And so the debate begins.............where are we going to go?..........................when are we going to go? Whilst the SENPAC membership has a few of what could be called "traditional" pikers who enjoy nothing more than getting away from everybody and everything for a days fishing on a favourite water, we are also lucky enough to have members who enjoy the shared experience and so we have a well supported series of monthly club trips with some silverware (silverish?) on offer for the more successful amongst our number just to add a little "edge" to proceedings with some, usually, friendly competition. So the last club meeting and the subsequent Newsletter was all about the anticipation of things to come.
We start with, a long list of waters suggested by the members from which we select, by totally democratic means, the six venues that will comprise our season's club trips, hopefully achieving an equitable selection that offers something to all those members who are likely to attend the outings and at the same time providing the opportunity to involve as many members as possible. Of slightly more difficulty is choosing the dates for the trips to suit as many diaries as possible and the only way we have managed to achieve that, in the past, is to publish a list of proposed dates and then invite comments? It usually works..................eventually! Of particular interest this year was the variety of waters that made up the long-list of twelve. Some of the old favourites obviously but there are four new waters suggested including three rivers which I have to say we have been guilty of ignoring in the past as far as our club trips are concerned. As usual we will be doing a fair amount of travelling regardless of which the final six waters are, but that is a piking way of life up here in the north-east so we are used to it. Of the long-listed venues we will be heading either north or south, five waters in Scotland or very nearly Scotland and the remainder in Yorkshire or a little bit beyond which means that our, usually effective car sharing arrangements, will once again be put to the test. Always an exciting time of year this, as I said, full of anticipation, especially when you add to the mix our annual trip to the Lakes which is now booked as well as mention of possibilities like the Lake of Menteith and others.
Of the July fishing, well the usual mixed bag of reports from our members who are off chasing all manner of quarry. The stand-out angler for the month though was undoubtedly Steve Sandiford who has been fishing early morning short sessions on one of the local rivers and has been enjoying impressive success.
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| Steve's Salmon |
A bit of an all-rounder our Steve, a new pb salmon of 17lb-8oz was definitely the high point but his other results include good trout, grayling,chub, and not one but two 4lb eels. The only thing missing is a barbel but he is working on it as far as I can understand. The damp Summer obviously of some benefit to those of us who have an interest in water of the running kind.
July also saw the fishing of our first two Summer League matches which were, I think, a little disappointing in terms of the fish caught. Our joint RO, Bruce Turnbull, has a slender lead in the competition at the mid-way
point with everything to play for over the remaining rounds when a few more fish than we have see thus far would be welcomed by all concerned!
As for August, well more of the same as far as SENPAC is concerned I expect, hopefully we will resolve the discussion on our club trip venues and of course we will decide the winner of the Summer League. The August club meeting will be held on Tuesday 25th August 2015 at the Northumbrian Piper. If you want to join us for a chat then please do, you will be very welcome.
