Posted 24-08-2010
More praise for Junior Fish for Fun events.
 
It is always rewarding to receive emails of thanks for these events and here is a typical one following this Saturdays event: 
"I would just like to  thank you and Andrew on behalf of my grandson Adam for the coaching at Hill pond on Saturday morning 21.8.2010,he thoroughly enjoyed it.
The coaches had their work cut out with the number of children who turned up but they coped brilliantly and always with a smile. The lady dealing with enquiries when we arrived was excellent & so very helpful going that extra mile with her answers to my questions. Your club is run brilliantly and I am certainly considering joining mainly for the carp fishing which looks superb.

Thank you once again,Anthony Martin of Redhill Surrey."

Saturday Fishing For Fun - Amazing turn outs! 

Following the incredibly successful Open Day on July 17th we have been experiencing tremendous numbers of youngsters attending our FFF Saturday mornings. The top attendence so far has been 70 children and the lowest was 45. We have had to order more landing nets and small seats to cope with these numbers which are resulting in more Junior members. The last FFF is this coming Saturday 21st August and runs from 9am untill midday. This is followed by our Junior Charity fishing competition on Saturday 4th September to which any junior (member or not) is welcome as long as they have raised some sponsorship.

 For more information on this event and sponsor forms, please call Andrew Mackenzie on 01483 424934 or 07952 429071

Thursday evening coaching
(aimed at the older children will take place as follows:)
Thursdays 29th July, 12th & 26th August. 5.30pm - 7.30pm.
Please ring Peter Dawson to book in & for details of the coaching on offer.
This is for members only

Six year old Oliver enjoyed a fishing outing with his Granddad Ted and his proud Mum on Hill Pond at Marsh Farm. An excited Oliver had never fished before, but with expert guidance from Granddad, using a 3 metre whip he caught Roach and Tench.

Letter To Andrew Mackenzie re Junior Multi Species - from Nick Thayer
Hi Andrew
Just wanted to say thank you for an excellent day on Saturday. Rebecca and
Owen loved it, and I have to say that I was rather proud of Rebecca's catch
at Broadwater. She spoke of nothing else all evening and it seems she
really has got the bug now. The work the club have carried out for the
Juniors is outstanding (Andy was excellent with Rebecca all day Saturday)
and I sincerely congratulate you and the club on this as it will hopefully
protect our sport for another generation.

JUNIOR MULTI SPECIES TREBLE FOR THE HOLCOMBE SISTERS!
 
This years Junior Multi Species was won for the third year in a row by Chloe and Rosie Holcombe but they were pushed all the way by Maddy & Tess who came a close second and Abigail & Sasha in third place. Joint 4th were Howie & Charlie along with Jordan & Brandon. Rebecca assisted by her 18 month old brother came a very creditable 6th closely followed by Joshua and Sam in 7th.
 
As always we started at Broadwater Lake and with only 3 contestants there at the appointed start time we decided to run an adult Multi Species alongside the Juniors to make the most of the day. We drew for partners and were just about to get under way when the other children arrived. We had a competition for real now and promptly abandoned the adult competition without even wetting a line!
 
Shortly into the fishing and there were loud girly squeals emanating from the road bank as a big fish was hooked. The fish, an impressive 14lbs 2oz common was landed by Rebecca aged 8 on a 4m elasticated whip with a 1.8lbs hook link and single red maggot! Certainly a record for Broadwater on that sort of tackle. And the girly squeals? - they came from Andy Reid the coach helping Rebecca. Here's the picture of her & Andy (now slightly calmer) with her prize fish. 

 A few more pictures of the day

Another successful Saturday coaching at Marsh Farm. 
Yet another great turnout this Saturday (July 25th 2009) with another 40 or so fishing with us at Marsh Farm.
Our two latest trainee coaches - Rob and Steph - are pictured below proudly sporting their new purple shirts

More pictures of the Coaching Activities

Latest Junior Open Day pictures.
We had a great turn out again for this Saturdays event and as usual everyone caught fish and had a good time. 
We have three young trainee coaches in our ranks now - Michael, Steph & Rob - plus Bill Harris who all did really well. Newly qualified Kevin Holcombe is proving to be a great asset alongside the regulars of Peter, Andrew, Andy, Barrie & Sam. 
Our stalwart helpers Bernice, Eileen, Malcolm & a guest appearance from Marion made sure everything ticked along smoothly with booking in the children and organising the BBQ. 
At the end of the fishing Pete & Andy demonstrated how to elasticate a whip and tying a rig before our visitors tucked into the burgers and sausages cooked by resident chef Graham.

Rosie & Chloe had their first fishing session of the year on Hill Pond this morning, catching sixty fish in four hours. Their catch included Rudd, Roach, Perch, Carp, and Tench to 3lb., all caught on their three metre whips using maggot bait.

---

Junior Coaching Programme 2009
Saturday 4th July	Family Open Day	0900-1300
Saturday 11th July	Junior Open Day	0900-1300
Saturday 18th July	Fish for Fun	0900-1200
Thursday 23rd July	Waggler	1700-2000
	(Johnsons)
Saturday 25th July	Fish for Fun	0900-1200
Saturday 1st August	Fish for Fun	0900-1200
Thursday 6th August	Feeder/Bomb	1700-2000
	(Harris Lake)
Saturday 8th August	Fish for Fun	0900-1200
	(Broadwater)
Saturday 15th August	Fish for Fun	0900-1200
Thursday 20th August	Pole	1700-2000
	(Richardson's)
Saturday 22nd August	Fish for Fun	0900-1200
Saturday 5th September	Multi Species	0900-1700
Bookings required for all Evening sessions.
Call Head Coach, Peter Dawson on 01483 534204
All events are at Marsh Farm on Hill Pond unless otherwise stated

---

Junior Multi Species Charity Challenge Saturday 6th September 2008.
 
What a day! The weather leading up to this annual event had been awful and the forecast for the day was none too good either.
I arrived at Broadwater Lake at 20 past 8 wondering just how many youngsters would show as no booking in is required. I started putting out the whips
and landing nets and to my relief shortly after 8.30 the first contestants (defending Champions Rosie & Chloe Holcombe) arrived and so did the faithful helpers - Barrie, Luke, Peter, Sam, Kevin, Mike & Andy.
 
We started fishing around 10 past 9 after a false start where a couple of teams started fishing and caught 3 species before the whistle was blown. Woops!
There were a few late arrivals but by 9.30 we had a total of 8 pairs fishing Broadwater Lake and £400 sponsorship had been paid in. All in all a great result and it had not started raining....... yet.
 
The boys were out to try and beat the girls this year and a "professional pairing" of two top junior match anglers (Gareth & Ryan - who have even won senior matches this year) were fishing hard & were determined to be the winners. They soon discovered that it's not as easy as they thought for whilst they were steadily catching they were always the same species! The girls teams meanwhile (Tessa & Maddy, Megan & Daniella and Rosie & Chloe) were catching various different species and steadily clocking up the points. The "Pros" left the lake with 4 points (a perch and a roach point apiece) whilst the girls teams had scored 7, 6 & 6. Their catches included roach, rudd, perch, gudgeon and a 9lbs common carp on a 3m whip! We suffered several heavy downpours and another as we were packing up to move on to Busbridge so we arrived there as a rather soggy bunch.
 
The rain stopped for at least 30 minutes and the sun even peaked out briefly and it was enough to raise spirits ready to try and catch more species. "Try" turned out to be the correct word as Busbridge proved to be very hard as were some of the showers. Fortunately Busbridge trees do offer a lot of cover so we managed to stay just soggy not soaked. When we were ready to move on to Marsh Farm the scores could not have been closer with 7 being in last place and just 10 being the top score. This meant the "Pros" were in second place with 9 just behind the Holcombe girls (surprise, surprise).
 
Marsh Farm is where the lead can change hands rapidly with 3 lakes to fish and gain points from each. To the boys horror as the whistle blew to start the final session Rosie dropped her float into Hill Pond and immediately hooked and landed a 5lbs tench and promptly followed it second cast with a 9lbs common carp!
The fish were more obliging here than they had been at Busbridge and points were being scored all over the place. Then the rain set in and decided that arriving horizontally would add to the event. The children - now soaked rather than just soggy - were still braving the conditions but after a quick consultation with the helpers we decided that 4pm rather than 4.30pm would be the revised finished time.
 
There were by now just three teams in with a chance Megan & Daniella, Ryan & Gareth and of course Rosie & Chloe. With 20 minutes to go the boys were closing in on Rosie & Chloe and the final totting up was going to be interesting.
 
Whilst the fishing was going on Graham, Bernice & Eileen were organising the famous Multi Species BBQ. Always organised on the day as we never know how many will show up, they shopped at Waitrose and got to work in the Pavilion kitchen this time as the weather was by now horrible. All the fishing gear was cleared away, the prizes sorted and collected from the shop, points totted up and the final sponsorship monies paid in.
 
We all munched burgers and sipped cups of tea and coffee and finally warmed up. Last years Mayor & Mayoress (Tony & Cathy) duly arrived to award the prizes and were dressed impeccably as they were next of to a concert. They were sporting wonderful aftershave and Channel No. 5 whilst we all hummed with Eau D' Perch, or was it bream?
 
All our hardy fishers deserved and received a great big round of applause for braving the weather and raising so much money. We are all very proud of their efforts. Well done guys and girls!
 
"Thank you's" were given to the parents who ferried wet, muddy and smelly children and fishing tackle from venue to venue, to the Helpers one & all, Tony & Cathy, the Jannaways, and of course the children.
 
 
So did the boys win? Did the girls retain their title or did Megan & Daniella pip them both?
Well, the results are as follows:
 
8th   David & Sam              7 points
7th   Tessa & Maddy         10 points
5th= Elliot & Jack              12 points
5th= Jezza & Max              12 points
4th   Miles & Howie            14 points
3rd   Megan & Daniella        20 points
2nd  Gareth & Ryan            26 points
1st   Rosie & Chloe             30 points
 
So the Holcombe sisters retained their title, the "Pros" put up a good fight for second and Megan & Daniella were in the running all the way and managed a great 3rd place. 
On the day we all felt all the contestants were winners as they fished in dreadful weather, yet never complained and will remember it for a long long time! 
Nobody went home empty handed as there were prizes for all. 
Everyone from 8th to 4th place received a 3m whip and bait box full of useful goodies whilst the top 3 pairs received tackle voucher for £20, £30 & £50 each.
 
SPONSORSHIP RAISED FOR THE CHARITY. (Reg. Charity No. 1097453)
 
The trophy for the most money raised was won by Gareth with a great total of £151.95 paid in on the day! So the boys did win something after all.
The trophy was donated and presented by Mr & Mrs Jannaway in memory of their late son who was tragically killed in a motor accident last year.
 
The grand total raised and paid in on the day was an incredible £753.45 with another £31.50 cheque coming in the post!
 
On behalf of our Charity we would like to thank everyone for helping us again this year. Your support enables us to keep 123 children in school and to continue
with school improvement projects in The Gambia.
 
Andrew & Sandra Mackenzie.

		Gareth receiving the Chris Jannaway Memorial Trophy from John Jannaway

Junior Carp coaching a great success.
 
Saturday 16th August saw the Junior Coaching team move to Broadwater Lake for a session on carp fishing led by Alex Mackenzie who was ably assisted by Peter Dawson, Luke Nye & Andrew Mackenzie. 
15 Juniors booked in for this session and none were disappointed. The carp were attracted by Alex's charms or more likely the oily pellet offerings in PVA mesh bags! The weather stayed fine all morning and in under 3 hours almost 30 carp were banked,
weighed, photographed and released to fight another day. Largest carp of the day was 14lbs 8oz and the smallest a respectable 8lbs. 
The carp obviously enjoyed the experience so much that they stayed in this area for the Sunday match which was won from "our" swim with a new 5 hour match record of 244lbs! Alex's reward for helping on Saturday was 2nd place from the other side of the lake with a very
impressive 171lbs. 
A great mornings fishing with more youngsters learning how to catch & care for our fish.
 
Three of the captures shown below:
 

Tuesday 16th October Coaching trip to Broadwater
 
It had taken a bit of planning but finally we had the date for the promised visit to Broadwater to help Howie catch a big fish!
Stuart Sharkey also joined us for his first ever attempt at fishing having travelled by bus to Epsom station and then he caught the
train to Guildford from where he was collected & driven to the lake. 
We were in luck as the rain had put most anglers off so we managed to get the Point to ourselves. We set up the rods and spodded
out some bait and left it to "soak" until our guests arrived about 30 minutes later - just as the rain stopped.
There were fish already showing over the bait so we were hopeful of a good session. 
We spent a little time running through the set up of the rods, the use of buzzers and how the baits were hair rigged. 
All four rods were cast out using the current favourite method of small pva netting bags containing pellet soaked in hemp oil and with
a small pop-up and small hook. Within 20 minutes Stuart had the first carp in the net, weighing in at 8lbs. Shortly afterwards Howie was playing
another but this was lost at the net - probably because the clutch was set a little too hard. Not to worry though as another carp obliged
within ten minutes or so - this one was a double of 14lbs 12oz. Chris Baitup correctly guessing the weight to the ounce. 
Not to be outdone Stuart followed this with what turned out to be the best fish of the day with one of exactly 18lbs - a nice common
in good condition. Howie came close to equalling it with his best of the day of bang on 16lbs. 
Early afternoon saw them both playing a fish at the same time - Stuart landing a fully scaled mirror and Howie landing a very pretty mirror. 
We had arranged to keep the session down to around 4 hours and by 2.30 we were packed up ready to leave. The lads had a great time,
each landing 6 fish and the total weight was well in excess of 120lbs! Well done guys. Some of Howie's fish were photographed by Mary
on her camera so are not attached here (yet). 
Stuart is hooked after his first visit in-spite of being warned that the fish don't always behave so obligingly. We have now put him in touch
with more local disabled angling clubs and hope that he continues in our sport. 
Howie has been a regular with our Summer Junior Club at Marsh Farm and is often seen fishing on Hill Pond with mum Mary close by. 

5th Annual Junior Multi Species Charity Challenge - Story, Results & Pictures.
 
Saturday 8th September 2007 was the last of this summers Junior Club events and it was the first time that we had held the Junior Multi Species at this end of the summer. We were not sure how successful it would be especially when we realised on the day that we clashed with England playing football, rugby & cricket that very afternoon!
 
The big questions were "Would the boys beat the girls this year for a change?" & "Would a girl win the sponsorship trophy for the first time?"
 
Competitors were asked to arrive at Broadwater Lake at 8.30 ready to start fishing at 9. The first arrived by ten past eight and to my delight they just kept coming!
By 9am we had 28 Juniors spread around swims near the main road car park eagerly awaiting the starting whistle. Their aim to catch as many different species as possible, earning one point each per species before moving on to Busbridge to repeat the exercise.
 
Andrews band of committed (some definitely certifiable) helpers had handed around tubs of maggots, pots of loose feed, landing nets and helped set up 3 & 4 metre whips in readiness for the start. The whistle blew and it began! Squeals of delight were heard and shouts of "I've got one!" rang around our corner of the lake as the first points were recorded by the "Purple Shirts" - the official helpers.
 
A Crucian, a common & a mirror carp were amongst the species landed. The majority of the Juniors catching roach, rudd and perch with a handful of Gudgeon putting in an appearance on the bank. However, Georges duck did not count and we released it without harm to either of them!
 
Bill Rushmer from Anglers Mail was with us snapping away for the article he hopes to have published shortly. He was also a great help in ferrying three of the lads from venue to venue as my car was loaded with fishing gear. Thanks Bill for all your support & your generous donation.
 
A call from the catering crew (Graham & Bernice) ensured they knew how many buns and burgers were required for later that afternoon.
 
Shortly after 11am the whistle blew again, fishing stopped, everyone packed up and we headed off to Busbridge. No one was lost on the way and after allowing 20 minutes or so to get organised, the whistle started off part 2 of the event. In the lead following the Broadwater fishing were brothers Finn &  Rowan with 8 points but there were several pairs hot on their heels including the Holcombe sisters Rosie & Chloe. Rosie got off to a great start at Busbridge pulling out three different species in as many casts before everything went rather quiet.
 
Busbridge proved quite tricky on the day but everyone loved the experience at this very special lake. Again the whistle blew and we were off to Marsh Farm. By this stage the Holcombe sisters were just in lead but again there were several pairs close on their heels - namely the Watts brothers, Chloe Cozens & Tom Chase, George & Hayley and also Daniel & Howie.
 
Hill Pond had been reserved & closed from 1pm for us so we set up for the 3rd time that day. Everyone still looking pretty fresh and the Juniors still raring to go as
everyone was still in with a chance with so many points available across the 3 lakes at Marsh Farm. (A point available for each species from each lake). It is at this stage in the proceedings that things could get quite chaotic with points being scored everywhere, however, the children knew well by now that everything had to be identified by a purple shirt before their sheet was signed so we stayed in control ..... to an extent.
 
By 4pm the BBQ was lit, Graham, Bernice & Eileen were merrily chopping onions, setting out the tables, pouring drinks of squash. Andrew was running back and forth to the shop to organise prizes and more maggots which were disappearing at a steady rate. Malcolm was meeting and greeting the Mayor & Mayoress together with the Jannaways who so kindly replaced the Junior sponsorship trophy in memory of their son Chris who was tragically killed recently. The Surrey Advertiser had sent a photographer along to snap the presentations for us too.
 
Shortly after 5pm with parents starting to flag a little now the final whistle was blown and the big adding up session began whilst the equipment was put away for the season. Certificates were written out for all the competitors and the prizes and trophies put on display.
 
The big questions were soon answered. No, the boys couldn't beat the girls this year and Yes a girl did finally win the most sponsorship trophy!
 
Andrew thanked all the fishing helpers, the coaches, the catering team, mums, dads and children for making the day such fun and a great success. Also thanked were of course the Jannaway family, Mr & Mrs Mayor, Apollo Angling for supplying the prizes, Bill Rushmer from Anglers Mail and The Surrey Advertiser too. They all received a good round of applause and the presentations began.
 
The sponsorship trophy was awarded by Mr & Mrs Jannaway to Chloe Holcombe who raised a stunning £107, narrowly beating her sister Rosie who managed £93. Howie was third with £89. All the children did really well and managed to raise a stunning total of £941.50 all paid in on the day, which the Mayor kindly rounded up for us to £950. Thank you everyone.
 
The pairs competition was won by the girls again with a new record joint score of 32 points by the Holcombe girls Chloe & Rosie making it a clean sweep of the top prizes! Well done girls. As well as trophies they were given a new rod each.
 
Second place went to Chloe Cozens and Tom Chase with 28 points. They won a trophy and a new reel each.
 
Third place went to Howie Murphy & Daniel West with 26 points. They also won a trophy and a reel each.
 
All the juniors were presented with certificates and a selection of fishing tackle by the Mayor & Mayoress who were most impressed with the children's efforts,
congratulating them all.
 
It was then time for the group photos taken by Chris from the Surrey Ad with all the proud mums and dads snapping away too, followed by a mad rush to the burger queue!
 
By 7pm the clearing up was finished, the equipment put away, the kitchen cleaned and tidied, rubbish put in the wheelie bin. The 5th Junior Multi Species event had been another great success and it was finally time to go home."
 
 
14. - John Jannaway presenting Chloe Holcombe with the Chris Jannaway memorial trophy for the most sponsorship raised.
19 - Winners Chloe & Rosie Holcombe
21 - 2nd Place Tom Chase & Chloe Cozens
23 - 3rd place Howie Murphy & Daniel West
29 - Jeremy & Tess Walch with the Mayor
33 - Team photo
36 - "Grub up!" The queue for burgers
41 - Andrew, Malcolm, Mayor & Mayoress chatting, with Ellie in the foreground chomping on her 3rd burger & Graham still slaving over a hot BBQ.