Dear Member,

Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, we did not produce a Summer newsletter this year.  This current issue follows the Spring newsletter circulated in April or thereabouts.

The AGM will be held at the Fishermen’s Club in Royal Parade on Wednesday 10^th January 2007 starting promptly at 8pm.  The meeting will be held in the upstairs function room.  Please sign in at the door if required.  The upstairs bar will not be open.

In past years we have taken the trouble to circulate agendas and minutes from the last meeting in advance of the AGM.  The print run is for in excess of 400 copies!  As we only ever entertain 20 or so at the AGM in person, we have decided only to issue the Agenda in advance.  The Agenda is appended to this newsletter.

If you would like to see the minutes of the last AGM in advance of the meeting these are available as follows: -

1.      By e-mail from the Treasurer.  Send an e-mail with SAA and AGM in the subject field and you will be forwarded a full copy of the Minutes,

2.      By post from the Treasurer, see Year Book for contact details.  Forward a SAE suitable for up to 5 folded A4 sheets.

To help maximise the income of the club we occasionally offer discounted memberships towards the end of the membership year.  With effect from 1^st December, fee rates for Full, Senior Citizen and Concessionary membership classes will be reduced by 50%.  Fee rates for Spouse and Young members that are already discounted will remain unchanged.  The joining fee (£10) will still apply to new members.  In addition we will be offering “carry-over” memberships at full membership fee rates to new members only also from 1^st December.  A “carry-over” membership includes the remainder of the 2006/2007 membership year and all of the 2007/2008 membership year.  Full, Senior Citizen and Concessionary “carry-over” members also pay the joining fee.

These reduced rate and “carry-over” memberships are only available from Polegate Angling Centre, Anglers Den, the Secretary and the Treasurer.

Note: This article is included here as the Newsletter is sent out to some former members.

The committee have decided that it would be prudent to change this rule that includes the qualifying requirement for a Senior Citizen Member.  The necessity for change is that under the current rule and membership fee structure, a male Senior Citizen member is potentially discriminated against by only qualifying having reached age 65 compared to a female member at age 60.  That we have very few female members in this category might make no difference should the current rule have been tested in court.  The sorry background to this required change is described elsewhere in this newsletter.

This rule change could affect you the next membership year or sometime in the future.  The proposed rule change recommended by the Committee is as follows: -

Current Rule

Senior Citizen Member.  A person qualifying for the DSS Retirement Pension.

Revised Rule

Senior Citizen membership available at age 65.

This is subject to ratification at the AGM.

Please note that whatever changes are made to the membership grade structure, membership fee levels are set by the Committee taking into account the likely age distribution of members and the income requirements of the club.

1.      After a number of years in the role, Geoff Begley will be standing down as Secretary and from the Committee following the AGM in 2007.  It is possible that Geoff may carry-on assisting with postal membership renewals and newsletter production but this has yet to be finally resolved.  Geoff’s contribution to the development and well being of the SAA has been significant and should be greatly appreciated by all members.  Geoff has been particularly successful in identifying and securing new enclosed waters.  We thank Geoff for all his hard work over the years.

2.      Tony Lelliott, the proprietor of Polegate Angling Centre, will be well known to a number of members.  Tony was a long serving committee member and past Secretary of CAFC.  He has been on the Committee of SAA since its inauguration in 1997 and long serving Chairman of both CAFC and SAA.  We thank him for his contribution over the years and particularly for promoting the club through his shop.

3.      Finally, Grenville Weston will not be standing for re-election as Treasurer following the AGM in January 2008.  He will also be resigning from the Committee.  Grenville has made it known that he will be available to assist the new management team through a transitional period and beyond if required.  Grenville has been Treasurer previously for CAFC and subsequently for SAA since its inauguration.

Given the foregoing, there is a need to identify some new faces to take up the challenge of managing and shaping the club for the future.  Necessarily, the new Officers need to be selected from the Committee and, as many of the existing Committee already undertake existing roles we need to enlist some new enthusiastic committee members.

If you are interested in becoming involved, please make this known to any of the current Officers and Committee.  It is essential that new candidates come forward as, without these, the club may not be able to continue in its current form.

Starting in 2006, the Committee decided to move away from monthly meetings and now meets on just 6 occasions each year.  Additional meetings are convened if required.  Meeting dates for 2007 are as follows: -

6 February 2007

6 March 2007

3 April 2007

3 July 2007

2 October 2007

4 December 2007

These are all Tuesdays.  If you have something important that needs to be addressed by the Committee forward the details to one of the Officers or Committee in good time for one of these meetings.

The Social Evening will be held on Saturday 21 April 2007 further details nearer the time.

This year’s event was held at Ironbridge on Sunday 27^th August 2006 and was won in fine style by Patrick Newman.  Here is the report that appeared in local newspapers for those who didn’t see it: -

“Sixteen anglers competed in the Southdown Angling Association's annual memorial match held at Ironbridge upstream.  There was a tinge of colour but the gusty breeze made conditions a little difficult for most.  A few bigger fish showed and you needed one or more to frame.  Topping the day for the second year running was Patrick Newman with 4 tench, a bream and a few bits for a creditable 15-12-0.  Patrick fished the feeder with worm and red maggot.  "Nesbit" straight (the first straight upstream from the bridge) is renowned for skimmers and tench but on this occasion a few bigger bream also showed   Stuart Weston found two bream and some skimmers from the middle of the straight for 7-14-0 for second overall; the bigger samples coming on the feeder.  Third was Grenville Weston with 7-4-0 from the upstream end peg comprising a few skimmers and an eel.  Narrowly fourth was Sedley Underdown with 7-3-0 and fifth Steve Davey with 5-8-0 including a tench both pegged along "Nesbit" straight.

The winner chose the RNLI to receive the £85 raised for charity.  Thanks to all those who supported the event.”

There were also a number of prizes handed out to those who had weighed in and stayed for the presentation.  It would be nice to see a few more faces next year if you can make it.  You don’t have to be a “match” angler to take part – the more the merrier!

A situation came to a head this year that had been perhaps brewing for a couple of years or more.  A male member who claimed to want to “help the club” sought to have this rule changed.

This particular rule has been in existence since the formation of SAA and appeared similarly in the CAFC and HAA rule book.  It is also widely found in the rules of other angling clubs.  Its clear intent is to allow a reduced membership fee for those who are of pensionable age who might not be able to afford a full membership fee.

Unfortunately, the rule can be viewed as being discriminatory between men and women as currently women are entitled to a state pension at a lower age than men.  For this reason the rule will have to be changed.

It is unlikely that the rule change will have any material affect on the club as after all, we only have one or two female members in this category.  However, a few individuals will unfortunately be affected.

It is the manner in which the person went about his campaign that was most regrettable and unhelpful.  Instead of proposing a change following procedure set out in the club rules he chose to pursue it by telephone calls, letters and threats of legal action.  Yes, a member threatening legal action against a club he purports to want to help!  Why anyone should consider legal action against “his” club to effect a rule change is beyond the comprehension of the Officer’s and Committee.

Regrettably, the conduct of this person has diverted the efforts of the Officer’s and Committee away from normal more important duties to the detriment of the club.  For this and other reasons, this person was denied membership for a period of time.

This water is very popular.  We are very fortunate that the current landowner is tolerant of us.  Unfortunately, this tolerance has been severely tested by some of our members.  The following notice has already been sent to some members but applies to all members forthwith:

“We recently received a complaint from the landowner concerning proliferation of litter, human excreta and the positioning of tents and bivvies on the dam (the end of the pond immediately adjacent to the access track and outfall).  All of these issues could potentially, individually or in combination, give cause to the landowner to either terminate our agreement i.e. kick us off, or seek to revise our current terms of access.  In the case of the latter, this could mean the concession of night fishing being withdrawn.

From the nature of the rubbish that the landowner collected recently, it is clearly due to anglers.  Whereas some poaching could be taking place this is our problem.  Please ensure that you take all your own litter home and any other litter that may have been left behind by others even if it is from non-anglers.

There is nothing worse than inadvertently treading in someone else’s excreta.  Imagine then if you kindly let out the fishing rights to a club and this happens to you.  Would you be impressed?

It is obvious that those anglers who fish long sessions including through the night will have a natural need to “go”.  If you are one of these anglers then you need to make your own toilet and disposal arrangements.  Leaving waste on or about the pond is totally unacceptable.  If you can’t manage yourself appropriately, then go fish on a commercial fishery, we don’t want or need you.  Anyone we know to have acted inappropriately in this manner will have their membership cancelled.

Finally, the track over the dam is a public right of way.  Forthwith you are not permitted to pitch tents or bivvies along this bank.  Signage to this effect should be in place shortly.

You will rightly gather than our future conduct will be under the closest scrutiny.  Further problems of the like noted above could see us lose this valuable water.”

Further comment is not needed.  You have been warned.

Pevensey Haven – Another Update

For those of you that use this water you will have noticed that the situation with the floating pennywort is much improved.  This situation has arisen largely from the efforts of the landowner (Andrew Crosby-Jones) who has lobbied relentlessly the Environment Agency, English Nature and local MP’s.  This has resulted in some mechanical removal of the pennywort.  This is by no means the end of it and further endeavours are needed to ensure the current situation is maintained and a final solution found.

The invasive pennywort remains in a number of side ditches and the Hurst Haven upstream from the Pevensey Haven.  A significant concern is that the pennywort could also find its way into the Wallers Haven that would be disastrous.  For this reason, the SAA will be supporting Andrew’s endeavours whenever practicable and possible.

With regard to rental of the fishing rights, in view of the much improved situation, the Committee have decided to continue to rent the water and next year competitions at the venue will be re-introduced.  Parking remains a problem, particularly near the Pevensey Bypass, and the landowner has agreed to make the field available for parking on competition days only.  Obviously, the Committee will continue to monitor the situation from time to time.

The ACA assist angling clubs and landowners seek damages for fish losses following pollution of lakes, rivers and the like.  Membership is available for individuals as well as clubs.  SAA have been members for a number of years.  Becoming an individual member costs as little as £12/year.  Visit the ACA website if you are interested (www.a-c-a.org).

The reason for mentioning the ACA at this time is that in its Annual Report for 2005/6 it makes mention of the difficulty of taking action against water companies for over extraction.  We consulted with the ACA some years ago in relation to Boreham Street where it is obvious that the extraction for water supply from the pump that causes the water to flow upstream has increased the rate of siltation.  This is one of the reasons why the venue is so shallow near to the bridge and why the limited dredging undertaken by the Environment Agency a few years ago has had no lasting affect.

The following comes from the Annual Report:

“Water companies can also cause severe damage to fisheries through mismanagement of water - it's not all sewage! - by way of floods, pollution from water treatment works, over-abstraction and poor management of compensation flows from reservoirs.

The ACA is also acting for the Burton Mutual Angling Association on the River Dove and for the Fisheries Inn Angling Society on Lynsters Lakes.  Anglers on the Dove and Lynsters Lakes believe that their fishing is affected by water company abstractions …… leading to low flows and water levels and indeed the knock-on effect of over-abstraction on angling can be very severe.  The difficulty faced by the Environment Agency is that, for the time being at least, if the Agency revokes or varies any such licences held by the water companies, it must pay compensation to the water companies for their 'lost' water the company can no longer abstract and, quite simply, the Agency doesn't have the budget to deal with all the over-abstractions across England and Wales.”

The deadline for specimen fish for the current membership year is looming (see Rule Book) and to date there have only been 10 specimens brought to our attention as follows: -

 If you want any specimens considered for trophy awards you best get the forms in quickly!

Please forward details and photographs of your catches to our webmaster.  This information usefully shows prospective members the potential of our waters and helps raise the club’s profile.

E-mail your information to Steve Sims at:

website.saa@gmail.com

Thank you

Preview of 2005 – 2006 Membership Year Questionnaire indicating relative costs of each water.  Costs have been normalised, include water share contributions where appropriate and are NOT real costs.  More details will be available at the AGM.

Water	No of members fished	Full Members	Senior Citizen Members	Spouse Members	Young Members	Disabled Members	Occasions fished	Av Occasions per person	%age of Survey who fished there	%age of total occasions fished	2005 – 2006 Normalized cost per visit	2004 – 2005 Normalized cost per visit	2003 – 2004 Normalized cost per visit
WALLERS HAVEN
Boreham Street (Appleby & Gilbert Davies)	48	32	13	0	0	3	205	4	31	3.9	£3.51	£3.41	£2.19
Ironbridge upstream - west bank (Holt)	74	55	15	1	0	3	445	6	48	8.4	£1.34	£1.38	£1.12
Ironbridge upstream - east bank (Smith)	43	29	9	1	0	4	210	5	28	4.0	£1.97	£2.02	£1.41
Ironbridge downstream (Bourner & Harding)	78	51	19	0	0	8	376	9	50	7.1	£4.36	£1.85	£1.35
Middle Bridge upstream (SAA, SWT & Harding)	54	39	13	0	0	2	228	4	35	4.3	£1.26	£1.12	£0.78
Middle Bridge downstream to Pike Hole (Robins)	55	40	12	0	1	2	278	5	35	5.2	£1.51	£1.55	£1.47
PEVENSEY HAVEN & RAILLANDS
Chilley Bridge to Broadwater (Crosby Jones)	70	42	23	0	1	4	343	10	45	6.5	£2.48	£2.20	£2.24
Chilley Stream up from bridge (Norris)	44	24	14	1	2	3	210	5	28	4.0	£0.94	£0.80	£0.46
Chilley Stream (Plumley & Vine)	14	7	4	0	1	2	57	4	9	1.1	£2.18	£1.83	£0.98
Raillands Ditch (Vine)	8	6	1	0	0	1	39	5	5	0.7	£1.70	£1.49	£1.28
CUCKMERE
Sussex Ox (Farchy)	27	18	5	0	2	2	128	5	17	2.4	£0.86	£0.88	£0.98
Shermans upstream & downstream (Lewis & Ellis)	67	48	14	1	0	4	319	5	43	6.0	£2.85	£2.53	£2.87
Neilsons (Jones)	24	16	7	0	0	1	102	4	15	1.9	£2.85	£2.43	£1.30
Raylands (Vine)	27	18	8	0	0	1	120	4	17	2.3	£0.55	£0.48	£0.30
Churchlands/Arlington (Vine)	33	21	10	0	0	2	135	4	21	2.5	£0.49	£0.43	£0.23
STILLWATERS
Cinderford (March)	37	18	16	1	0	2	190	5	24	3.6	£1.70	£1.74	£1.20
Glyndley (RMC)	71	42	19	3	1	6	535	8	46	10.1	£0.85	£0.87	£0.44
Ripe (Hirschman)	85	55	21	1	2	6	683	8	55	12.9	£2.53	£2.48	£2.52
Golden Cross (HMI/Roberts)	68	48	16	0	0	4	360	5	44	6.8	£0.90	£0.83	£0.57
Hempstead Ponds (Carr)	26	19	6	0	0	1	105	4	17	2.0	£10.03	£9.80	-
Batbrook Pond (Carr)	41	26	10	1	0	4	229	6	26	4.3	£1.91	£1.87	£1.15
Total individuals in survey	155	654	255	10	10	65	5297			100