Dear member,
welcome to a new season with our Association. I would like to extend a warm welcome from the directors, officers, committee members and bailiffs of the Association to all members both new, and existing members renewing for another year. We sincerely hope you enjoy the fishing at our venues and hope to see your name on the members register for many years to come.
With the widespread availability of commercial fisheries now within easy travelling distances of almost every angler, the more traditional angling clubs, like LGCAA, are unlikely to be able to offer anglers the catch rates that are virtually guaranteed at most commercial venues. To counter this easy option of just turning up and catching, we have to offer anglers something else, maybe a little less prolific but perhaps a little more satisfying when you get your swim choice, tactics and bait presentation right and have a good day’s fishing. What we hope we can guarantee is that you certainly will have a much, much better environmental setting and an opportunity to enjoy your fishing in the pleasant and peaceful surroundings of the associations’ waters. Fishing is not just about catching fish, it’s about being ‘out there’, on the bank, having an enjoyable day, or night, in safe and pleasant surroundings.
The Poppy Hill complex is our flagship venue and it takes a lot of hard work to improve, maintain and protect the fishery, and behind the scenes, the club works very hard at trying to achieve this. My thanks go out to the comparatively small number of dedicated individuals and volunteers that freely invested their time and efforts to help us try and achieve these goals. We never seem to be able to complete all of the jobs that need doing every year and the sole reason for this is simply that we do not have enough volunteers attending work parties. If any members are interested in putting something back into the club, try volunteering a few hours of your time a couple of days a year.
If more members were willing to do this, the Poppy Hill complex could be even better, and you could find there’s more to joining the club than just turning up to go fishing. There is always room for genuinely interested people to offer their services for work parties, bailiff duties or possibly a committee position. Contact details for the officers and committee members are printed on the front page of the club book or you could simply chat to any of the club officials when you meet them on the bank.
For the second year running the entire country was severely affected by the impact of global warming weather extremes. Record high summer temperatures not only fuelled exceptional weed growth it also caused problems with oxygen levels in all of our lakes at Poppy Hill. Many other angling clubs in our region experienced similar problems. Unfortunately Poppy Hill complex had to be closed on two occasions last season to protect the fish due to the dangerously low oxygen levels in the water and, although the disruption was inconvenient, the fish stocks appear to have survived without too many losses.
Thanks to the E.A and their generosity the River Ivel and lake 1 at Poppy Hill have both received winter stockings of silver fish and Lakes 1 and 2 have shared the addition of 25 doubled figured mirror carp purchased by the club.
The Associations Rules and Byelaws are printed in this book. Please make yourself familiar with them and comply with them at all times. Specifically I would ask you to read the first two sentences of Byelaw A, the Association is a members only club and non-member guests are strictly prohibited unless prior arrangements have been made. Please use the toilets provided, no alcohol or drugs allowed on any of our venues and Take Your Litter Home. Failure to comply with any of the above rules will result in expulsion from the Association.
Once again it’s time for me to thank the officers, committee members, bailiffs and work party volunteers for their hard work and support over the last year. I would also like to stress that the bailiffs have the very difficult job of enforcing the rules and regulations of the club and they give up some of their fishing and leisure time to help protect the fish and the anglers and help preserve the fisheries we all enjoy so much. Please be assured that we are all working hard at keeping the Poppy Hill complex as safe and secure as possible whilst maintaining exclusive bank side access to the lakes for association members only. Please help by playing your part. I hope you enjoy your association waters, good luck and tight lines.
Paul Dalrymple – Chairman LGCAA.
Facebook Group
A private members only Facebook group can be found by searching for LGCAA – Members. Access to the group is open to all current members of the association for that season, you will be asked for your current membership number on asking to join. Anyone who has not renewed their membership by July 1st will be removed and will need to ask to join the group once membership has been renewed.
Feel free to post your catches, ask questions etc. but please
- Be kind and Civil, verbal abuse will not be tolerated
- Keep it clean, no foul language
- Use the search before asking a question
- Stick to the topic
- No spamming / business advertising
We will continue to run the regular Letchworth Garden City Angling Association website for public announcements.