STOKE-ON-TRENT ANGLING SOCIETY

2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - MINUTES

Thursday 14th  November 2019

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1. Roll Call.  There were 42 members present with John Davey in the Chair

 

1. Apologies.  These were received from Graham Green, Roy Bailey and Andrew Cartlidge

 

3.     Minutes of the 2018 Annual General Meeting.  These were accepted as read and approved by Brian Banks and Kev Grocott 

 

4.     Matters Arising. There were no matters arising from these minutes

 

5.     Chairman's Report.  The Chairman gave his annual report. A copy of the Report is published on the Society's web site

 

6.     Treasurer's Report and Statement of Accounts. The Treasurer reported that the Balance Sheet showed an excess of Income over Expenditure of £744.  Copies of the audited accounts were distributed and an explanation of the Balance Sheet was given. Mick Hann stated that he was pleased that the subscriptions had increased following the dip in sales during 2018. The members accepted the Balance Sheet

 

7.     Auditor's Report and Reappointment of Auditors; Paul Austen Associates.The Chairman read the report from our Auditors to the meeting.  The Chairman then asked the meeting for agreement to appoint the above auditors for the coming year.  This was passed unanimously. 

 

8.     Election of Officers.The Secretary gave details of the officers who were up for re-election. All were unanimously elected to serve the Society as nominated.

 

9.     Notices of Motion. There were no notices of motion.

 

10.   Subscriptions for 2020. The Committee proposed and seconded that there would be no increase in subscriptions for 2020 apart from an increase in the night permit from £50 to £65. This was agreed only 1 member voted against the increase in the night permit.

 

11.   Approval of Match Calendar. The proposed match calendar was agreed unanimously by the members present,

 

                                                                                                                        

The AGM closed at 8.35 pm and a question and answer session then followed the AGM

 

                        Question and Answer Session

 

1. Why increase the night permit? The night permit can be used at Astbury, Challinor’s Pool and the River Dove . It represents excellent value at Astbury given the specimen fish on offer 

2. What is happening with the restocking of bream at Stanley Pool? There has been changes to the management structure at Blithfield which has caused delays but a netting will take place and more bream will be stocked into Stanley

3. What is happening about the number of cormorants at Stanley Pool? The process to obtain a shooting licence is not straightforward , Geoff Beckett is visiting Stanley on a daily basis and will be monitoring the situation. Geoff suggested that members wear hi viz jackets when fishing because this will also act as a deterrent. Claims on facebook of fish losses have been exaggerated and a number of members are reporting good catches.

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John Davey gave a brief update on Stanley Pool – He reported that Simon Martin had recently been appointed as the Canal and Rivers Trust Operations Manager and Simon has promised that the work to cut the hedgerow along the shallows will be carried out. He added that the repairs to the Bagnall wall will also be carried out.

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CHAIRMANS REPORT 2019

Good evening and welcome to the 2019 AGM.  I hope you have all had a good year and have been enjoying your fishing.

 

It’s been a challenging year for the Society with the weather being the complete opposite of 2018 with record levels of rain  ,Spring arrived and gave us some hope .Summer followed with record temperatures for a couple of weeks ,followed by even more rain and high levels in our reservoirs, and even worse in our rivers .However we can not control the weather and we have to make the best of it.

The changes we made to allow people to join online have proved to be a success with many people using this facility, also selling tickets in Trentside Angling and Nathans proved to be a success.  

 

Astbury Water Park – Astbury continues to improve and the money we have invested in fish stocks is resulting in some great catches, and im pleased to inform you that more quality fish were stocked last week . 

 

River Dove – All our sections of the Dove have fished well this season with members having excellent catches of chub, barbel, trout and grayling.  It is very nice to see more members enjoying the river and the night permit proved to be a success 

 

Stanley Pool –All members who have fished Stanley this year have seen the improvements made to the fishery ,water levels have effected the planned work ,however more improvements are planned for 2020.Contrary to some of the posts on Facebook i can assure you that the cormorants have not eaten al the fish   increase in bream, perch, and roach stocks, have resulted in some great catches , along with some good pike fishing 

 

Rode Pool - Rode Pool. We continue to see improvements this year on the fishing front following the removal of the net across the lake, A lot of work  has been done on the fishing pegs  and other areas of the pool . 

 

River Sow - We don’t get much feedback about the Sow ,but know some members love it .

 

Blithfield members - have enjoyed fishing Blithfield this year, the new system has worked very well , we have a few problems with the river , hope to see them sorted out during early 2020

 

North Road - Continues to improve each year a lot of improvements have been made this year and will continue in 2020 The introduction of the tench have gone down well with the membership with some excellent catches, 

 

Woore Fruit Farm - We have terminated our arrangement for this water. 

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Challinors Pool - Pleased to report that the new pool has been a success with some excellent catches and reports about the venue , more work is planned for improvements in 2020

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Society Rules - Failure to comply with club rules or behaving in an inappropriate manner will result in loss of membership., so please read the rules in the membership book.

 

Juvenile Fishing - We will continue with a cheap ticket with the view of attracting more juveniles. Special rules will apply ie. child protection, 

fishing in the same peg with an adult, 3 rods max per peg.  We will also be working with CRT on some Lets Fish events for juveniles during 2020

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Well this is the time of year when I can publicly thank people for all there hard work , once again Mick Hann ,Tony Burt, Geoff Becket for all the work on the cormorants situation  Kev Grocott in his new position of Fishery manager

The committee for all their contributions , Brian Banks  and his team , Jim Thomas at Trentside Angling , John Triner for all his hard work  on Rode Pool  .And now a special thank you to all the A & B  work party teams we did have a C team but they have been promoted following training to the B team. They have all worked tremendously well on all club projects this year, its been hard work but we have also had some laughs . and I must also thank Mark Berrisford for all his hard work. 

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I now come on to our Lets Fish Team working on CRT Events 

Roy Bailey ,Mick Hann Geoff Becket ,Ray Lightfoot  Peter Fieldhouse Peter James  Sam Johnson , It has been a busy but enjoyable year working on 23 events , resulting in 77 juveniles and 14 intermediates   being signed up for membership .

Looking to improve our juvenile membership in 2020 we have now agreed with CRT  two  more stretches of canal .in addition to the Trent and Mersey at Middleport , Cauldon canal Northwood to Milton, bridge 13 Cromer road to bridge 18 Millrise road . Caldon canal Endon to Cheddleton bridge ,31 Park lane to bridge 44 Basfordbridge lane, all relevant post codes will be in the 2020 ticket, With a view of improving our juvenile section even further we have appointed  Jordan Riley to the position of Angling Development Manager .

 

I will leave you  with this thought , if every member just got one person to join the Society it would help us to further improve our Society , please make it a New Years resolution 

 

Thank you for your attention and all the very best for the 2020 

season.

 

John Davey Chairman Stoke on Trent Angling Society. 

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ASTBURY MERE MANAGERS REPORT 2019

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It's been another exceptional season on the Mere. It started with some good pike being caught to 25lb. In the spring a new lake record of 38lb-10oz was reported (Mirror Carp). Throughout the year more excellent fish were caught with Common carp to 33lb, Bream to 15lb and Catfish to 45lb. There is now in excess of 20 Carp over 30lb in the Mere with another 5 over 35lb. In the Autumn a Carp just under 40lb was reported. Again the club would like to thank the Astbury Work Party team for all the hard work done throughout the year.

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Brian Banks, Asbury Manager.

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FISHERY MANAGERS REPORT 2019

Looking back on the year I would say the society has had another successful twelve months, although the summer weather hasn’t been helpful. 

Challinors Pool - We started by acquiring a new water, challinor’s pool, although it had a reputation for some nice carp, it was clear it needed some fish to be stocked. So from spring onwards we put tench, roach, Rudd and Crucian carp into the pool. The pool went from strength to strength through the summer, with carp to 22lb, bream to just under 10lb, perch to 3lb 8oz and some good mixed bag catches with tench to boot. 
We will continue to monitor and work hard to maintain a quality mixed fishery. 

North Road Pool - Following reports and photos it was clear the fish were struggling in February, and so with advice from the fisheries department and the necessary health check it was decided to move some fish, this we did and some of the smaller fish were put into challinors pool, from the feed back I’ve been getting, it seems to have given north road a tonic and the remaining occupants are doing better, and the tench in their have started to gain weight also. 

Stanley Pool - Stanley hasn’t fished particularly well this summer, mainly due we think to the water levels being all over the place, but that said, there have been some good bags of roach and bream when conditions stayed stable at times. The pike season has got off well with plenty of mid doubles coming off with hopefully better to come. For the future we are fully intending another bream stocking to go ahead. The cormorant license is in place and contrary to roomers they are being vigorously discouraged to drop on there, Mr. Becket is virtually there every day, some times twice. 

Astbury Mere - Astbury just keeps getting better and better, I must add a very big thank you on behalf of all club members to the team that does all the work down there, immense. The fishing has been excellent this season with a new fishery best of 39lb 3oz. There has been a good number of different thirties and plenty of twenties. Good bream, tench, cats and pike have also been caught. We’ve also invested with another healthy stocking of carp from VS Fisheries, they were stocked early November, some 40 plus fish averaging 15lb per fish. We will continue to monitor the fish stocks in the mere, i.e. health and growth rate, this gives us valuable information so we then can form a stocking strategy, this is where feedback from the anglers on the bank is so important, I know many anglers refrain from letting information regarding captures being common knowledge but it does help the club when we get it.

River Dove - The dove has fished very well this year with some big barbel to around 12lb and excellent chub over 6lb being caught. The wet summer and autumn have made it harder to access the river sometimes but the fishing has been very good. There will be a program of work parties next year in the closed season, this is to open up some of the upstream beats on brook house farm that don’t get a lot of pressure, all help much appreciated. 

Rudyard and Knypersley reservoir - Rudyard has had some good catches of bream roach and perch this season, some good perch coming from around the pontoons with small jigs and lures.Knypersley is one water we get very little feedback from our members, I understand some decent bags of bream have been caught, but very little else has come back to the club information wise. 

Rode Pool - Rode has fished well this season with good bream, tench and carp being caught, some members have reported some very good catches of quality roach also. 

River Sow - The sow has been hard to fish this season due to the very wet weather, that said, some members have being catching some nice chub roach and perch from the weir pool.

River Blithe - Due to the new fencing being erected by Blithfield Estates, it has been difficult to fish, this has been taken up by our club and hopefully rectified shortly.

In ending I would like to thank all those who have helped me with the netting and any other club related work parties, without their help the club would be much the poorer, and also to all members, send me any catch reports you would like to share it really does help your club. You can email me on moorlandfalcons@googlemail.com or text me on 07801351886. Finally I would like to wish everyone merry Christmas and a happy new fishing year.

Kev Grocott, Fishery manager. 

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