For the News Section please just scroll down a little.....
The Club
South Manchester Angling Club (SMAC) have been in existence for 40 + years, and are based in the southern city suburb of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. We are a friendly local club with a membership of around 75 anglers who possess five waters in the Knutsford, Cheshire area offering a wide variety of angling challenges for members to cater for pleasure, specimen and match anglers alike. No day tickets are issued on any South Manchester water – all anglers have to be members of the club.
You can put together a net of caster roach on the pole, stalk carp off the top on floaters, sit out at dawn for the tench, bivvy up for low twenties, or fish the regular 20 to 30 peg club matches hosted throughout the summer months on a variety of local commercial and natural venues. The choice is yours.
When required, work parties are held on waters where the need arises, such as for activities like weed removal, tree pruning, path clearing and general bankside improvements. These parties are normally very-well attended, with a cooked breakfast provided by the committee for all attendees!
The club hold regular meetings at Chorlton Cricket and Social Club, Hardy Lane, Chorlton, on the second Tuesday of every month from around 8.30pm onwards. Anyone interested in wanting to join the club can attend to discuss fishing, and generally feel part of something friendly and personal, instead of just being a number in a database.
Membership is currently open at £20 per year, with an initial joining fee of £10. All general enquiries should be directed to our Secretary. SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE DUE AT THE APRIL GENERAL MEETING
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News Section:
Subscriptions are now due. A £10 fine will be charged if you haven't paid by the June General Meeting:
Seniors: £20
OAPs £10
There is no price increase for 2012 - still one of the best value-for-money fishing clubs in the North West.
Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM)
At the recent Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) (Tuesday 08 May 2012), at the Chorlton Sports and Social Club, Hardy Lane, Chorlton, Manchester, no Secretary was fothcoming from the entire membership. Only 15 members turned up....
A proposal from the Committee was put to the meeting, which was passed. The club will now form two separate groups, a Match Group and a Pleasure Group.
Further information on this proposal:
• The Match Group is involved with the booking, organisation and execution of matches, essentially in the same way as these are currently run.
• The Pleasure Group is responsible for the rental, upkeep and administration associated with all aspects of club waters.
• Current and new members to nominate which Group they wish to be aligned to, with their membership fees for 2012 being allocated to the specified Group.
• A member can decide to be aligned to both Groups – current membership fee for 2012 will then be split 50:50 between Groups.
• Subscriptions for 2013 to be individually set by each Group.
• Remaining monies in the general club account be allocated by agreement between Match and Pleasure Groups.
The current Committee proposed that they remain in place to set up the mechanics of splitting the club, and this was unanimously agreed by the EGM.
The General Meeting planned for Tuesday 12 June 2012 at the Chorlton Sports and Social Club, Hardy Lane, Chorlton, Manchester, will go ahead. Subscriptions are due, otherwise a £10 fine will be levied to all those who haven't paid by this meeting
What you have to do next:
Have you paid your subs? Yes: contact us to say which Group you wish to be aligned to.
No: pay your subs and say which Group you wish to be aligned to.
As a temporary measure ONLY, please contact Stan Harrison if you want to pay your subscriptions and allocate yourselves to a Group (either Group or both Groups), or just allocate to a Group:
Stan Harrison, 79 Blackburne Close, Longbarn, Warrington, WA2 0PJ, Tel 01925 811857, Mobile 07767 272403.
Annual General Meeting
At the AGM held on 11 October 2011, several resolutions were passed:
General meetings:
“That the number of general meetings be reduced for the 2011 – 2012 SMAC year. Meeetings to take place in October 2011 (the AGM), November 2011, February 2012, April 2012, June 2012, August 2012 and October 2012 (the AGM). The frequency of meetings will again be reviewed at the 2012 AGM.”
Work Parties:
"All club waters to be closed on days when official working parties are being carried out. Members found fishing will be asked to stop and leave or help with the work being carried out. "
Using double hooking rigs:
"Members when fishing Club waters must use a single hook only."
These rules take immediate effect.
A fisheries report has been posted on the Newsletter page here. which was presented at the 2011 AGM on 11 October 2011 by Secretary Stan Harrison. Due to a lack of discussion time at the meeting, review of this document was deferred until the November General meeting. If you have any views about the club waters and wish to discuss them, please attend in November to air your views.
Gill Netting
Please be aware that this is on the increase - see press release from the Environment Agency below:
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Background
The Environment Agency received reports of illegal fishing at Pennington Flash near Wigan on September 11, 2011. Fisheries Officers visited the site and found that several large Gill nets, totalling in the region of 300 metres in length and a 30m set line with many baited hooks had been placed in the water with the intention of catching fish from within the lake. Officers worked quickly to release entangled fish from the nets and saved a number of large bream and perch, however around 30 large perch had died in the nets. The use of Gill nets is not a regularly consented form of taking fish in freshwater. Gill nets are designed to be used at sea to catch fish for consumption. The Environment Agency is carrying out a full investigation into where these nets have come from and to take action against those responsible for this illegal fishing.
Statement
Ian Wood, Fisheries Officer said, “Gill nets are an extremely effective and a destructive means of catching fish and can be very damaging to a fishery in a very short space of time. The Environment Agency takes offences such as this on Pennington Flash very seriously, we are working to investigate where this illegal net came from, find those responsible, and we will take action against those responsible. We are working closely with Wigan Leisure and Culture trust to plan how we can monitor activities taking place at Pennington Flash so that we can to protect this popular local amenity. Any suspected illegal fishing should be reported to the Environment Agency’s 24hr Hotline 0800 80 70 60.”
Katy Barton| Communications Officer - Media Environment Agency | Richard Fairclough House, Knutsford Road, Wash Lane, Warrington WA4 1HT tel: 01925 54 2201 | mobile: 07770792843 | out of hours 07776497255 email: katy.barton@environment-agency.gov.uk
Vandalism at Green Lane
Please be aware that there have been two recent acts of vandalism at Green Lane within a week. Several days ago club Secretary Stan Harrison had to remove two carrier bags full of beer cans and litter, and some of the wooden pallets had been moved and set alight.
On Saturday 17th September at around 5pm, unknown vandals set light to the club notice board, but thankfully two local anglers, not members of the club, were passing and intervened to put the fire out before it had fully taken hold. We owe a debt of gratitude to these gentlemen. The police were informed and are investigating further, and it has been logged as a formal police incident. The club will be taking steps to repair the damage as soon as possible.
If you see anything suspicious on any of the waters, call the police - we are actively participating in the Cheshire RuralWatch scheme. If you feel threatened, dial 999, otherwise for urgent calls contact Cheshire Police on 0845 4580000, or for no-urgent issues call RuralWatch on 0845 4586380. It may be useful to store these numbers in your phone.
Two-hook rigs are now banned on all club waters with immediate effect. Read more about it here.
Photographs from the recent Presentation Evening held on 14th June 2011 can be found here.
Additional workparties :Sunday 3rd, 17th and 31st July 2011, 8am Green Lane Fishery
Others are planned for July 3rd, 17th & 31st @ Green Lane for 8am start. Please put these dates in your diaries and remember we would appreciate more of our local pleasure fishing members turning up to help with the work. We should not have to remind members this work is mainly being done for your benefit, as it will involve the levelling of pathways and removal of weed. Photographs from the 3rd July weed clearing party are here.
Dave Crookall Memorial Match:
We are just in the process of scoping the Dave Crookall memorial match, on his favourite water, the Trent & Mersey canal, probably at Billinge (on the Northwich AA water) sometime in June or July this year. We have a few options to make it a full day to remember Dave, centred around Witton Albion Football club, close by. If there is sufficient interest, the football club can provide bacon butties, etc as breakfast before the match, and afterwards put on a buffet for us.
At the moment we are trying to gauge interest in this and numbers, so if you are interested in both fishing the match and like the idea of food before and after, please contact our Secretary Stan Harrison and let him know (Stan.harrison@talktalk.net).
2011 Subscriptions are now due:
Subs have been held at the same level for 2011 with no increases - £20 for full members and £10 for OAPs, which are due to be paid at the March General Meeting (8:30pm onwards at the Chorlton Sports and Social Club, Hardy lane, Chorlton). Please note that a fine of £10 will be levied on all members who have not paid up by the April meeting (April 12th).
Please refer to the newsletter dated 28 February 2011 for more details.
New Interim Secretary
At the December 2010 general meeting Stan Harrison was voted in as interim club Secretary for a period of 12 months. Stan can be contacted by email or phone:
Stan Harrison Home: 01925 811857 Mobile: 07767 272403 E-Mail Stan.Harrison@talktalk.net
New Treasurer
Also at the December general meeting, Mike Harrison was voted in as Club Treasurer.
At Dave Crookall's funeral on 29 November 2010, the club managed to raise the sum of £221, which is to be donated to the British Heart Foundation. May we take the opportunity to thank all those who attended and donated so generously. The Post Office, Dave's former employers also held a collection on his behalf, and raised £400, again to be donated to the British Heart Foundation. Many thanks are due to this kind gesture, organised by the Post Office.
Power Cuts in Knutsford!
Recent high winds have caused power cuts in the Knutsford area, and this was attributable to trees falling onto power cables straddling the Green Lane Waters. MANWEB engineers and contractors have cut these back, but had left some of these in the water, hindering fishing. Dave Crookall, Stan Harrison and John Holland have worked tirelessly to sort this out, and MANWEB have assured the club that any future work will not impinge on the fishing. Many thanks to these three for sorting out the problem at short notice.
Weed at Green Lane
A recent evening work party removed about a tonne of weed from the front pond, but the weed is still evident in some pegs. It's all down to the fishery being located on intensively-farmed land, and the club are doing everything in their power to make as may pegs fishable as possible.
E-mail Notifications
Would all members who would like to receive Newsletters and other communication fron our Sectretary via email, please send your contact details to Mick Abdy and/or Stan Harrison (via email!!!!!) - see above.
Work on Fryers ponds
Recent work parties have shuttered off a corner area around where it is percieved the leak is with scaffolding planks, all we need to do now is infil with clay/soil. This work has been undertaken with the full approval of Fryers Management.
Call for materials:
13 foot scaffolding planks
8 foot scaffolding poles
Clay/soil (about 30 tons!)
If anyone has any of the above, contact Dave Crookall or Mick Abdy.
When we get some clay delivered to the pond, there will be an "all hands" work pary called, where all able-bodied members are expected to attend to do their bit.
The 205 club (they're all a year older) continue to do brilliant work in keeping all the ponds looking neat and tidy.
The Website
This website has been introduced to try to give members and potential members as much up-to-date information as possible about the club. The site, with the help of members, will evolve over the coming months, more pages will be added and more information will be available. You can send pictures of your latest catches or just general pictures of our waters and anglers to be included in the Photo Gallery.
Please contact us if you would like to see anything added to the website which you may think will be of interest to other members.
Get involved with the club, come to the meetings, have your say, but most importantly, enjoy your fishing and keep safe.
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