Please find below the reports from your officers for the 2025 AGM.

Should any member wish the reports in a Word or PDF format, please e-mail the Society at godalming.angling@gmail.com and a file will be sent out to you.

 Godalming Angling Society Newsletter for 2025

 

SOCIETY CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2024

 

The AGM will be taking place at 9.30am on Saturday 12th April 2025 at the Pavilion, Marsh Farm and members are welcome to attend. If you do, please ensure you have your Membership Book with you.

 

2024 was another successful year for the Club with membership numbers holding up and, particularly pleasing, that junior membership held up due, in no small part, to the work of Dave Ewing and Kevin Holcombe and the team on promoting all aspects of junior coaching and development. Dave Ewing’s report provides further details on the excellent work that has been done to encourage youngsters into fishing and develop their skills, which is important to both our sport and the Society.

 

Bill Harris stepped back last year from his many years work supporting the junior coaching programme and this year has stepped down from the General Committee after many years. I am delighted to note that Bill was awarded the Jenny and Chris Slyfield Trophy (Godalming Sport in the Community) recognising his 50 years of involvement with youngsters at the Society, beating off known local luminaries. Many thanks to him and I’m sure he will remain involved with the Society in some way.

 

Fishing was generally good, although I recognise, we can’t please all the people all of the time. Fortunately, we didn’t have quite the same problems with extreme summer temperatures as in recent years although the consequences of climate change will, no doubt, provide further challenges. Cormorant predation continues to be of some concern and the Society is doing what it can, and is allowed to do, to manage the issues.

 

Membership renewals and new member applications continued on-line through Clubmate and, for most people the system worked OK. Dave Ewing and Kevin Holcombe have worked hard to resolve the occasional problems and worked with Clubmate to improve some of the functionality and reflect the way the Society works.

Hopefully, renewals for the coming season (2025/26) will continue to see progress in ease of use.

Here is some key information for this season:

-       Renewals for the 2025/26 season can be made from 1^st May.

-       If you have changed e-mail address since last year you will not be able to login to your profile.  E-mail Dave Ewing at godalming.angling@gmail.com and he will update your profile with a new e-mail address.

-       If you have a joint membership, make sure your partner’s name is in your profile.

-       You can add a Johnson’s night permit to all except Junior plans.

-       There is the option to donate to club coaching and upkeep and purchase GAS clothing (this is run by Clubmate, but we receive a percentage of any sales).

For further information on renewals see Membership Administrator’s report.

 

All your Officers, General Committee members and Bailiffs, have continued to work hard on the Society’s behalf to maintain our waters and provide excellent fishing for the members. I would like to thank them all for their hard work and support over the last year.

 

Significant work is always required to maintain our fisheries and support from members in helping out with work parties is needed and helps keep costs down. Please keep an eye on our website for arrangements and dates for work parties and how you can get involved.

 

I’ll leave fellow officers to present the details, which properly reflects the significant work to run our club and maintain our fisheries. Wishing you ‘tight lines’ for 2025.

 

David Johnson – Society Chairman

 

ASSISTANT HON SECRETARY/MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATOR REPORT 2024

 

We are entering our third season using the Clubmate membership system and for the most part things have gone very smoothly.  We are starting the renewal cycle again from the 1^st of May 2025.   From that date you will then be able to login to Clubmate and order your renewal permit for the 2025/26 season.  Books will not be posted out till June.  Provided you renew in good time you will have a book for the start of the season on the 1^st of July 2025.

 

Once you login to Clubmate, please check that the address and e-mail details on your profile are up to date.   We do have issues with books getting lost in the post but if the address details are not correct in the first place there is nothing we can do! 

We also have the odd problem with parents buying memberships for their children.  Setting up a new profile for each child is the best way of doing this.  We will be introducing a check on junior permits to ask who the permits are being bought for to avoid parents receiving permits with their child’s name on it!

 

As in previous seasons, we will not be accepting new members for the coming season till the 1^st of June and new members will not be able to fish before the 1^st of July 2025.

We have a small percentage of members who still like to buy their permits in person.   We will be holding 3 in-person sign-up sessions at Marsh Farm. If you do wish to attend one of these sessions please pay by cheque or cash if possible.

 

Dates and times are:

Friday 2^nd May – 09.00-12.00

Saturday 10^th May – 09.00-12.00

Friday 16^th May- 09.00-12.00

I hope that most of you will find the renewal process straightforward.  If you have any problems the quickest way to resolve them is to e-mail me – Dave Ewing-  at godalming.angling@gmail.com.  

If you don’t have an e-mail then you can phone Kevin Holcombe on 07759 5522572 or Trish Noakes on 01483 415651.  Calls are not constantly monitored so you may have to wait for a  reply.

 

Best wishes for the coming season

Dave Ewing

 

 

HON SECRETARY & TREASURER’S REPORT 2024

 

Yet another year has been and gone. Yet another chapter in the history of G.A.S. We can now boast 143 years under our belt.

 

 New Gen. Committee members

 

We have welcomed new members to the General Committee, Graham Lovell, Stuart Bennett and Simon Brimfield, and hopefully plenty of you will be able to make it to the AGM and meet, not only the new General Committee members, but those of us who have been around forever. On that front I am pleased that my current Assistant Hon. Sec - Dave Ewing, will take over the reigns completely, as Hon. Secretary shortly. He already has his feet well and truly under the Hon. Sec. table amongst his other duties as Junior organiser and administers all the behind scene stuff for the memberships through Clubmate. He also runs the Winkworth Fly Fishers section, so a busy chap.

I will remain as Hon. Treasurer and Maintenance Co-ordinator and of course will assist Dave if he needs it.

 

 

In general, the Society has held on to its membership pretty well over the last few years and long may it do so. Income from memberships remaining steady through the changeover to Clubmate. The Society’s income now hovering near the £400,000 mark.

 

 

Whilst we no longer do so much work with GAS volunteer work parties, largely using contractors instead, that again increases our costs, it is a necessity to keep things going and in truth the extent of maintenance requires the expertise of outsourcing to contractors who have the equipment, let alone the experienced labour to do the work.

 

That does not mean that we do not need more volunteers however. We definitely do. So, if you feel you are able to give some of your time, to share whatever talents you can bring to the party, please do mention it to any one on the committee. We have had some great times working on the banksides and in FMC over the years.

 

Finances

 

As I say each year, at the time I am writing this, we have yet to finalise and send all of the year’s info to our accountants. So, any comments here are based solely on the basis of our cash books and before the accountants have made any of their usual adjustments, for tax liabilities, accruals and allowances for prepayments etc.

 

If all goes to plan the final accountants detailed figures will be available to everyone at the AGM, as normal. I will give a bit more detail on the figures at the AGM once they are formalised.

 

You always need to remember that these are the accounts for the year ending 31^st December 2024, not the last GAS season, as the GAS membership season runs to 30^th June each year. Of course, the Tax year ends on the 4^th April annually. So, none of these periods actually align.

 

It looks like we will have spent substantially more than our income, which, although not ideal, hopefully we have spent the money wisely with a view to the future. We now have feeding programmes throughout the year and Siltex applications on our still-waters, routinely on the calendar. These are recent additions, but all for the benefit of our fish stocks and water quality and to improve the habitat. So again, this can be looked at as more of an investment in the future for the Society.

 

Roughly two thirds of our total expenditure was spent on maintenance of our waters and property. Something to think about.

 

Once again, we have undertaken a huge amount of work at our various waters.

 

As always, we spent a lot of money on the maintenance side including:-

 

The second and largest phase of swim rebuilds at Broadwater which were completed around the Golf Club bank including The Oaks swims and along the road bank.

 

We also undertook, through contractors, extensive tree works to the bank surrounds and on the island at Broadwater, all of which we hope will prove to be a good investment. The trees in particular will be a major influence to improve not only the vistas, but the growth of the marginal plants around the lake and ultimately improve the water quality, by allowing more light and wind onto the water surface.

 

We also tackled another phase of swim rebuilds at Marsh Farm. The previously rebuilt swims seem to me have been received well by anglers. More of these are planned to be rebuilt soon and we already have much of the materials in stock for this work.

 

Extensive tree work has also been carried out on the river at Salgasson and at Bramley Park, Johnson’s Lake, Wood Lake as well as Marsh Farm. To the tune of around £26,000 in total. That is the down side of having so many beautifully wooded fisheries.

 

A further £24,000 simply on insurances, which clearly, we cannot do without.

 

So, to all those who are kind enough to make additional donations to GAS along with your membership subscriptions each year I thank you.

 

Clubmate

 

I believe that the move to using Clubmate has been an improvement for the benefit of our members and reducing our work in membership administration. But of course, that also attracts additional costs.  Around £8,500 in fees for Clubmate, to use their system and also to deal with the actual handling of the membership books and posting them out. Some of this, things like postage, is a fixed cost of course. So, we are looking at the alternative of dispensing with the paper handbook, in favour of a membership card, as many other Clubs have done.

There are also charges for credit card handling of around £5,400 in that period.

 

We hope to soon be renewing the lease for Winkworth Arboretum and will hopefully look again at the practicalities of predator stocking to give you another option, running alongside the existing Winkworth Fly Fishers trout fishing activities.

 

As you will all know, costs in almost every direction are increasing and with us making a loss last year, I have proposed an increase in the subscriptions of broadly £10 in most adult categories as you will see from the Proposals that are set out separately.

 

Thanks

 

We might get lots of the maintenance and FMC works undertaken by outsourcing to contractors, but we still rely heavily on our Officers and Committee members giving freely of their time and energy to manage Society matters. So, thank you to all of them for doing so.

 

The one person that I always need to thank personally, above all others, is of course my wife. She has taken on many tasks to help me out over the years that I have been a part of GAS. I have mentioned many of these in the past. More recently she has been manning the telephones and dealing with members and outsiders calling with their queries on everything from how lakes are currently fishing, to how much it costs for a night permit and other queries such as, why are they outside my house (the postcode on Google) and they cannot see any lakes?

 

I cannot thank her enough for all she has done and for all her patience and support over thirty years plus. I could not have done it without her.

 

Finally, thank you all for being members of GAS, I wish you all another season of great fishing on the fantastic GAS waters.

 

 

Graham Harris

 

 

HON FISHERIES MANGEMENT SECRETARY’S REPORT 2024

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HEAD BAILIFF’S REPORT 2024

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HON MATCH SECRETARY’S REPORT 2024 including Fixture List for 2025/26

 

The match scene remains buoyant with good regular weekly attendances despite several missing with health issues, Throughout the summer the popular Wed opens at Marsh farm running from April until Oct were well attended with many “Open regulars” joining the club. Numbers were understandably slightly down during the winter months when our focus turns to commercials, the weather in January this year was very wet and cold. It was nice to see several new faces this year.

 

We had good club matches on our Stillwater’s with Bramley, Wood, Johnsons and Broadwater all producing good catches before winter set in. Note this season we will have couple of All in matches at Broadwater as I have sorted the weighing of Carp through the match.

The summer league was well attended as usual and hotly contested as always with Simon Copus coming out on top with 78pts then Martin Charnock 62pts, Ian Turner 48pts, Steve Livingstone 46pts, Henry Goals 43pts Nick picket 40.

 

A quick update on last seasons Winter league that finished after my report went in. Roger Howe won with 49pts from Mark Shaw 48pts, Chris Peedle 39pts, Stu Kendal 39pts, Steve Livingstone, Dave Ewens 35. There are still several current winter league matches to come so I will update this on the website at the end of the campaign.

 

Booking venues continues to be problematical with many booked up to 2 years in advance these days.  I have managed a varied list which I hope you approve of. Sadly, the River does not figure this time mainly due to poor parking and long walks making it unpopular with many of our aging match group kitted out with trollies resembling articulated lorries. Once again there are more commercials in the winter months as they are more productive than natural waters and therefore very popular despite the extra cost that continues to rise although we have managed to hold our entry /pools prices at a reasonable level for the time being.

 

I would like to thank all of those who helped me throughout the year with pegging and standing in in my absence.

 

Tight lines everybody for next season.

Roger Howe – Hon Match Secretary

 

Fixtures for 25 / 26 season
Note Open matches on Richardson on Weds through the summer
Jul-25
Sun 6th	Johnsons lake  Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL3)
Sun 13th	Bramley lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 20th	Willingshurst Jons lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL4)
Sun 27th	Wood lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Aug-25
Sun 3rd	Broadwater All in match Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 10th	Harris lake All lake Draw8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 17th	Wood lake Draw  8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL5)
Sun 24th	Bramley lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 31st	Johnsons lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL6)
Sep-25
Sun 7th	Harris lake All lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 14th	Richardson lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL7)
Sun 21st	Broadwater lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 28th	Sumners Ribbon lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL8)
Oct-25
Sun 5th	Willow Small lake Draw 3.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 12th	NMG Pump station Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30
Sun 19th	Sumners Match lake Draw 9am fish 10.15 -3.15  (WL1)
Sun 26th	Sumners Ribbon lake Draw9am fish 10.15 - 3.15
Nov-25
Sun 2nd	Richardson lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm (WL2)
Wed 5th	Apps Court farm Draw 9am fish 10-3pm
Sun 9th	Gold Defo only Causway bank Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 16th	Draw 9am Fish 10.15-3.15pm
Sun 23rd	Billhook Draw 9am fish 10.15-3.15pm (WL3)
Sun 30th	Sumners Match Lake  Draw 9am fish 10-3pm
Dec-25
Sun 7th	Gold Middle lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm (WL4)
Wed 10th	Apps Court farm  9am fish 10-3pm
Sun 14th	NMG Pump station Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.3pm
Sun 21st	Richardsons Christmas match Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 28th	Wood lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Jan-26
Sun 4th	Billhook  Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 11th	Willow small lake Draw 8,30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 18th	Apps Court farm Draw 8,30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 25th	Willingshurst Jons lake Draw 8,30 fish 10-3pm (WL5)
Feb-26
Sun 1st	Apps Court farm Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 8th	Willow small lake draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 15th	Billhook  Draw 9am fish 10.15 -3.15 (WL6)
Sun 22nd	NMG Pump station Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Mar-26
Sun 1st	Willingshurst Jons lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Wed 4th	Apps Court farm Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 8th	Gold Middle lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm (WL7)
Sun 15th	Billhook Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 22nd	NMG Pump station Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun  29th	Richardson lake Draw 8.30 fish 10.3pm (WL8)
Apr-26
Sun 5th	Richardson lake Draw 8,30 fish 10-3.30
Sun 12th	Work party Bramley Meet at 9am
Sun 19th	Billhook Draw  8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 26th	Richardson lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
May-26
Sun 3rd	Willingshurst Jons lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 10th	Billhook  Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 17th	Richardson lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm
Sun 24th	Work party Bramley Meet 9am
Sun 31st	Richardson lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3pm (WL2)
Jun-26
Sun 7th	Harris  lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm (SL1)
Sun 14th	Bramley lake Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 21st	Billhook Draw8.30 fish 10-3.30pm
Sun 28th	Richardson Draw 8.30 fish 10-3.30 (SL2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUNIOR ORGANISER’S REPORT 2024 (development, coaching & matches)

 

We ran another very successful coaching programme over the summer. Most sessions were fully booked with waiting lists.

We also welcomed local scout, cub and beaver groups for sessions at Marsh Farm and were delighted to have Broadwater School back for four great evenings culminating in a mini match on Hill Pond.

In total over 250 local youngsters had a chance to experience fishing through our programmes.

 

Our junior summer league was another success with some of our “introduction to angling” youngsters making the jump to match fishing. The league was won this year by Finley - with Cameron and Haydon hot on his heels.

Thanks to the Get Fishing Fund we have invested in some decent match fishing tackle to support anglers wanting to try match fishing without spending a fortune on tackle. We offer targeted support from match-oriented coaches like Ben and Paul, who can guide beginners through the tactics needed to succeed in a match.

Less successful was the junior carp events at Broadwater. This year we did not have enough youngsters sign up to run the night event. Many older anglers will remember the Broadwater night match being oversubscribed with several young anglers sharing a peg. Times have changed and night fishing is clearly not the novelty it once was.

 

On a more positive note, we were visited by Martin Salter and the great and the good from the Angling Trust and Environment Agency. They were here to see our coaching programme and facilities and were very impressed- saying we had the best organised set up in the South of England. On the back of the visit, we secured another £1,500 from the Get Fishing Fund to buy a new set of fishing stools with 25mm legs and side trays to give every visiting youngster a proper fishing station to fish from.

Thanks to Kevin, Paul S, Dave B, Ben, Andy, Paul C, Dan, Dawn, Brian, Val and the not-so retired Bill Harris for their help and enthusiasm. We are lucky to have such a great team - without whom our programme simply would not exist!

 

Dave Ewing – Junior Organiser