General Society News
We will not be accepting new members for this season after April 2nd
Added on March 15, 2024

We will not be accepting new members for this season - 23/24 after April 2nd


New memberships for the 24/25 season will be available in June.

13th April AGM Guildford Rugby Club from 9.30
Added on February 19, 2024

This year the AGM will be held at Guildford Rugby Club on the 13th of April. The meeting starts at 9.30 prompt.


You will be notified of the proposals for the AGM prior to the meeting.  Voting is strictly for members only so bring along your membership book to have your say

Should you wish to vote by post these must be sent directly to the Hon secretary Graham Harris or by e-mail to godalming.angling@gmail.com

 

 

2024 AGM Officer Reports
Added on February 15, 2024

Please find below the reports from your officers for the 2024 AGM.

Should any member wish the reports in a Word or PDF format, please e-mail the Society at godalming.angling@gmail.com and a file will be sent out to you.


SOCIETY CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2023

 

The AGM will be taking place at 9.30am on Saturday 13th April 2024 at the Guildford Rugby Club (Broadwater) and members are welcome to attend. If you do, please ensure you have your Membership Book with you.

2023 was another successful year for the Club with membership numbers holding up and, particularly pleasing, that junior membership increased slightly on previous years due, in no small part, to the work of Dave Ewing and Kevin Holcombe and the team on promoting all aspects of junior coaching and development. Bill Harris stepped back from his many years work supporting the junior coaching programme, although he is continuing to support the Society in many ways, including being on the General Committee. Many thanks to him.

Fishing was generally good and we didn’t have quite the same problems with extreme summer temperatures as we had in the previous year.

 

This was the first year that our membership renewals and new member applications were done on-line through Clubmate. For most people the system worked OK but with any new system (to us at any rate) there were a few teething problems and I know some of you experienced difficulties either with the registration/applications or getting books in a reasonable time. Dave Ewing and Kevin Holcombe have worked hard to resolve some of the difficulties members have had and worked with Clubmate to improve some of the functionality and reflect the way the Society works.

Hopefully, renewals for the coming season (2024/25) will continue to see progress in ease of use.

Here are some key dates and information for this season:

-       Renewals for the 2024/25 season can be made from 1st May.

-       Membership books for the 2024/25 season will be processed and sent out before the 30th of June provided you have completed the renewal registration by the 31st of May.

-       If you have changed e-mail address since last year you will not be able to login to your profile.  E-mail Dave Ewing at godalming.angling@gmail.com and he will update your profile with a new e-mail address.

-       If you have a joint membership, make sure your partner’s name is in your profile.

-       If you want to add a junior member online, please create a separate profile for each child OR buy a junior membership over the counter at Apollo Marsh farm.

-       You can add a Johnson’s night permit to all except Junior plans.

-       There is the option to donate to club coaching and upkeep and a new GAS clothing store (this is run by Clubmate, but we receive a percentage of any sales).

To get help with membership you can:

e-mail Dave Ewing at godalming.angling@gamail.com. This is the quickest way to get help as Dave manages the system.

OR telephone:

Kevin Holcoimbe on 07759 5522572 – leave a message.

Trish Noakes on 01483 415651

 

 Following the successful Pike Handling workshop run at Marsh Farm and some recent incidents of bad practice in hooking and handling pike, the General Committee have introduced a rule: that anybody fishing for pike in any Society water must have attended a Pike Handling Workshop and be in possession of a certificate, available at the workshop, verifying that they have.

Good pike are not that plentiful and expensive to replace and, whilst they maybe an apex predator, are sensitive to bad handling. So, in the interest of fish welfare as well as the welfare and safety of the angler it is considered that proper education in the catching and handling of these splendid fish is important and members will understand and support.

There will be a number of workshops run this year and dates, times and venues will be put on the Society’s website, Facebook group and advertised in the Apollo shop.

 

All your Officers, General Committee members and Bailiffs, have continued to work hard on the Society’s behalf to maintain our waters and provide excellent fishing for the members. I would like to thank them all for their hard work and support over the last year.

 

Significant work is always required to maintain our fisheries and support from members in helping out with work parties is needed and helps keep costs down. Please keep an eye on our website for arrangements and dates for work parties and how you can get involved.

 

I’ll leave fellow officers to present the details, which properly reflects the significant work to run our club and maintain our fisheries. Wishing you ‘tight lines’ for 2024.

 

David Johnson – Society Chairman

 

 

HON SECRETARY & TREASURER’S REPORT 2023

 

HON. SEC & TREASURER’S REPORT for the year up to 31st December 2023

 

2023 was another challenging and exciting year for GAS, with a huge programme of work including on the FMC side, which I am sure Clive will enlarge upon, and of course the administration side with the implementation of the Clubmate system to deal with our memberships alongside the other routine administration issues.

 

I was pleased to see those of you that attended at last year’s AGM. It would be good to see a similar turn out, or maybe even more of you. There will be plenty of room at the Rugby Club, so It should be an enjoyable affair and a chance to meet with other friends and GAS members and of course the GAS committee and officers.

 

Clubmate

 

It was a big decision for us to move from a manual membership system to an automated system, but Clubmate has worked well for us, in the vast majority of cases. There have been a few issues, as was expected, with such a major change. So, apologies to those who experienced any issues, but now that the initial membership database has been created, we believe that future renewals through Clubmate should go relatively easily. Fingers crossed.

We are all extremely grateful to Dave Ewing helped by Kevin holcombe for the many hours that he has spent in being the administrator of the GAS Clubmate system for us. It was time to introduce a system that enabled online payments.

 

As for myself I have also been organising some of the maintenance operations and estate management work on our properties and around our waters, since we have had no one formally in post as Maintenance Coordinator for the last six or seven years and giving also a hand with FMC work where I can.

 

Broadwater

 On the maintenance side we dealt with the first phase of the Broadwater swim rebuilds in early 2023 and I believe that these have been a big success. That cost around £24,000. A considerable investment. The second phase of these swim rebuilds is already well underway at a similar cost. These will not all be complete rebuilds, so we are able to attend to more swims around the lake.

 

We have the aim of restoring the water to something like it used to be. Those of you who are old enough to recall the lilies will know what I mean. This is ambitious and certainly will take years yet to come to fruition. Only time will tell. We are also funding, with the help of various grants from the EA, S.C.C. etc, work on the Broadwater bird feeding area, which we hope will see reduction of trees and shrubs and hopefully more marginal plants planted and thriving, which as well as being far more attractive, should also be able to absorb nutrients that encourage the algal blooms. We can already see that where we undertook the removal of some trees and thinning of other areas around the bankside last year, it has encouraged more marginals to develop.

 

We have also installed a second bank of aerators around the island to try to combat the low oxygen events that have routinely occurred and attempt to protect the fish stocks. We undertook more tree reductions around the banks and on the island, which should hopefully be one of many pieces in the jigsaw to improve the water quality over time. Routine Siltex applications and feeding of the fish throughout the season have also been introduced to the timetable. These of course add to our overall costs.

 

 Marsh Farm

We have been trialling the use of heavy-duty plastic piling when undertaking major swim rebuilds at Marsh Farm. Although expensive stuff to purchase it seems that this could be a more durable product than the oak that was previously used. A second phase of these is also scheduled to be undertaken before the end of early March 24, before the venue wakes up from its winter slumber. Lots of nettings and other things based around the fish stock, which I am sure Clive or Keith Baxter will enlarge upon.

 Johnsons Lake

  Again, a far more active regime of nettings, movements, treatments and other such things which I am sure will be detailed under FMC.

 Wood Lake

 We have had to undertake a large amount of tree work in felling Ash trees suffering from die-back and coppicing much of the self-seeded small growth on the right-hand bank as you enter. Reducing the size of the enormous plane trees on the dam wall and the beech and sycamore that are also there, is underway as a I am typing this up, although the costs for this will be in next year’s figures.

 Accounts

 If you have read my reports in the past, you may be aware that I write these reports based on only the cash book income and expenditure figures, as we still have not sent all the information to the Society’s accountants, who will make all the necessary adjustments accruals and the like as they do each year. But if it all goes to plan the accounts will be available at the AGM as usual.

To further confuse things, the Society season ends on 30th June each year, whereas our accounts run to 31st December, and of course, the tax years run to 4th April. So, they do not tie up.

 We saw an increase in our income in the year to December 2023, taking it to around £380,000. But our expenditure also rose significantly over the year and by my calculations, that will still leave us with a deficit for the year of around £10-15,000. But the final figure may differ when the accountants have done their jiggery pokery. This is why we are proposing a further increase in subscriptions for the coming season, which you will see set out in the proposals amongst the AGM paperwork.

 

Engaging contractors to undertake works from tree surgery, swim builds, to Siltex applications all adds to the Society’s running costs, as does the use of Clubmate to manage the membership system and additional fish stocks. But I think these changes are certainly to the benefit of the members and the Society long-term and are therefore necessary.

 Thanks

Thanks as always to all the Members, Bailiffs, Gen Committee members and Officers who give their time so that GAS can not only get by, but can flourish over years to come. There are far too many to be able to thank individually.

 

 We always need to remember that there are also a small band of people who help out behind the scenes to make things tick. Many of them will be known to you, but some maybe not. The wives of the officers have to put up with their partners undertaking Society business and several of them have embraced this and indeed help out practically behind the scenes and have done so for many years. A big thank you to you all.

 

That leads me, of course, to the one that I know most about, which is my own wife, Bernice, who, having historically undertaken Bailiff duties with me, for about 10 years or so, has also taken on the checking of the day ticket sales and junior permits from the Apollo shop, Miss Marple duties reviewing the CCTV at M Farm, when asked to do so, gardening at Marsh Farm, being a person on the end of the phone to respond to member’s queries and helping them out with whatever issues they may have. All that on top of putting up with me disappearing off to meetings or emergencies that have arisen somewhere that needs sorting. On Sunday evenings as well, as recently, when we had a major water leak at Marsh Farm and lost our water supply.

 

Here’s looking forward to a good 2024 for you all and I hope to see you at the AGM.

 

Regards

 

Graham Harris - Hon. Sec &  Hon Treasurer.

 

 HON FISHERIES MANGEMENT SECRETARY’S REPORT 2023

add report

 

 

HEAD BAILIFF’S REPORT 2023

add report

 

 

HON MATCH SECRETARY’S REPORT 2023 including Fixture List for 2024/25

 

HON MARCH SECRETARY REPORT 2023 /2024 SEASON

 

The Match scene remains very buoyant with good regular weekly attendances throughout the summer especially on the Weds opens at Marsh farm run from April until Oct which were boosted latterly by top anglers practicing for their “Fish South” competition. Numbers were only slightly down during the winter months when our focus turns to commercials. It was nice to see several new faces this year also. Just a quick note on Marsh Farm parking. If you have a current 2023/24 season

parking permit it will be carried forward into the new 24/25 season. Currently no need to re-apply but I will let you know if anything changes.

We had good club Matches on our Stillwater’s with Bramley Wood and Broadwater all producing good catches before winter set in. The summer league was well attended as usual and hotly contested as always with a comfortable winner this year in Steve Livingstone with 73pts. Others were Dave Hoffman 58pts, Charlie Salmon 40pts, Brian Wallace 38pts, Frank Bevan also 38pts but lower weights and Tim Brown 37pts.

The winter league continues as I write with Myself veteran Roger Howe and young sprog Mark Shaw battling it out for top spot with one round to go at Broadwater and one point in it although on paper Stuart Kendal could just nick it if we both blow out. Once again it proved difficult to book up Matches for the 2024-2025 season fixture list. It seems clubs are booking earlier than ever with some Fisheries booking up until the end of the 25/26 season!! I have managed a varied list which I hope you approve of. Sadly, the River does not figure this time mainly due to poor parking and long walks making it unpopular with many of our aging Match group kitted out with trollies resembling articulated lorries. The few spaces for multiple cars parking within a reasonable distance have all but disappeared including Broadford Bridge which is now sports bollards courtesy of the local council. Once again there are more commercials in the winter months as they are more productive than natural waters and therefore very popular despite the extra cost that continues to rise although we have managed to hold our entry /pools prices at a reasonable level for the time being.

I would like to thank all of those who helped me throughout the year with pegging and standing in in my absence.

Tight lines everybody for next season

 

Roger Howe

 FIXTURE LIST FOR 2024/2025 SEASON

 

 

 

FIXTURES 2024 2025 season

JULY

 

Sun 7th

Bramley Lake   Draw 830   Fish 10-3.30

Sun 14th

Richardson Lake     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm  (SL3)

Sun 21st

Harris Lake    Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 28th

Wood Lake     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm (SL4)

AUG

 

Sun 4th

Gold Middle Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish   10-3.30pm

Sun 11th

Willingshurst Jons Lake     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm  (SL5)

Sun 18th

Charity Match Richardson Lake     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 25th

Johnsons Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3.30pm  (SL6)

SEPT

 

Sun 1st

Harris Lake   Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 8th

Richardson Lake     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm  (SL7)

Sun 15th

Field Cup Thames and St Pats Stream (Team Match)

Sun 15th

Bramley Lake     Draw 8.30 Fish 10--3.30pm

Sun 22nd

Richardson Lake   Draw 8.30  Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 29th

Broadwater Silvers     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3pm  (SL8)

OCT

 

Sun 6th

Willow Small /Middle      Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 13th

Sumners MatchLake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm (WLI)

Sun 20th

Richardson Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3.30pm  (WL2)

Wed 23rd

Bramley Lake    Draw 9am  Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 27th

Willingshurst Jons Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm (WL3)

NOV

 

Sun 3rd

Gold Middle Causway bank    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 10th

Whatmore Farm   Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3.30pm

Wed 13th

Wood Lake    Draw 9am Fish 10-3pm

Sun 17th

Willow Small /Middle Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 24th

Bramley Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

DEC

 

Sun 1st

Pump Station  Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 8th

Whatmore Farm    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Wed 11th

Wood Lake    Draw 9am Fish 10-3pm

Sun15th

Billhook    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm (WL4)

Sun 22nd

Christmas Match Marsh Farm (River if frozen)

Sun 29th

Wood Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

JAN

 

Sun 5th

Gold Middle    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 12th

Whatmore Farm    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

wed 15th

Wood Lake    Draw 9am Fish 10-3pm

Sun 19th

Willow Small /Middle     Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 26th

Willingshurst Johns Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm (WL5)

FEB

 

Sun 2nd

Billhook     Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 9th

Sumners MatchLake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Wed 12th

Wood Lake    Draw 9am    Fish 10-3pm

Sun 16th

Willingshurst Johns Lake    Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3pm (WL6)

Sun 23rd

Pump Station     Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3pm

MAR

 

Sun 2nd

Willow Middle     Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 9th

Whatmore Farm Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm (WL7)

Wed 12th

Bramley Lake    Draw 9am   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 16th

Pump Station    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 23nd

Sumners Ribbon Lake    Draw 8.30  Fish 10-3pm (WL8)

Sun 30th

Gold    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3.30pm

APR

 

Sun 6th

Billhook    Draw 8.30  Fish 10-3pm

Sun 13th

Richardson Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 20th

Willow Small /Middle    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 27th

Richardson Lake    Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

MAY

 

Sun 4rd

Bramley Work Party and Match  Meet 8,30am

Sun 11th

Richardson Lake    Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 18th

Bramley Work Party and Match  Meet 8,30am

Sun 25th

Billhook    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

JUN

 

Sun 7 1st

Bramley Work Party and Match  Meet 8,30am

Sun 8th

Broadwater SilversMatch    Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 15th

Richardson Lake    Draw 8.30   Fish 10-3.30pm

Sun 22nd

Wood Lake    Draw 8.30 Fish 10-3pm

Sun 29th

Harris Lake    Draw 8.30   Fish 10- 3.30pm

 

 

 

 

Sun 28th Sept 25  Ribbon Lake booked

 

Sun 9th Oct 25  MatchLake booked

 

Sun 26th Oct 25 Ribbon booked

 

Sun 30th Nov 25 MatchLake booked

 

 

 

 

JUNIOR ORGANISER’S REPORT 2023 (development, coaching & matches)

 

Coaching and development report 2023

 

2023 was a good year for the coaching team.  We ran our programme of Saturday morning Fishing for Fun sessions that proved  popular as always. Thanks to the support of the Society, these sessions are free to attend and all tackle ad bait is provided. If you have any family members who are interested in trying fishing this is the perfect introduction.  Dates for 2024 are on the website already but booking in is essential as spaces are limited. 

Angling proved a great activity for our local cubs,  scout and brownie groups with around 150 youngsters attending various evening events at Marsh Farm.  These are fun introductory sessions that give lots of local kids a positive experience of our sport.  I am delighted to report that Broadwater school organised a couple of evening sessions with us that are continuing this year. School outdoor activities stopped during the pandemic and it is good to see school groups returning to fish with us.

Our involvement with Guildford Voluntary Action continued for another year and it has been a joy to run these events. I had not fully appreciated the link between angling and mental health before these sessions.  It is incredible how fishing creates an atmosphere that allows people to relax and interact in a very positive way.  Hopefully we can run these sessions for another season at least.

On the competition side, our junior summer league benefitted from the introduction of some Petersfield anglers, with Finlay Tester coming out on top on 5 points just ahead of Michael Ewing on 7 and Leo Hackman on 8.  We were able to run the summer carp fishing event at Broadwater and this year Cameron Eadie won comfortably with 20 carp ahead of Callum Hatley on 15.  Thanks to Rob Hackman and the Broadwater bailiffs for supervising the event and Gardner tackle for sponsoring the prizes.

I would like to thank our great coaching team: Andy, Paul, Kevin, Ben, Val, Dave, and Dan and thank Brian, Chloe, Rosie and Dawn for all their great support work. I mentioned last year that Bill Harris retired from coaching after 50 years of involvement with the Society.  I am delighted to report that Bill won the Lifetime Service to Sport award  from Sport Godalming and was presented with a handsome trophy at their awards ceremony.  Well done Bill and well deserved!

Dave Ewing, coaching co-ordinator

Winkworth Fly Fishers

Fly fishing at Winkworth started well with good spring catches but the summer heat which lasted into the early autumn made trout fishing difficult.  On a  positive note, we caught plenty of roach over the summer on the fly and some decent fish- up to the 1lb mark. There is a head of carp at Winkworth that will also be worth targeting on the fly in the summer heat  Should any member wish to join, please e-mail me at godalming.angling@gmail.com for more details and an application form

 

Recent News
Work on Broadwater Island and Peg 1
Added by Dave Ewing on March 19, 2024
Marsh Farm island survey
Added by Dave Ewing on March 19, 2024
We will not be accepting new members for this season after April 2nd
Added by Dave Ewing on March 15, 2024
Broadwater Senior/Junior match date moved
Added by Dave Ewing on March 13, 2024
28th, 29th Feb and 1st March SILTEX application on stillwaters
Added by Dave Ewing on February 23, 2024
Bramley floating islands
Added by Dave Ewing on February 21, 2024
DIVERS WANTED
Added by Dave Ewing on February 21, 2024
13th April AGM Guildford Rugby Club from 9.30
Added by Dave Ewing on February 19, 2024
2024 AGM Officer Reports
Added by Dave Ewing on February 15, 2024
The state of our river
Added by Dave Ewing on February 09, 2024