The Wandering Wordsmith at BADAC

AGM 2011 The Annual General Meeting was held on 6th April 2011, with 26 members attending. With a membership of over 500, one can only surmise that the vast majority of our members are happy with the way that the Club is run and also with the variety of venues and activities offered. A small increase in subscriptions across the range of memberships and the same Officers and Committee Members (with the addition of Raymond Wood) were elected, with one or two minor tweaks to Club rules being passed. On the face of it we don't seem to progress very much, but believe you me we do in spite of such an apparent lack of interest. The most interesting point from this years meeting was a statement from our President concerning the 'improvement in the quality, and sometimes quantity, of catches on some of the Club waters and Associates waters. In particular, London Colney seeing its best fishing since 1976'. In addition to this splendid report members were advised that the Club had obtained a secure stock pond facility and that we have been able to renew the lease for our Sonning stretch of the Thames for a further 5 years. On top of all this, Jack Neate our venerable Treasurer was asked 2 questions regarding this 'years' accounts! The only down side to the meeting was the news that the Club will be relinquishing the The Compasses water. Their research had shown that members did not use the venue sufficiently to warrant the expenditure upon rent.

A bright June start (June 2011) After a rather pleasant but busy day and with what looked to be a typical summer’s evening, I decided to take the ‘Golden Turtle’ – our one remaining car, for a spin down to London Colney. With fairly clear roads and The Turtle wanting to go, the journey took around an hour and a quarter. Arriving at the St. Anne’s Road venue, I thought initially that BADAC had clashed with the community bingo night or that the workman from the cleared site next door to the car park had left their vehicles overnight or perhaps were having ‘one for the road’ in the Silver Lion. Squeezing into a parking space around the perimeter I wandered in, had a pee and

washed my hands and with no sound of a bingo caller progressed to the usual ‘meeting room’. My first view was of The Raspberry sitting in splendid isolation in front of the room’s ‘stage’, but upon entering the hallowed

ground, heard the dulcet tones of our Chairman addressing surprise, surprise a pleasantly larger number of Club members of varying ages and recognisable faces. For once the meeting had started on time and I was a tad late after all. Taking a chair and positioning myself next to John with a barely audible ‘How are you governor?’, the meeting soon got through the ‘mundane’ matters and onto the main feature – a presentation on the best way to succeed at London Colney lakes. Knowledgeable Club anglers in the guise of Stuart Butterfield, Dennis Revell and Dave Currell joined Ray Mouratsing to give of their knowledge on this premier Club water. And what knowledge it was – something for everyone, even me - from information as to the contours, depths and features of the big lake, to distance to fish on the pole and waggler line, size and type of hooks and hook

length diameter. Even groundbait secrets were disclosed (allegedly) and I’m pretty sure that everyone there learnt something – if not it’s probably because they weren’t listening. All in all a thoroughly good start to a series of ‘summer’ Club monthly meetings planned through until September or October, with different subjects each month. I couldn’t help but think, as I pointed the Golden Turtle into the direction of a beautiful blood red sunset, that the Club had found a possible winner – if only people would stop having mini conferences amongst themselves so that the soft spoken presenters could be heard more easily ‘at the back’.

Fisheries review for 2010/11 Our new water at Fishers Green has proved popular with members who have reported on their catches of barbel and chub with pride and pleasure. Our London Colney fishery has fished extremely well. Double figure catches of 100lb nets of bream and two of 200lb have been reported. Shepherds Way has continued to shine with carp of up to 24lb being caught along with good quality roach and the occasional tench. A netting session will be held in mid April (16th), to remove roach up to 4", to allow the larger inhabitants of all species to continue to grow. Our river Ouse stretch at Blunham is improving with chub to 6lb, tench to 9lb and bream to 10lb being reported by those with the know how. There are also reports of carp being landed! Soon one would hope for reports of barbel but the stretches that we control lack the gravel runs needed to harbour this species. The Thames at Sonning seems to be on the up with good bream and chub in evidence but the barbel continue to be shy. Unlike on the Ivel and the stretches available to us at Biggleswade as well as our own stretch at Twin Bridges. The former has reported barbel to 10lbs and roach approaching 3lbs so hopefully they will, or possibly have found their way to our stretch. From the start of the 2011/12 season an important point to remember when fishing the Ivel Protection Association waters is to always carry your Environmental Agency fishing licence with you as the IPA bailiffs will ask you to leave the water if you cannot produce it - your BADAC membership card on its own will not cover you.

On the fly By Raymond Wood Fly fishing has always intrigued me with its equipment, techniques and vocabulary. What I was never impressed with was the snobbishness associated with the sport and the exorbitant prices for gear etc. So, a couple of years ago I equipped myself with Fly Rod, Reel, Fly Line, Tippets and Flies. All very serviceable gear but at a reasonable price of less than £75.00 (contact me if you want to do the same). I went for AFTM #7 kit (American Fly Tackle Manufacturers have setup a standard of weights of rod and line so that you can buy the correct ‘weight’ of gear for your target species). An 11 ft rod is good if you are planning on sitting down while you cast (either on land or on a boat) as it gives you the extra clearance to weight the line while false casting (that’s the casting of the line back and forth while you achieve the distance that you want.) Having assembled all the parts and installed the backing and fly lines, I went out into the back garden and started to learn how to cast with a fly rod. After wrapping the line around my face a couple of times (always wear a hat and glasses when you fly cast) it soon came relatively easily and most of the time you are trying to improve on consistency. There it stopped! I didn’t know any trout fisheries; I didn’t know how to fish for trout and would have felt like a bit of a Wally if I had turned up at a lake to try to fish so the project died for some months. Then, one evening while watching Matt Hayes flying fishing for other species, an idea came to me to fish for carp on the surface while using a fly rod. I hand made some floating baits and attached these to a hair on 3-4 ft of line tied to the fly line and went over to Tylers Common Fishery in Brentwood. I took along some floating freebies (floating pond pellets from Jolleys are good especially if you soak them a little first so that they gain weight.) I cast out about 20 yards then sprayed the general area of my hook bait with a serving of freebies. A couple of minutes went by then there was an explosion out in front of me, the line went taught and rod bent over in half with the satisfying feeling of a fish that was definitely on! The carp in the Ash and Willow Lakes at Tylers Common are 2-4lbs in weight and they give a good account of themselves on the end of a fly line. Well I had the most fantastic fun day while catching over 40 carp on the fly and have since been back many times to repeat the experience. There are a couple of gotchas to do with the floating bait and the line that you use but contact me for more details if you are interested. An enjoyable aspect to all this is watching the expressions of the float and ledger fisherman around you while they watch you pull out carp after carp in the most visible and exciting of ways! While this is not true Fly Fishing (as the purists will immediately tell you) it is, nevertheless, great fun! I had to wait until I met Ray Mouratsing in the BADAC club to be introduced to the true art of fly fishing and we arranged a day out on Graffam Water near Peterborough for a day’s fly fishing from the boat. Ray introduced me to the complex array of flies that you can use for catching trout: Wet fly, Dry fly, Streamer fly, Nymphs, Boobies, Terrestrials, Emerger flies and a vast and colourful army of Woolly Buggers, Egg Sucking Leech, Royal Coachman, Muddler Minnow - the range is endless. Thank God I was with someone who knew what he was doing and set me up with the right fly. We commenced to cast (yep, the carp fly fishing paid off here!) and, as is the case in most fishing, experience came through with Ray catching 4 Trout, a huge Bream and a Zander (the latter two were PBs for Ray) Click on the “On the fly” button in the menu buttons to see the photos. I hooked into a Trout and he gave me a merry dance which ended the moment he went under the boat and snapped the line. But a great day with Ray and a heartfelt thank you for all your help. OH, and don’t forget, you get to KEEP your catch of trout and plumptious scrumptious they are to eat as well! A sort of double whammy really.

Carp Fishing at Shepherds Way by Paul Hutton On July 14th I arrived at Shepherds Way at approx 6.15am. By the time I decided to pack up at 5.00pm in the evening I had caught 30 carp!! It was a bit crazy, really with no longer than 30mins between fish. A member called Mike Coates was in the adjacent swim and he can verify the total. Mike and I were laughing at one point when I told him I had'nt had time to eat my lunch. I had tried but had tackled two mirrors whilst trying to munch a sandwich. There was a nice mix of Common's and Mirror's with the largest being a 14lb mirror and number 30 was an immaculate 13lb common with perfect scales. With an average weight of 8lbs a fish, I netted 240lbs in total. I lost 4 fish too. I was using a very simple sliding lead setup with 6lb line and 6lb hook length with a no 14 size hook. I was also using a flying back lead to keep the line pinned to the bottom. I really think this helps here because it is so shallow. The bait was 10mm seaweed & shrimp pellets with a small pva bag of shrimp krill stick mix. I was wondering what is the largest catch you know of at this venue? Anyway, it was a great day and probably not to be repeated for a while. That's fishing!! Regards, Paul Hutton

Tuna Fishing in Crete by Raymond Wood I have been visiting Crete for some 30 years During each visit I investigate the possibilities to go fishing. Crete, like many fisheries in the world is suffering with the decline of fish stocks and only a dedicated and knowledgeable few enjoy sports fishing around the island. On this trip I was fortunate enough to meet a fellow (Greek) fisherman and we became instant friends. His 15ft Zodiac is powered by a 115 bhp outboard that was capable of pushing us along at a steady 20mph to the waypoints on his Garmin GPS fish locator. We went out three times and hooked three Tuna but landed only two of them. While this may seem like small potatoes it was a wonderful achievement for the barren island of Crete! The first fish provided both friends and myself with Tuna Steaks for two nights while the second fish was given to friends that I have known for years. Tuna are an amazingly powerful fish and give such a great account of themselves. Not an ounce of fat and solid muscle make them one of the most exciting fish to bring to the boat when the final bid for freedom bends your rod so as to make you think that the tackle will not match the task. The ratchet makes a heart stopping song on the take which is music to the ears. What a trip - a new friend and an open invitation to go fishing at any time - a result from the Island of Lurv! Raymond Wood

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Float Fishing presented by Ray Mouratsing At the club meeting on Wednesday evening 3rd of August, Ray Mouratsing presented a talk about float fishing. His topics were interesting and absorbing and for any relative newcommers to float fishing they were a mine of information. Different rods to use for different flavours of fishing included Trotting and Stick Float Fishing. The different characteristics between 12’ and 13’ rods and the need to collect much more line before connecting with the fish in comparison to feeder fishing. Using a rod enables the angler to access those swims where it is impossible to reach with a pole. The Floats themselves and their different characterstics as well as Shotting Patterns. The need to avoid tangles and how correct shotting can help. Tips included sliding all the shot up to the float at the end of a session so that next time you know which shot to use for that particular float. Also, using the rod as a measure so that you can remember the depth which has been set eg: use the little clip close to the handle to clip the hook then count the rod rings up to the float and note the measurement eg: 4.5 Rod Rings. This makes it easy to reset the depth once it has changed significantly. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative presentation which all those present appreciated. Thank you Ray - you never cease to amaze us all with your breadth and depth of fishing knowledge! Raymond Wood

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