SOUTHDOWN ANGLING ASSOCIATION

We have had some good weather this past summer, so we trust that you have all been out and about fishing on some of the nicest waters in the area & that you have had some good catches. Unfortunately the fine weather does have a downside & the lack of rain in June through to August led to low water levels, particularly on the Wallers Haven & at Curls Farm. The Wallers also suffered a weed explosion, particularly at Boreham Street, where despite the efforts of our water maintenance team in trying to keep swims clear, the first two or three hundred yards were unfishable most of the time. Thankfully we have now had some rain & levels are more or less back to normal. Let’s hope we don’t now get too much of the wet stuff this winter, leading to flooding, particularly on the Cuckmere, although we don’t get many years without the river being up & over the fields at some time or other.

Those members who have been good enough to supply us with their e-mail addresses, for which we thank you, will have received this newsletter electronically, together with a draft agenda for the forthcoming A.G.M. & minutes of last years meeting, thus saving us quite a bit in printing & postage costs. For those without e-mail, we have to rely on good old snail mail, the agenda & minutes are not included & you will have to attend the A.G.M. to find out what’s going on. If you haven’t registered your e-mail address with us, but would be quite happy to receive information this way, simply send an e-mail to: secretary.SAA@gmail.com, with “Newsletter” as the subject & you will be included for the future.

You will have noticed that this newsletter doesn’t have the coloured header of previous editions. Unfortunately, nice as it was, as the newsletter is produced electronically, the previous header occupied too much memory, making printing & e-mail transmission a somewhat lengthy process. The simple version also allows more space for the important bits, the text.

Annual General Meeting The 14th A.G.M. of the Southdown Angling Association will take place at the Junction Tavern, Polegate, on Tuesday evening, 11th January 2011, commencing at 8 p.m. To save costs, this is the only advice that you will receive regarding the A.G.M. No further notice will be issued. For those members without e-mail, Agendas & Minutes of last years meeting will be issued to those present on the night. All members are cordially invited to attend & if you have something to say, so much the better, or even better still, how about volunteering to serve in some way, you might even get to enjoy the experience, at the very least you would gain an insight into the behind the scenes workings of our angling club. Positions up for grabs this year are, Secretary, with a two year term, Vice Presidents & Committee Member, all to serve for one year. Association rules require that any nominations for Officers or Committee, or proposals for changes to the constitution or rules, or motions to be considered at the A.G.M., be received by the secretary, in writing, duly signed by the proposer & a second member, before the 1st December previous to the meeting. As this newsletter is somewhat later in coming to you than we would have liked, the deadline for receipt of any such proposals will be extended to the 15th December & proposals may be submitted by e-mail, provided both proposer & seconder names are on the e-mail.

Membership & Finances At the time of writing, the Association had 306 paying members, comprising 156 full members, 68 senior citizens, 9 disabled members, 9 spouse/partners, 8 young members & 56 juniors. At the end of last year we had circa 330 paying members, 170 being full members with the remaining numbers being much as now. Although we would expect a few more people to join before the end of the year, it does look as though our numbers will be down & as a consequence, although subscription rates were increased, our income will show a reduction. Unfortunately we have lost money over the past few years & in an effort to alleviate this, we have tried to reduce expenditure as much as possible by, for instance, printing newsletters in-house, using e-mail where possible & shedding one or two of the least popular or cost effective waters. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts in negotiating the rates & sharing the costs with other clubs, water rents continue to rise & it may be that we have to consider the release of further waters in order to stay solvent. We could of course increase subscriptions again, but this is a two edged sword as we might find less people willing to pay that little bit more for their fishing, numbers will reduce further & we lose more than we gain. Similarly reducing the waters available to members is also not very popular.

The real answer is to increase membership numbers. As an incentive, from now through to the end of April 2011, we offer a “Carry over” membership scheme, whereby new members joining us during that period & paying the normal subscription & joining fee, will have membership of the Association right through to the end of April 2012, so if you can persuade any one of your mates to join us, it will help to ensure the future of the Southdown A.A. & your fishing for the future.

Quiz & Social Evening This event has been mooted in the past two newsletters, however Association finances being as they are at the present, any venture must pay for itself, we can’t afford to subsidize it & would need to charge say £5 or £6 per head to make the evening viable. In an endeavour to gauge support for a Quiz & Social evening, if you would be interested in taking part, please contact Steve Izzard (tel: 01323 848722) or the Secretary, or indicate your interest on the form held at the Polegate Angling Centre. If the response is positive we will then go ahead & organise something in 2011.

Night Fishing Although banned on all of our stillwaters, in general we do allow night fishing by responsible members on the Cuckmere & Pevensey Marsh waters. However the landowner on the Wallers Haven at Iron Bridge, downstream, west bank, has requested that no night fishing be permitted at this venue. A notice to this effect will be fitted at the entrance in due course.

Junior Coaching As a way of trying to encourage the younger members, on a couple of Saturdays in the summer we arranged two “Dads & Lads” events at Marle Green. Although titled “Dads & Lads”, these were open to all juniors provided they were accompanied by a responsible adult. Sadly support was abysmal, just 5 children & 3 dads on the first day when the weather was decent & none at all on the second when it was admittedly a little damp. We realise that attendance is reliant on parental support, so perhaps a Saturday is not the right day. Would a midweek summer evening be better supported, or perhaps a Sunday ?

We could perhaps even combine it with a barbeque. We’ll not giving up yet, so let us know what you think in good time before we put together next years fixture list.

Anglers Mail Those of you who take this publication, may have noticed Southdown A.A. waters featured in their “Where to fish this weekend, Tactical briefing, London & South East” section. On a wet day in early August, your secretary showed Bill & Virginia Rushmer from Anglers Mail around most of our venues, where they took details of the fishing & the water, together with many photographs, (over 100 in total) with said secretary posing as an angler, for subsequent publication over a period of time. They were very impressed with our waters, couldn’t understand why some of the venues were so little fished &. why we didn’t have more members. Look out for the articles in future issues of the magazine. It is to be hoped that this free publicity will gain us a few more members over the coming months.

Curls Farm, Ripe The only persons permitted to drive down to the water are disabled members & club officials on Association business. In order to try & ensure this, the gate leading to the track down to the water will be fitted with a digital padlock & chain, with the lock combination known only by our disabled members, thereby hopefully preventing vehicular access to all unless authorised. In common with all our stillwaters, no night fishing is permitted at this venue.

North Farm Pool, Marle Green A reminder to you all, that as per the terms of our lease, this water will be closed to all members during the month of January 2011. The padlock combination number will be changed during this period, reverting back to the published number on 1st February. Unfortunately, it is possible that the current owners will be selling the site, so our continuing tenure, at the moment, is slightly unsure.

Water Usage Survey 2009 Thank you to all the members who completed the survey form when renewing their membership for 2010. This information is very useful to us in planning for the future as it gives us an insight into what type of fishing & waters our members prefer. If your favourite water did not figure very highly in the analysis & you didn’t fill in the form, then you have only yourself to blame, so next year please make the effort: it can’t be that difficult, the greater the response, the more representative are the results for the majority of the membership. Last year, we had about 260 members eligible for the survey (excluding juniors, spouses, & young members) & we had 83 respondents, i.e. 32% of "eligible members".

Curls Farm was the most popular water, 6 people claiming to have fished there more than 20 times. Iron Bridge upstream was the second most popular, but again 2 members claim to have fished there over 20 times. Marle Green was the second most popular stillwater, being fished by more individuals than Curls. Again one person claimed to have fished there more than 20 times during the year.

On the Cuckmere, Churchlands was favourite, probably because it involves the least amount of walking. Milton Street was least popular of all the waters, only three members admitting to fishing there, we suspect because few know where it is & it also requires a fair walk as parking is difficult. Neilsons at Horsebridge was also little fished, thereby justifying it's release earlier this year.

Surprisingly, Hempstead Ponds were not fished much, again we suspect location & the walk involved are a factor. Similar reasoning applies to Raillands Ditch & Chilley Stream, west bank, although the validity of the data for the latter is dubious as again we suspect very few members know where it is & some don't know their east from their west.

Middle Bridge downstream was the least popular of the Wallers Haven waters, so giving it up was no great loss. Although no longer an Association water, a surprise was the popularity of Batbrook Pond, due to one person claiming to have fished it more than 20 times. Take that out of the equation & it's popularity drops to between Chilley Stream, east & west banks.

A "cost per visit" comparison has been calculated by making the assumption that the 83 respondents are representative of all the other members, which is probably not that true, but gives some indication of the cost effectiveness of the waters we lease.

Cost per visit varied enormously, from 50p at the low end, to £11.50 at the highest, with the average being between £2 & £3. Surprisingly, despite the high rent, Curls Farm doesn't come out too bad, while Hempstead Ponds are the most expensive & do not warrant retention unless fished by more members. Despite the low rent, Milton Street was also expensive, but if more people fished there, the cost / visit would tumble. Middle Bridge downstream & Neilsons were also very poor value, again justifying their release.

Southdown A.A. Management Committee 2010

President: Roger Izzard, Treasurer: Steve Sims, Secretary: Mike Richardson,
Committee Chairman: Roger May, Competition Organiser & Trophy Steward: Steve Izzard,
Landowner Liason: Geoff France, Water Management: Fred Clews, Club Cards & Books: Tom Wood,
Committee: Steve Brown, Colin Spilsted, Steve Ramsden & Dennis Ramsden.

DON’T FORGET THE A.G.M.

8 p.m. TUESDAY 11th JANUARY 2011, JUNCTION TAVERN, POLEGATE

All contents unless otherwise attributed copyright Southdown Angling Association, S. Sims 2005 - 2009, and Bob Spilsted 2010 onwards.

This site was last updated on Thursday June 17, 2010 17:47