Godalming Angling Society Junior Section

Posted 12-09-2010
2010 Junior Multi Species Charity Challenge.

This years event was fished by 26 children at our three regular venues of Broadwater (9 - 11am), Busbridge (11.30 - 1.30) and Marsh Farm from 2pm to 5pm. The weather was very kind to us being pleasantly warm and dry all day.
Everyone caught fish and as usual there were regular cries of "Oh no not another perch!"
The competition awards each child with one point per species per venue so once they have had a perch at Busbridge they don't want another until they are at Marsh Farm. Matt Patto caught 27 perch in a row at Busbridge much to his frustration and our amusement!
Charley-Jane and India (the 2 smallest contestants) were in last place after Broadwater with just one point but leapt into the lead after Busbridge by adding a roach, rudd, perch and gudgeon each with Charley-Jane getting a double pointer by landing her perch with a jack pike attached! That was a first in this competition.
Hot favourites (in their minds anyway) were Jordan and Jack. They were desperate to stop the girls from winning for a 4th year in a row and in a recount sneaked home by one point pipping Lily & Jack whilst joint 3rd were Oliver & Alex along with India and Charley-Jane. The other teams who were very close on their heels were: Brandon & Jordan; Liam & Mikey; Howie & Ronan; Paul & Reece (aka Tangler Brown); Ewan & Matt; Lauren & Ryan; Conor & Freddie; Josh & Jake and Team Torres - Brandon.
The most sponsorship trophy was won for the second year running by Howie Murphy with a tremendous £208. The children (with lots of help from mums & dads raised a superb total of £812 which as always goes towards our School Charity in The Gambia.
A BIG thank you to all the coaches and helpers who along with the children made it a day to remember. Lots of burgers and sausages consumed at the end which was the final BBQ of the year for the Junior Fish For Fun team who will all now spend the next few months recovering before we start all over again next year.

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

Juniors Night Match on Broadwater Lake on Saturday 24th July 2010
For details click here

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

OLIVER'S FIRST FISHING TRIP

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.

Two hours later we headed for Busbridge with the girls in the lead as usual - the boys have only ever won this competition once in the 6 years I have been running it. The sun was out and pleasantly warm, the lake looked beautiful and the fish were fizzing. Everyone caught fish here and Maddy landed 21. Unfortunately 19 of them were perch and as it is a "point per species" competition 18 of them were unwanted! The perch were feeding all over the lake but for some reason the usually easy to catch roach and rudd were not in the mood to be caught. No monsters appeared on the bank here but a very large tench toyed with Rosie for a moment or two before escaping back to the depths.

Shortly before 2pm we were all on our way up to Marsh Farm with scores still close all round. Hill Pond was the next venue and that proved surprisingly difficult but fortunately the little tench like Maddys here were hungry.

After an hour or so the other two lakes were tested for fish and these too were hard work. However bite of the day came on Richardson Lake when I was called across to inspect an unidentified species thought to be an ornamental !
It turned out to be a little bright yellow fish of the bath playtime variety! Andy (Girly squeal) Reid got his own back for the teasing!

A few more pictures of the day

At 5pm the competition came to a finish. The scores were added up. The prizes were readied for the presentation and our guests of honour Tony & Cathy and John & Sue were on hand to hand out the prizes and certificates.

Howie Murphy won the Sponsorship Cup with an amazing £238 raised and paid in on the day. Well done Howie. (Picture to follow via proud mum Mary.) Tess weighed in with a very impressive £145 and along with the other children we raised £625.

Special award - Rebecca a brand new 4m whip for her big common carp.

Everyone received a bait box with some tackle items whilst the top three pairs were awarded tackle vouchers to spend in the on site shop Apollo Tackle £25 each for the winners, £15 each for runners up and £10 each for 3rd place. Abigail was heard to ask her Dad "Can we buy ice creams with them?" (Pictures to follow via proud Granddad Mike, Dad Nick and others please.)

My thanks go to everyone who fished, everyone who ferried children from lake to lake, my fellow coaches, the helpers, the catering department, Marsh Farm shop, people who sponsored the children and our guests of honour. A great day enjoyed by all.

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.

Juniors show the way!

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.