Here are the officer reports ready for you to read prior to the 2026 AGM on the 11th of April.
Once again our summer coaching programme proved popular and was heavily booked from the start. We now limit numbers on these sessions and I think this makes for a more positive experience for all attending.
Our regular local scout, cub and beaver groups returned this year as did Broadwater School. We also ran a very successful session for Godalming Youth Services. Once again over 250 local youngsters had a chance to experience fishing through our programmes.
Our junior summer league ran very successfully again with a competitive league and up to 10 juniors competing in each leg. Finley Tester ran out winner on his last appearance as a junior. Finley has moved on to compete for a place in the England youth national squad. A group of good anglers were hot on his heels with Haydon, Cameron, Ralphie, Reggie , Leo and Zak all competing for the places. Thanks to our support from the get fishing fund we can now offer any youngest who wants to try a match a pole and a seatbox to borrow for the day. This removes the huge barrier of cost to anyone starting out in match fishing. We can also provide the support with a team of match oriented coaches led by Ben and Paul, who can guide beginners through the tactics needed to succeed in a match.
Less successful was the junior carp events at Broadwater. This year we did not have enough youngsters sign up to run the night event. Many older anglers will remember the Broadwater night match being oversubscribed with several young anglers sharing a peg. Times have changed and night fishing is clearly not the novelty it once was.
Thanks to Kevin, Paul S, Dave B, Ben, Andy, Paul C, Dan, Dawn, Brian, Val and the not-so retired Bill Harris for their help and enthusiasm. We are lucky to have such a great team - without whom our programme simply would not exist!