Why have we made application for accreditation?
Club Mark is effectively a “Sport
Kite Mark” run by Sport England that sets the standard for all quality
Sports Clubs in England. By achieving Clubmark accreditation, we are
demonstrating that we are not only well run and managed but also that we
take seriously issues such as Child Protection, Health and Safety, Quality
Coaching and Equity.
Submitting our portfolio of evidence has meant that we have focused on our
existing policies and procedures. In some instances we have updated
our guidelines and formalised our development plan. It has been a lot
of work but very much worthwhile. For example we have updated our
Child Protection Policy and part of Event Risk Assessment. These
things become out of date and so as put our development plan we have set
down time targets to review our policies and procedures.
There are currently four Coarse Angling Clubs in England that have Club
Mark, we hope to be the 1st in East Anglia!
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Barnwell Lake Stocking
We have introduced 100 young farm bred Tench up to 1 lb into the lake.
The lake has a good stock of Tench and with evidence of successful breeding
and growing population. We have introduced the Tench to further boost
the species at the venue.
There are very few mixed Stillwater fisheries, we see Barnwell Lake as just
this sort of venue and with the introduction of the Bronze and Silver Bream
Barnwell offers an alternative to the usual Carp lakes.
Our season permits are now half-price until the end of the season and offer
fantastic value for money for anglers wishing to enjoy our fisheries for
winter fishing.
August 2006
The Club is still adjusting to the loss of two of its most senior
members Percy Anderson, Life-Vice President and Peter Dickinson
Vice-President and Fishery Manager at Block Fen.
John Pope, Will Temple and I have tried to carry on with the work Percy had
put in place regarding our Junior section. There are now though many
Government requirements in running Junior Sections and events, which makes
the administration of events far more time consuming. West’s are
continuing with the sponsorship of the junior events and long may this
association continue. Hopefully next season we will organise some open
days where we will introduce coaching sessions and demonstrations.
Such events do take some organising but are very worthwhile.
Our new water on the Ouse at Little Barford Power
Station has been producing specimen fish all season; we have published some
pictures of recent catches. In addition to the Carp, Tench and Bream,
regular Roach catches in to double figures have been had on seed baits.
Our two Fisheries Officers Andy and Graham are doing a brilliant job in
clearing swims and keeping the litter in check. I advised our
Landlords RWEnpower when we took on the water that it would take us a season
to get the venue sorted out. Well with Andy and Graham’s hard work the
fishery has been developed to great effect in our first season. All
that remains is a car park, which we really could do with, so fingers
crossed.
Another fishery benefiting from a recent appointment is Heritage Lake at
Cottenham. Martin Croxon will be looking after this venue for us in his
spare time. Martin is a former junior member and so it is nice to see
the return of someone who benefited from Percy’s Teach-ins. Roy who
already does work for us over on the lake is attempting to get rid of the
bags of rubbish, which have accumulated over the last few months. A
problem we have not got over at Barnwell as Gavin and Peter do a marvellous
job in keeping this venue tidy.
Our Bailiff on the Cam Jim is not a fisherman but his efforts in patrolling
the water have resulted in an increase in membership. It should
be remembered that every one of our Fishery Managers, Bailiffs and
volunteers and are unpaid.
On a final note a big thank you to Brian and Neil for the temporary repairs
to the bridge at Nethergrove.
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May 2006
The last couple of months have seen the very sad loss of two Senior
Officers of the Club, Percy Anderson and Peter Dickinson. Always
ready to help the Club they will be sorely missed. Both were great
friends of mine and to be honest losing them within a few weeks has been
very difficult.
A Peter Dickinson Memorial Charity Match is to be held over a Block Fen on
the 17th June 2006. The draw will take place at 9am, fish 10am – 4pm
and tickets will be on a first come, first serve basis. To book a
place please contact myself, Graham on Tel. 01223-234616. Monies
raised will go to a charity of Peter Dickinson’s widow’s choice.
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January 2006
As we enter the New Year I am hoping for some rain and more rain.
We desperately need to top up our lakes and in particular Nethergrove as
this shallow venue desperately needs a winter top up which it is yet to
receive. Sadly this year despite increasing our Bailiffing this
venue has suffered from some mindless vandalism. Broken locks, our
warning signs broken and litter have been a problem.
Unfortunately our regular Bailiff injured his back and has been unable
to visit the site as much, however I have been carrying on but I cannot
be there all of the time. It is so disappointing that a mindless
few spoil it for the majority. We will not be beaten though.
If you would like to help on this venue then please do give us a call.
Tel Graham 01223-234616.
My Thanks goes to Ian Darler sending me this picture of Graham
A cheesy smile and in dire need of the fashion police - cheers Ian.
How is your Club doing? Well quietly but surely we continue to
grow despite the ever-increasing competition for leisure time. We
have seen a definite upturn in anglers appreciating the natural
surroundings our venues offer.
This really is our market; we
simply cannot compete with the commercial venues as we have no full-time
staff or indeed a venue where we are on site 24 hours. Our rivers
are much cleaner than 20 years ago but this causes increased weed
growth, clearer water and so our approach to the venues has to be
different. I spoke recently to an angler who regularly catches
Tench over on the new St. Neots water feeding the fish mid-water and
presenting a large bait on a controller! Yes Tench up to 8 lb!
I now regularly come across anglers fly-fishing for Chub and Pike on the
Cam, something I have not seen before. I must have a go.
I am very encouraged by the help and advice we have received from Club
member Gary French. Gary has helped me put together a revised
template for Risk Assessments when we have working parties. In
addition we have up to 6 Guidance Notes on safe working covering aspects
of work we do on our fisheries. Anyone wishing to view our Risk
Assessments and Guidance Notes can do so by requesting copies. A
charge of £2.50 is necessary to cover photocopying and postage.
Very best wishes for the New Year
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July 2005
Just when you think that things
are on a downward turn something pops up to cheer your spirits. Well
that’s how it has been lately in regard to Club matters. Last
season was a difficult one for CFPAS Ltd, our sales were down for the
first time in a couple of years and this hit our profits. This
despite a huge amount of effort on the part of our Bailiffs and
Committee. This season we have taken on a number of new Bailiffs
and we are already reaping the rewards. There is nothing better
than reminding anglers on the bank that they need a Season or Day Permit
to fish our waters and certainly our Bailiffs have been active on all
our waters.
Another bonus has been that of attendances at our Club Matches.
Whilst they have not significantly increased we have so far this season
have five new attendee’s. Our matches are friendly affairs and so
we do really welcome any members to come along even if it is only for
the odd match or two. Our next official match is on the Old West
in September, so if you fancy a go please give me a call tel.
01223-234616.
Like most waters we do have our regulars and Heritage Lake is no
exception. Sports seems to have been good this year and I have
received a number of reports that the Tench have now reached the 12 oz
to 1 lb size which has meant a good growth rate since their
introduction. Brian Dominguez reported that he caught so many they
were a bit of a nuisance! He tells me that their colours were
absolutely lovely. They were very dark green. I must
get over to the lake for a fishing session sometime!
I am not always the best at asking for help but we do really need some
over at Nethergrove. The bramble bushes need trimming back and a
general tidy up is required. Please call me if you can spare some
time.
Please note the River Cam will be closed to angling for the Police
National to be held between the Penny Ferry Pub and Clayhithe on the
15th September 2005.
Please keep your reports of catches coming into us as it helps in
keeping our members informed.
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16th June 2005 - How Was It For
You?...
Brilliant! I had a little difficulty
getting up and missed my planned time on the banks of the Lode by about
half an hour, still 5am is a respectable early morning start. My
drive to the Cock-Up Bridge in Burwell did not take long at all, lovely
clear roads meant an easy trip except for startling fat pigeons who
seemed suicidal as they tried to waddle and then flap off the rod,
always just in time. The Fens have a certain beauty, you can see
for miles and miles As I travelled down the long road to the venue the
sky ahead of me looked idealic and threatening as to my right the sun
was just rising and gave off all sorts of colour in the sky, to my left
the sky was dark and moody looking with grey swirling clouds.
Just before the factory, I noticed a Ringway
Services road sign. “This road will be closed from the 14th June
until something something on the 17th June.” Now those of
you that know this fishery will know it is the only road in and out,
coming from the Percy Anderson school of xxxxxxx it! I carried on over
the bumpy scarified road.
I finally reached the bridge as I got out of my
car and therefore on slamming the car door witnessed the Lode behind me
erupt as fish hurtled off in all directions, including a mighty big
Carp. The Lode looked absolutely sock on. Fish were fizzing,
turning, doing triple somersaults, back flips, forward flips, it was
that good. “Right then lets get the gear out”. Anyone else
about no! fantastic! My friend and sometimes rival Mr. Darler told
me the swims to look for. Ignoring his advice I plonked myself
down about 8 swims from the bridge towards the factory. The colour
of the lode was a fishy grey with loads of fizzy bubbles. I had
forgotten how nervous excitement can get to you and all those memories
of a 16th June started to come flooding back. I took an age to
tackle up with my eyes not go good these days, it was a little tricky
putting the line through the rings of my rod. I kept
stopping just to take in the sight and sounds of my early morning fishy
experience. A Barn Owl then flew behind me in the field which had
been left fallow ready for it to be restored to a wetland environment
“Come on Tweedy, get fishing”! As much as I tried though I kept
getting interrupted by the wild environment I found myself in. Ok
I confess it was a little scary, especially as I looked across the Fen,
I saw a largish brown animal. It looked at me and I
looked at it, neither moved. I was probably 100 yards away but
looking down from the bank of the Lode. The Deer then started to
make this shrill loud sort of coughing sound. A bit like a dog
barking with a sore throat. It really was loud and seemed to carry
over a great distance across the Fen. About 5 minutes later after
this constant sound I heard a similar one in the distance and then a
short while later another Deer appeared and hopped to greet what I
assumed was its mate.
After all this I eventually got fishing at 6am
yes! One hour after arriving! Signs of fish everywhere; my
2AAA waggler with a heavy hook(size 12) tried sat motionless in the
water. The sweetcorn bait untouched. How can this be, I
thought! As all around me fish seemed to be feeding. Then 45
minutes into the session the red tipped float dipped slightly, popped up
then dipped again, then went under. It was not going to come up
again. Strike! I’m in, my first fish of the new season.
Thump, thump, thump, a good fish but not a Tench or Bream. A
minute or so later I netted a lovely Roach of around 12 oz.
A half hour later I had my next bite. I
had turned around to get some bait and as I looked to the water I saw
the line from my rod tip tighten. The float had already buried, I
struck and my hook held firm this was a good fish as it slowly moved
upstream. It only started to give an account for itself as I tried
to net it. A 4lb Bream in tip-top conditions was slipped into the
net. Soon to be followed by a 1½ lb hybrid which gave a
characteristic hard fight. Then a 3 lb Bream, another Roach and a
Perch.
I had a wonderful day, packing up at around
1.30pm not a huge catch – about 12 lbs. The wind was quite strong
and cold. A fleece and my winter jacket had to be worn. I
did spend a little time on the pole which accounted for a variety of
fish Roach, Rudd, Skimmer, Beam, Bleak, Perch and some lovely Dace.
All in all a fantastic day.
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June 2005
It was nice to see some new faces at our recent
Club Match on Barnwell Lake and also the welcome return of Preservation
stalwarts Maurice Mobbs and Dave Lindsay. A couple of our regulars
missed the match due to work and holiday commitments. So hopefully
on their return we will regularly over 20 anglers during the series of
10 matches. Our next match is on the 19th June on the Lode at the
Cock-Up Bridge. We have not fished this stretch of the Lode in a
match for several years now. The pegs we hope to take in are below
the bridge on the opposite bank from the car park area. This
section was always prolific for big Bream and Tench and so I fully
expect some elastic stretching in the match. I am not sure of the
abundance of small fish, I cannot imagine that silver fish are not
present, however I am due to give the Lode a go early morning on the
16th June so I hope to find out a bit more form my session. I am
likely to have the company of Mr. Darler who is somewhat of an expert on
this venue having fished and baliffed it for many years before moving to
Earith. Ian and Liam’s match rivalry is getting a little bit keen with
serous betting money being laid over the 10 matches series. Liam
drawing first blood over his father in our first match. I cannot
help but wonder that this rivalry is drawing their attention away from
the competition, which Liam won last year. Liam is certainly
getting plenty of practice in fishing commercials as well as traditional
waters. I do hope Liam continues to learn his trade on rivers, as
I believe this will put him in good stead when fishing commercial
venues, which require difficult skills and tactics but perhaps do not
give you the experience of the art of catching on a wild venue.
So June the 16th looms nearer and nearer.
Even though I can go fishing all year round I do get a buzz about the
16th and hope to see many of you on my bailiffing rounds. We are
intending to hit our rivers hard this season as basically every penny
counts and so we must make sure we encourage anglers to join or at least
pay for a Day Ticket. I have a number of new bailiffs helping this
year, so I hope to see an impact.
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June
2005
I have a big thank you to give to
Dave, Mitchell, Liam and Ian who gave up some time to clear 30 or so
swims ready for the start of the new river season over on the Burwell
Lode at the Cock-Up Bridge.
The Lode looked in fine
condition. There was some floating weed but nothing to really spoil a
days fishing.
20 or so years ago the Lode on the 16th would
have dozens of anglers lining it’s banks. I doubt there will be
more than a half-dozen this year. Changes in the fishing season,
the greater opportunity to fish highly stocked commercial waters has
meant that we are spoilt for choice. I am not on a nostalgic kick,
going on about the good old days. The bottom line is that we have
much more opportunity and if we want to go hauling then we have that
choice. On the other hand, because a venue such as the lode won’t
get hammered in the first week of the river season then we equally have
the choice of some really good sport on the edge of the Wicken Fen
without having someone 8 or so yards away from you.
So far from being disgruntled at the so called
demise of angling on our rivers I believe that they now offer us much
more and I have seen an upturn in activity on our rivers in
particular specimen hunter anglers targeting specific fish. If you
fancy having a go for the big Tench, Bream and Rudd then I thoroughly
recommend an early morning or evening session on the Lode. If you
are really keen then you might try baiting up a swim such is my
confidence you will see few other anglers.
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May
2005 - I Can’t Believe It
It is not too long to wait now
for the river season to open and once again we can go after those truly
wild fish in our rivers. Living in Cambridge, there is an
abundance of angling opportunity. I can go off after upper river
Chub, Dace and Roach using stick float tactics or venture into the Fens
and fish for Bream and Tench in the slow deep waters of the Great Ouse.
I very much enjoy the social element of angling and this is why I have
ventured back into club match fishing. However, I do like to have
the opportunity of escaping into the Fen on an early morning fishing
expedition. It is the unknown of it all, you know the nervous
anticipation as you drive to the venue; this may just be the day you get
your personal best Tench. I like all forms of angling but it is a
buzz I just don’t get from fishing heavily stocked commercial lakes.
£20 gets me my Season Permit an
absolute bargain. I am going to try this year for a personal best
Tench which should not be too hard to beat (4 lb) and also I am going to
target the big Perch over on the Lode.
See you soon.
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May
2005
We’re back! For the last couple of
months we have experienced a considerable amount of difficulties in the
maintenance of this site. We have been victims of our popularity.
Basically in trying to keep regular updates the wheels fell off!
The site has now been
reconstructed, with a huge amount of work being done by Alison.
The site has been stripped back to basics ready for further development
over the next few months, so watch this space.
Our AGM is to be held on the 10th May 2005 in the Harris Suite, Abbey
Stadium, Cambridge United Football Club 7.30pm for 7.45pm. All
members and their families are welcome, new membership books will be
sold on the night. A great deal of effort goes in to the
preparation for the evening; it is a chance to see how your Club is run
and to meet fellow anglers.
Our Club Matches Series was very popular last
season; I hope we get a few more anglers along. The overriding
objectives of these matches is that they are friendly affairs offering
an opportunity to meet up with angling colleagues with a little bit of
competition thrown in. So if you fancy a go please do give me a
call.
Editors Foot Note
I'm sure you'll join in with me to wish Club
President Graham Tweed a very Happy 50th Birthday on Saturday 7th from
all you Friends and Colleagues at CFPAS Ltd. A day that will
stay with Graham for all the wrong reasons has his beloved Cambridge
United (and for that matter my beloved also) bow gracefully out of the
football league.
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March
2005
Our new club books are now
available. The new season charges are unchanged from last season,
and make for excellent value, especially if purchased in March as you
then get 12 months fishing on our lakes.
Application forms for our permits can be accessed from our website.
We hope to take delivery of some Tench for Borrow Pit later in the
season. Probably around Christmas ready for the 2006/07 season. We
had intended for these fish to be introduced earlier, however problems
at the breeding facility has meant a delay in delivery of these young
fish.
Some good news on the bailiffing front, we welcome the help of long time
members, Dave Butler and Ian Claydon who have kindly offered their
services. This is an important role, none more so than the
promotion of CFPAS LTD.
Please note our Match Date changes. We have a busy programme next
year and hopefully we will have even greater participation from Club
Members. They are friendly affairs with a competitive edge and a
good way of meeting up with fellow anglers.
Finally I hope you find our reformatted website interesting as a great
deal of time and energy goes in to keeping it up to date, we always
welcome articles, funny stories and pictures of catches etc.
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January 2005
We are so popular that we end up
knackering the server! Well that’s a layman’s view of the recent
problems we have had with the server. Sorry about being offline so
to speak, but it really is apparently because this site is so popular.
Anyway, we are looking in to ways of this not happening again which
might mean we go all posh. No, don’t worry we don’t intend to lose
our independence and have loads of pop-ups that is not what we are about
but we will have to do something, as being without an up-to-date website
for some days has bee a major problem.
Thanks to Alison for all her hard
work in getting this back, I believe it took four and half hours on
Thursday night to republish the website back to our server hosted in
France – oh the phone bill!!
This Sunday the hardy club matchman venture on to the Lode at Upware for
a match. The request to run this event from the lads has come as
some of them only get a chance to go if it is a match, me included. The
rain over the last few days could well put a bit of colour in to the
Lode, which with a little flow may just get the bigger fish feeding.
I thought, just for a laugh, I might give some pre-match predictions, no
money involved you understand, so here are the ones I fancy – no, not
like that, - for winning the match.
Two anglers that will go far will be Mr. Turner and Mr Darler. Any
big Perch lurking will surely succumb to worm tactics maybe even a Tench
might show. 6/2 me thinks. Ian Claydon I reckon he
will go for the silver fish and if he gets his head down then will take
some beating, maybe a bit rusty on this venue but class will tell. 8/1.
Liam Darler, the young whippersnapper if he lays off the birds and booze
the night before, he may well has a good one. Always there or
thereabouts, a point to prove as his day whooped him last time at
11/1.
Mohan and Gareth – I hope these two turn up as they may have not
realised the match is on. Mohan knows this venue well; I take him
to just pip his colleague this time out, but can’t split the odds at
12/1.
I don’t think Brian Dominguez is fishing this time out, so considering
the others I know about – Trevor and Mick I reckon Trevor is due a big
match. Sorry Trevor kiss of death 12/1.
What about myself, well, all this week I have been pondering whether to
fish. A touch of man flu! I am not so good on the small fish
these days, so it is going to be a have a go situation which to be fair
paid off the last time I fished this venue – dark horse, but worth an
each way bet 16/1.
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Contact Information:
Club Address:
Club
President: Graham Tweed
Address:
27a Villa Road, Impington, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB24 9NZ
Telephone:
(01223) 234616 before 9pm
Membership:
Address:
39 St. Johns Close, Needingworth, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, PE27 4TT
Telephone:
(01480) 301694 before 9pm
Membership:
alirev@tiscali.co.uk
Webmaster:
alirev@tiscali.co.uk
