Petworth and Bognor Angling Club

Dave Chambers has broken the record for a Barbel caught anywhere on the Western Rother with a magnificent fish of 16lb 12oz easily beating the previous best of 15lb 3oz.

This is the fourth time this season Dave has banked a Barbel over 15lb from the Rother and is a completely new fish to him.

The superb specimen pictured below was caught on one of Dave's own boilies and was witnessed by Club Committee Member Peter Foster, no stranger to specimen Barbel himself.

It was reported at the AGM that we had introduced our first tranche of new fish to the carp pond a week or so ago and I am happy to report that the next lot of fish will be introduced on Wednesday 7th December. After that we need to give the fish a bit of time to acclimatise and get used to their new surroundings. The carp pond will reopen for fishing on 21st December until then the pond SHOULD NOT be fished. Both the match pond and tench pond remain open.

We have noticed that some mindless individuals have destroyed the signs at Hurston so at the moment there is no signage at the venue to this effect. We will look to replace the signage as soon as possible but in the meantime we would be grateful if all members could remain vigilant. If you do come across someone fishing the carp pond before 21st December please politely point these facts out to them and ask them to move.

Many thanks for your understanding and patience and we look forward to re-opening the carp pond on 21st December.

If you would like to help out when the new fish are introduced meet in the car park at 11.30 on Wednesday 7th December.

The Chairman welcomed the 48 members of the Club who attended the 2011 AGM at The Black Horse Climping. He told the members that the Club continues to thrive and was continuing to look for new waters to add to it's portfolio. If any members know of or hear of a new water in the future he asked that they contact a member of the committee who would certainly look at the potential for our members.

The Treasurer presented the accounts for the 2010/11 season and these were formally adopted. The Treasurer also presented his proposal that subscriptions should remain unchanged for the 2012/13 season. There was a counter proposal which suggested a small increase for an adult member but a significant increase in the senior citizen fees. After some discussion the meeting took the advice of our Treasurer and ratified the new fees.

The Secretary paid tribute to the work of Tim Nudds as Membership Secretary and Phil Tubb as Treasurer and the Fishery Management team in particular Ray Huskisson who has taken up the task of administration for fishery management.

The Membership Secretary reported another increase in membership but again adult membership has remained fairly constant whilst we see increases in the concessionary categories. He paid tribute to the staff at Arun Angling and the staff at the other local angling shops who have sold memberships for us: Aldwick Angling, Havant Angling, Tropikoi and Tidal Angling.

The Fishery Manager updated the meeting on the Hurston Lane project and was pleased to announce that the first tranche of new fish had recently been introduced to the carp pond with some subsidiary stocking on the other ponds. Further stocking is imminent and the water will re-open shortly afterwards. It was mentioned that we were in the process of bidding for approximately £5000 of EA funding which will be spent on de-silting.

The photos below illustrate the quality and stamp of fish that were introduced in this first batch of re-stocking Hurston Lane Fishery.

The Match Secretary announced that he would be standing down after 15 or so years doing the job. He recalled some incidents from the previous seasons which involved various anglers taking unscheduled dips, the outgoing Match Secretary mentioned that he was an expert at this!

The following were elected to serve the club:

Officers

President: Norman Thomas

Chairman: Nigel Chapman

Vice Chairman: Martin Eyres

Treasurer: Philip Tubb

Secretary: Steve Simmonds

Membership Secretary: Tim Nudds

Fishery Manager: Nelson Keet

Match Secretary: Mick Greenway

Committee Members

Alec Newton, Peter Foster, Ray Newnham, John Swindell, Roger Poole, Mick Harmsworth, Vince Herringshaw, Ray Huskisson and Richard Burbidge

Peter Springate then gave a short talk about the common sense precautions he takes when handling big fish on tidal rivers and asked that all members consider adopting the same practices.

The meeting concluded with a buffet supper and the presentation of the 2010 / 2011 season match trophies.

For a list of last season's Trophy winners and a few photos please click HERE

Although we were given a likely completion date of the end of October, unfortunately, the civil engineering works at the Mill Pool are still not completed.

We are currently trying to get a revised completion date from the contractors. Please do not attempt to fish the Mill Pool until we advise you that it is safe to do so.