Secretaries and Webmasters Report.

Another year passes and another AGM is here. It has not been the best of weather but we’ve all still managed to get in a few days fishing and sometimes even catch a few fish. A mark of the poor weather has been the dramatic decrease in the number of catch photos I have received although I often get emails from members who are pleased with what the club is doing to the waters. I have received many emails from people who have fished Flintstones this year, everyone seems to enjoy it. Although it does not hold any known “monsters” there are plenty of smaller carp as well as crucians, roach, rudd and some very good eels. I found that they give a good days sport even when the weather was at its worse. There have also been several reports of very nice carp coming from Hamsey-always good to hear.

As always, much of my time as secretary has been taken up with correspondence and meeting various angling bodies and the production and printing of newsletters. Sometimes it is necessary for me to write to members that have been in breach of club rules. This is never a pleasant job for me but is necessary to ensure the smooth running of the club for the membership as a whole.

Earlier this year, I was approached by journalists from the Anglers Mail who wanted to do a series of articles about the club and its waters. We spent a day going round all of the waters from which they chose 11 fisheries to be featured in articles throughout the coming year. They were very impressed by what we as a club offered and were planning for the future and could not believe that we did not have a higher level of membership.

I also was in attendance at two “tuition days” at Decoy Lake with the Environment Agency. This was in conjunction with Eastbourne council as part of a “fish-4-U” campaign to encourage young people who may be on the verge of erring on the wrong side of the law to take up fishing. These were fantastic days; the youngsters were attentive and genuinely interested not only in catching fish but learning about the waterside environment and this only went to confirm my belief that angling can be used in a very positive way for young people far in excess of a mere pastime.

Both these examples enable the club to forge worthwhile and strong links with professional bodies that can only be of benefit to us as a club. We are beginning to be recognised as a quality angling club outside of the membership catchment area.

The website is continuing to be a success attracting interest not only from club members but also from anglers outside the club membership. To date it has received four awards. A measure of the success of the website is that I no longer have to apply to have links put on other websites-companies and other sites are now approaching us on a monthly basis asking for us to link to them.

The overall format I have decided to keep the same-if it works why fix it although there have been some minor changes and new sections added. The new format for the match results seems to have met with favourable responses. As always through out the year there will be minor cosmetic changes made as it is felt necessary.

It would be good to expand on some of the sections such as the angling tips-I often receive emails from not only new members but also other anglers who are not members who like the “tips” section and have various angling related questions. Perhaps some of the more experienced anglers would consider writing an article or sending some tips for inclusion. Whilst on the subject of tips and tuition, it came to our attention that James Wright was a qualified angling coach. He has since been drafted in as the official club coach and has his own page within the website-perhaps James, you could write some articles for the website!!

The forum has for now had to be removed as the company that was hosting it has had problems and despite the kind offer of one of our members to host an alternative forum as it was not very well used, unless there is a demand for it, I shall not reinstate it.

Steve Mahkonen,

Hon Sec & Webmaster