s.j.dutton@hotmail.co.uk

Thame Angling Club AGM 11th April 2024 at the falcon pub in Thame for 7.30pm.

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ah9h1P9Lic5CgsRXM9xWXCK3K6SOaA

Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults

The suppliers of the clubs Public Liability insurance have informed us that we need to have policies in place to show that we are aware of our responsibilities regarding the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.

Whilst the club does not get involved in any teaching or coaching we must ensure that all members are aware that we have a trained Welfare Officer available in the event of any members having any concerns.

The relevant documents are available on the policies page of the website.

The club Welfare Officer is:

Ian Horrocks

07821 400435

Ian@iansangling.co.uk

        Good evening members,  the club held this years touch and go, because of the river level, teams of four on Sunday. With an 8am draw at Thame Football Club where the ladies made us sausage and bacon rolls and the choice of coffees, superbly done, then off to one of four sections of fifteen for a 10am start. Two sections at Thame, one at Wheatley and one at Cuddedon Mill. Once the match was over at three and the weigh in done it was back to the Thame Snooker club for a beer, pasty and chips and the all important results. I have to say the venues were superb and our friends and collegues at Wheatley and Cuddesdon had prepared some lovely swims for us to fish. Tring had lined up Shabbington Island for me to call on if the flood didn’t recede enough for 30 swims on our stretch. So a massive thanks must go first to the Oxford Waltonians Angling Club and Cuddesdon Mill Angling Club. Also Tring for the potential loan and our two venues in Thame which were outstanding for us yet again.

       The team results were very close at the top, with the eventual winners Tim’s Team pipping the others by one point.

       Drawing 14 and fishing section A, their skip Tim Eele caught 1lb 11oz scoring 9 points.

Fishing B Tony Aspell had 1lb 7oz 8dr scoring 5 points. Then fishing C for Tim was Darren Simmonds winning his section and coming third in the Superpool with 5lb 15oz and only adding 1 point to the team score. Finally in section D Chris Plumb catching 3lb 9oz adding 5 points sealed the win with a grand total of 20 points. A very well done lads and look after that trophy Tim!!

         Amazingly the next 3 teams drew on 21 points, so after a careful countback on weight, The Scalpel Squad led by Dave Head from Dorchester were in second place. Then in third place came Ace Tackle and Bait led by Tony Gee and then your own illustrious Thame Committee team.

       Individual Section wins went to John Mitchell catching 4lb 12oz on A3, Martin Wiggins with 2lb 4oz 8dr on B9, C14 you know was Darren and D section was won by the ultimate individual match winner on peg 9, picking up the Superpool and his section John Wolfendale with a healthy 6lb 9oz. The 2nd best weight of the day was Dick Edmonds with 6lb 7oz. Dick drove to Cuddesdon Mill and walked all the way to the furthest peg 15 for his troubles, so very much deserved his pick up.

        I would like to take this opportunity thank all the people, too many to mention individually but they know who they are, who have helped with all of the Strimming, mowing, tree trimming, platform building, wetsuit wearing, printing and on results duty on the day. I think from start to finish the match was a resounding success because of everyone’s hard work and next year I’m sure it will be just as good.

                                 Make a date in your diary captains of October 6th 2024.

Our next open is on October 15th let me know if you would like to attend, and next Sunday October 8th is the Wheatley Teams of three. Tony at Ace Tackle and Bait in Kidlington  01865 372066 is taking bookings for this one. 8am draw in Asda car park Wheatley, fishing 10 till 3pm. £60 per team with a superpool on the morning.
          Tight lines for now Dave.

Please find below list of non-fishing dates for the 2023/2024 shooting season.

1^st July (apologies for the short notice)

7^th October

21^st October

28^th October

4^th November

18^th November

2^nd December

16^th December

21^st December

6^th January

20^th January

27^th January

      Good evening members, todays match was yet another gruella for all concerned. We were spread up and down the whole stretch fishing the clearest swims I could pick yesterday, knowing the high pressure, full sunshine and streamer weed would still cause our anglers a good deal of bother…… It was very tough going for some….  Gareth nearly caught more small pike than fish that count. 

The top five are as follows,

Fishing like a pro currently and taking first place with a nice net of Dace came Tony Sexton in peg 48 weighing in 2lb 13oz 8dr. Tone is in a rich vein of form at present, long may it continue.

2nd place in peg 48a came Nick Sawyer with 2lb 12oz. Nick had a lot of Gudgeon in his mixed bag.

3rd place the ever steady and reliable Martin Chown. Mart landed 127 fish and weighed in 2lb 11oz 8dr. Plenty of young fish to grow on.

4th position Ian Blyth with 1lb 12 in peg 38. A 4lb Pike pestered Ian until it was removed from his swim and relocated further downstream.

Joint 5th place Des Burgess and Dave Lyne had 1lb 5oz from peg 33 and 64 respectively.

   Thanks to all attendees taking part today, including Nick Sawyer who we don’t see often but always removes money from my wallet, and Danny Bryant who fishing peg 32 today losing the obligatory 1.10pm Chub straightening his hook and making off with his bait. Would have won the match Danny….

    Our next match is on October 1st and is the Teams of four which takes up the entire stretch. For this match we will be working on the streamer weed issue so I need volunteers for Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th morning work parties to help with this, please give up a bit of your time.  Following this is the Wheatley teams of three, So this is held by our colleagues at the Oxford Waltonians, contact Tony Gee at Ace Tackle and Bait to enter a team. 

     Following this on October 15th is our next Open match. Please contact me if you wish to join us, it’s always good to meet members and none members at our matches.

                                             Get out there and fish,  Dave. 

05/03/23

Good afternoon all, as you know we held our final match of the season this morning against our good friends from Tring AC. A Craggy hardened match angling bunch who spend a lot of time fishing gin clear canal stretches near Tring at the moment, so it was nice to give 6 of them the opportunity to teach us a lesson on how to eek out a pound more fish than 8 of us much prettier Thame anglers. Tring scored 5lb 11oz and Thame scored 4lb 11oz 12dr. I believe they beat us at Shabbington in December too…. 

                                                                    Note to self, must do better next season! 

   The match itself was won by Sheldan Camden fishing for Thame on peg 54. Shel skillfully ran a single red maggot getting two bites on the stick catching 2 Chub weighing in a very welcome 4lb 1oz. Quality floats to the top eventually.

2nd place sitting in his armchair just next to the platform 47 came Dave Moore. Dave fished a similar method only with worms from his compost heap on the hook, catching 3 Chub and losing as many for 3lb 8oz. Again a fine piece of angling skill from the 83 year old Tring fisherman. Proving that anyone of any age can still woop my arse!!

3rd place on the end peg for today 55 came another annoyingly consistent Tring angler Martin Rodwell. Martin had a Chub and some Gudgeon for his very respectable 2lb 1oz. 

4th position went to Thame man Ian Blyth catching 60 large minnows for 5oz 4dr in peg 42.

5th place consistent Dess Burgess in peg 43, another Thame man today catching 3oz.

6th place Dave lyne peg 41 catching 2oz 8dr of minnows and a bleak.

7th place for Tring and the last to trouble the scalesman in peg 38a came Mr. Hedges who weighed in 2oz.

   So there it is, a low, clear river with high pressure and a North wind blowing was always going to prove hard, but at least half the field caught, and with slightly warmer conditions forecast for next weekend, the last in this season, it may well fish better than today for a mixed bag of fish if you pick the right swim. Whatever you decide to do surely fishing the river on the last week of the season has to beat shopping!!! 

order of service.

      The Clubs AGM is coming up on Thursday April 6th. It will be in the Falcon Pub in Thame (Hook Norton Real Ale Pub) and is open to anyone who would like to attend, member or not. It starts at 7.30pm and if you have any matters you would like to be discussed there, please make sure it is submitted in writing to myself or any other club officer before March 23rd. We set the new seasons Permit price then and soon after the new membership secretary sends the new application forms out to all existing members. The new permit goes to print soon after the AGM so it has the newly elected officers on the front.

Thanks to all those who have attended my matches this season, I don’t remember cancelling a single one. It has been a hard ending to a tricky year with the wettest May, hottest Summer, driest February, all a bit much really. We could do with quite a bit of rain soon or the river will struggle for a decent level come June 16th but what will be will be…. Get out and wet a river line before the end of the season if you can, and if you catch a decent bag or a good individual fish, even a massive Minnow, take a pic and send it to me or Steve. I will be organising a few work parties in the closed season and so if you would like to put your name forward I’ll let you know when they are.

                    See you all at the AGM then Tight Lines Dave.

we had 9 pairs entered for the pairs match. The weather was set fair and has considerably warmed up since a couple of weeks ago to put a different feel to things. Although the fish aren’t really feeding properly yet the mix of species caught showed that things are heading in the right direction. The list of them goes Minnows, Gudgeon, Bleak, Chublett, Dace, Roach, Perch and Proper Chub.

It’s just been too cold for too long but they need to feed now to get ready to spawn, warmer nights and days and less pollution perhaps will bring them on.

      Without further ado here’s the results.

In 1st Place in the Pairs itself came Charlie Green and Des Burgess. Des in section A fished peg 36 and caught 5oz for second in section and Charlie fished peg 47 and came first in section with 1lb 14oz on peg 47. Combined total of a very creditable 3 points. They have the Shield for a year.

2nd Pair came Tony Sexton and Dave Lyne. Tony fished peg 43 and was 3rd in section with 3oz and Dave was 4th in section with 10oz 8dr. A combined total of 7 points.

3rd Place Gareth Mombrun and Sheldan Camden. Now then… Gareth won the overall match with 6lb 14oz of Chub pictured below caught from peg 32

but as Young Gareth didn’t enter the Superpool he had the section win and 3rd place in the Pairs but unfortunately didn’t back himself, so only picked up a few quid and not enough to buy Man United…. Oh Gareth!   Sheldan fished peg 44 and caught 4dr which earned him joint 7th in section. Well done lads. Combined total of 8 points.

A few Anglers did not weigh in, but the large majority did catch or at least get a bite, and even Martin Wiggins, Andy Allday and Ian Blyth lost some good Chub. One of Ians snapped his 6lb line….

Superpool winners Charlie Green and second place Martin Wiggins were pleased with their days winnings and overall I think with warmer nights and days in the coming couple of weeks, a bit of rain perhaps and our last match on Sunday March 5th against Tring may well fish OK.  

    Thanks to all our anglers who enter and commit their time to fishing our little matches as they are friendly events with a lot of banter and I do love running them. Here are some of the anglers below after today with the winners holding the spoils.

                               Cheers and keep fishing as much as you can till the season ends

                                                              Dave.

Good afternoon members, I’ll start this report with the very sad news that the Club’s long standing President Mr. Ray Neil passed away peacefully last Monday in Stoke Mandeville Hospital following a short stay in care. Ray had been a staunch supporter and very active member of our Angling Club for as long as most can remember. If you look at the image of the old permit from 1976/77 it shows he was on the committee as the Honorary Treasurer and Secretary even back then. He was always going to the ODAA meetings, the River Thames Consultative meetings and the River Thame Conservation Trust meetings right up to the start of Covid when he obviously took a back seat due to the risk it posed to his wellbeing. Ray had lived in Nelson Street in Thame a long long time, he only ever listened to the radio, no TV for Ray, his life was a busy one, he didn’t even own one! I’m sure he will be very sadly missed by his family and friends and fellow Anglers. We will keep the members aware of the funeral arrangements as soon as we know more.                                                                                                      RIP Thame Angling Club President Ray Neil