13th April 2023

Dear fellow WMF Fishers.

Well not the start to the season we were all hoping for! The Welland and weather has been up and down like a yoyo; coloured, not coloured, warm, then chilly, blowing a hoolie then flat calm, drying out nicely then back to slippy sticky mud and just when you think there’s a possibility to cast a line, up she comes again!

However the eternal optimist in me is saying next week its going to be cracking and we will all be skipping down to the river to catch our first Brownie of the season and more than likely getting into our first tangle too.

Working Parties.

The height and muddiness of the river has also curtailed our early season working parties. We would have had at least a couple by now so, stand by your stations as the call will be going out soon.

At a recent post AGM Committee Meeting, a few very good suggestions on working parties were aired. so here they are:

1. Our normal Saturday morning working party, 9.00 am to midday. A good time for most members, usually a well attended good humoured and productive time, quite often finished off with a pint at the Exeter Arms in Barrowden.

2. Extra ! Weekday working parties that would suit some of the members who have recently retired, this could also include the regulation visit to a Hostelry.

3. Fishing working parties. Nothing too major ; You decide. The idea here is that if your planning a late afternoon/evening fishing session with a friend or friends, spend the first half hour to an hour doing some bank work together and then fish. This could be simply just trimming some over hanging snaggy branches , perhaps a bit of strimming or maybe some reed pulling. Little and often, just focusing on a small area can make a big difference and help improve our fishing prospects. And of course you’re allowed to visit the pub on the way home!

4. One of the main aims of working parties this year will be to cut and pull Reeds which stand out as being our main problem especially after about mid June. We will select a few medium size sections and see if we can make a impact and make our fishing better.

Safety:

Its much safer to work on the river in pairs or small groups, so please never on your own.

And remember Rob Newby’s Health and Safety pointers: Everything is sharp and don’t be a Muppet!

Working Party Announcements will be on Email from our Secretary Andy Howarth and also via the WMFF WhatsApp group which could be good for announcing a quick last minute ‘Fishing Working Party’

Extra Bits:

Grayling.

All being well, Hugh Bunker from the EA has us down for the stocking of more Grayling Fingerlings in May/June time.

And please remember that if you manage to catch one please try to at least photograph it and if you know how to safely take a scale sample do this too. Its important that Hugh has evidence that this Grayling Program is working.

WMFF WhatsApp Group:

This is great for us all to chat with quick communications about: important news, fishing conditions, Mayfly hatches and for perhaps a spur of the moment fishing/working party. Its also good for posting a photo of a Red Letter Day fishing triumph or even a fishing disaster!

So if your not on it and want to be included please send a message to Ian Newsham on 07984 097359 with your name and requesting to be included onto the WMFF WhatsApp Group.

Stocked Trout:

There could quite well be some rather possibly too large stocked Brownies of around about 1.5lbs turning up on our beat. Ive heard that The Guash club, who have the beat upstream of us, stocked a couple of weeks ago and with the river level up since their stocking its more than possible that some will have made there way down to us.

Im not sure whether this is a bonus or not with our no Trout stocking policy which will we think encourage the continued recruitment of our Wild Trout population.

I’m sure if we catch one we’ll enjoy the sport! (And fair exchange for our Grayling which they seem to be catching!)

Web Site:

Our club member Gordon Brown has our new WMFF website under construction, its looking really good and will be a very useful and enjoyable tool for us to have. Andy will email and WhatsApp when it goes live, also any useful info and pictures please send to Andy and he will forward on to Gordon.

Finally:

Can I thank you all for the brilliant turn out at our AGM on what was a wild night weather wise. Not that we didn’t have a wild night!

It was a great night, good positive discussion and plans, very good humoured and the chips were fairly high up on “The Maguire Scale” (see Mike Conway for chip details).

What a brilliant club we have.

The Tightest of Lines

Dick Clarke