cups and trophies won in the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons in both the junior and senior sections. Saturday 21^st August is the date pencilled in the diary; watch out for more details in the coming months.  

The New Committee: The new DDAS Committee officially takes office on 1^st June. There are not many changes from the last committee, however one notable change is Jerry Bracey joining the committee and taking over as Treasurer from Dave Tattersall after his 15 year tenure.  

The committee members are frequently on the bank, we are anglers as well, so if you see us around please say hello, feel free to talk to us about the club and ask any questions that you may have.   

Catches and Specimen Badges: For obvious reasons there has been a dearth of information about catches from our waters in the last 18 months and additionally we have not been able to use the catch logs where we have them in place. So we would ask that you give us some feedback on your catches by any means you are able to, e-mails, post photos on our Facebook page or verbally when you see us on the bank (or at the pub!). This information will help us gauge how our waters are performing (or not!). Hopefully we will re-instate the catch logs at our venues in late June if the Covid restrictions are lifted as planned.

Each year we award Specimen badges and the Specimen Cup to the best fish of the year. Last season the cup went to Jack Johns for a 3lb Grayling from the Frome at Wool. Not decrying a great catch by Jack, but he was the only entry. Details about the rules, how to record the catch details and how to send it to the committee are on the club website - Specimen Fish Record Form (d-das.com) – This is also another way to help us understand the state of the fish stocks that we have in our waters.