BODSA Blog

All members please take note. We have a very unhappy farmer at Old Lower Hall. A gate has been left open this week. This has let cattle into fields they shouldn't be in and the farmer has had to spend valuable time separating the two herds that got mixed up. Not an easy job! Luckily they didn't get into crop fields too.

This was not necessarily one of our members, but it may have been

Please take extra care to shut gates properly once you are through them.

We need to keep our landlords happy or we risk losing our waters.

Hi All,

We are planning a beat walk for new members and old on June the 1st. Meeting at the old bridge in Bangor on Dee at 9.45am and head off at 10 o'clock. The plan is to show you Old Lower Hall and Chicken Sheds. It will probably take a little longer than you think so please bring something to drink and a snack.

If you wish to attend, please let us know via this thread or from the "Contact us" link on the website.

Hopefully another beat walk will be happening for the Village Beat soon so keep an eye out if you are interested.

Regards,

Matt.

River Manager.

Hi All, 

We are planning a beat walk for new members and old on June the 1st. Meeting at the old bridge in Bangor on Dee at 9.45am and head off at 10 o'clock. The plan is to show you Old Lower Hall and Chicken Sheds. It will probably take a little longer than you think so please bring something to drink and a snack.

If you wish to attend, please let us know via this thread or from the "Contact us" link on the website. 

Hopefully another beat walk will be happening for the Village Beat soon so keep an eye out if you are interested.

Regards,

Matt.

River Manager.

Hi All,
 
We are planning to set up some beat walks for new members and old, to have a tour of some of our waters. To show members where the parking is, where the access points are and give an insight of the fishing available.

Would any of the established members be willing to give a hand and share their knowledge of the beats they fish? The committee can not cover all our waters so we are asking for your help. If you are available please let us know via the contact us link on the website or on the forum post.

I will run one, to be held on Saturday the 4th of May and will cover Dones to Sutton green and most of the carpark points. Would any of the members be able to cover Old Lower Hall/chicken sheds, Pickhill and the Village beat. I don't have great knowledge of these bits as I rarely fish them. A committee member will be on hand to do the organising, it's your knowledge we need.
 
Regards.
 
Matt Klimaszewski.
River manager.

What a difference a day makes!

Yesterday our beautiful river was looking really good and at a perfect level for fly fishing. It is now rising again but I hope it will not be too much. The Spring tides are over the top of Chester weir so that salmon thinking of running the Dee can not only simply swim upstream over the weir but can also smell the fresh water coming downstream, which will encourage them further.

All in all, as soon as the river settles down after this present rain, there should be a lot of salmon and sea trout around. So don't just sit at home wondering whether to go fishing, get stuck in and have a go. And, as always, please tell us how you get on. News of fish encourages others to go fishing and that's what "club" means. We're all in it together.

On which note, please be aware that the ground is very wet and very slippery so that access anywhere off the stoned tracks is extremely dodgy unless you are driving a 4x4. And it can be tricky even then unless you have the right tyres. There are grass car parks at, as far as I remember,  Groves Farm, Pickhill, Rodens Hall, Chicken Sheds and Old Lower Hall, so please be careful because I don't want to have to come down to pull you out! Park on the stoned areas but please leave room for farm vehicles to pass.

With the new salmon season only days old, the river is now at the perfect level for fly fishing. And it is running clear - but not too clear!

I was down at Erbistock weir this morning and the river is looking really good. Bit cold still, for us old fellows, with a chilly breeze blowing across water that isn't very warm either, but I'm looking forward to warmer weather as we head towards the Vernal (Spring) Equinox and the clocks going forward to give us lighter evenings.

The word is that NRW are going to remove Erbistock weir and one source thinks they may start this month. It will inevitably make some change to the river immediately below the weir but shouldn't affect Bangor on Dee at all, nor Groves Farm, half a mile upstream. But it will remove one obstacle to running fish and perhaps make it more difficult for those dodgy characters who take fish as they use the salmon ladder on the right bank.

Has anyone been fishing yet?

This is a further reminder that membership renewals will close at the end of this month (29th February 2024). After that date, 2023 members will have to pay a joining fee of £10.00 if they want to renew for 2024. Active membership is also required to attend the AGM at Bangor on Dee Village Hall on 1st March 2024.

We have received some requests, from a minority of 2024 members, to pay for their memberships by cheque. This is permitted but only where members have a legitimate reason why they cannot pay online using a bank card. Clubmate is compulsory for all members for data protection reasons. If you do not want to use Clubmate, you will sadly lose your membership.

For those members who have legitimate reasons why they are unable to use the internet and a bank card to pay their subscriptions, they can send their cheques to:

BODSA Treasurer, 19 Stalbridge Drive, Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 1LY.

Our membership fees are available to view on our website.

Finally, Committee Members have received emails from a small number of members seeking to cause trouble. Emails of this nature are harmful to the Club and will be ignored.

2 Important Reminders

Firstly, don't forget to renew your membership by February 29th. After that date your 2023 membership is no longer valid and you will have to pay the £10 joining fee in addition to the normal subscription.

Secondly, the AGM will take place on Friday 1st March in the Village Hall, next door to St Dunawd's Church, Bangor on Dee. Doors will open at 6.30 for a 7pm start.

A complimentary buffet will be provided. We hope as many members as possible will make the effort to attend.

We have been informed that some members are uncertain how to renew their membership for 2024. Detailed instructions were sent out by email in December and were also posted as a website blog. You can find them by clicking on "read more" at the end of this blog and then scrolling down to view the original blog instructions. 

Having been down to Newbridge yesterday I meant to write about how great the river was looking and suggest that a bit of Grayling fishing might be fun. But that was yesterday and this morning the river is rising rapidly. Again!

I don't know what effect Storm Isha might have, if and when it gets to this part of the Country, but the weatherman yesterday was forecasting winds up to 85 mph. If we convert that to the correct speed in knots (nautical miles per hour) it is about 75 knots, which is beyond Hurricane force. (Is it just me getting old and deaf, or do a lot of today's weathermen sound a bit like Larry Grayson?)

I have been at sea in such conditions and remember particularly one occasion off Cape St Francis in South Africa, when the wind speed actually reached 100 mph, or 88 knots. I have a cine film somewhere of the waves breaking over the ship's foremast, which was 70 feet tall and about quarter of a mile for'ard of my position on the bridge. The water was still 12 feet high when it slammed into the bridge front bulkhead below me and had swept everything from the decks except the windlass and the anchors.  The inflatable life rafts were all gone.  The sea can be very impressive.

So the old saying about worse things happening at sea, is sometimes right!

In the meantime, we can only dream of balmy Spring days with salmon and sea trout running upstream and trout rising to an early hatch of sedge or hawthorn flies, or whatever. (As you can see, I'm no expert on the river's fly life!)

Stay safe, my friends, and keep smiling.

10th January in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Four. I really can't get my head round some of the new acronyms they use for dates. I've always found AD and BC covers the subject pretty well but the great minds from wherever seem to have introduced BCE and CE. No idea what they mean and I'm old enough and cranky enough not to give a damn.

Sorry, that's got nothing to do with fishing, has it!

Anyway, our beautiful river has been in a bad mod ever since I rejoined the Club but is now, fingers crossed, looking as though it might be coming back into condition. The level has been falling steadily for a few days and is now, at 1030 on Wednesday morning, about 18" above normal. A fall of another six or eight inches will make it absolutely perfect. I'm sure it will be running clear but will have a look at it on my way into town, just to be sure.

The Welsh Dee is one of the best Grayling rivers in Europe so there's no need to sit at home waiting for Spring. The Lady of the Stream will happily take a fly in conditions when we humans are wearing two jackets, a scarf and three pairs of gloves! And  perhaps even, God preserve us, a bobble hat! So once you've plucked up the courage and filled your flask with a good hot drink, perhaps with a wee stiffener in it, there's a lot of fun to be had. Grayling of 3lbs are not uncommon in the Dee and there's always a chance of something even bigger. If only!

For our coarse fishermen, I get the impression that the river has much more to offer than we usually hear about. I have seen Pike of 25lbs and I remember one member, years ago, saying that he caught a 20-pounder down by the Graig and it was followed to the net by a much bigger one!

And don't forget the Chub! 7-pounders are not unknown and I feel sure that one day, someone will catch an 8-pounder. When you do, please don't forget to tell us! You can keep the precise spot secret, if you wish, but news of fish encourages us all to go fishing.

Do please let us know how you get on and I can talk about it on here where everyone can see it without even having to log on. A bit of good news encourages others to go fishing which, in turn, means more fish being caught. You can post in the Forum on the website or, if it's easier, and if the Committee don't mind, email me direct at saltyoldseadog@hotmail.co.uk.

As Confucius said, "Time spent fishing is not subtracted from your lifespan."

Happy days!

George

Happy New Year, everyone.

George here, signing in again after an absence following the loss of my beloved wife, Julia four and a half years ago.

Ever since I rejoined and offered my services to help with bank maintenance, the river has been three Imperial Feet above normal and today, as I write, it is nearly four and a half feet up.

We tend to think the river is unfishable in these conditions but the fish are still there, if you can find them. Probably not with a fly rod, though! I'm sure there will be readers who can remember fishing flooded rivers with worm or maggot on the bottom of a quiet back eddy. These eddies were usually in the places where cattle went down to drink but they are stopping cattle going into rivers now. Apparently, after a million years, they have begun to pollute the water! More than the 18,000 sewage plants which are licensed to dump untreated sewage into our water courses? And more than the artificial fertilizers washing in from the fields during this constant rain? Don't you just love science!

But down here in the real world, I am reminded of Hugh Falkus tale of a guest who went down to a back eddy of the flooded river Eden to try for a trout for his tea. He hooked an 18lbs salmon which took for ever to land on trout tackle and in a flooded river. But he still had no trout, so cast again and hooked another 18-pounder!  Just a thought!

Stay warm and dry,

George