BODSA Blog

A  message from our Chairman,  Keith Evans.

Dear members, it is with sad regret that I have to report the passing of one of my dearest friends and most respected club member, Davy Spoor. Davy was a member of BODSAA for many decades, a guy whose friendship and respect extended beyond the bounds of Bangor-on-Dee.  Davy was the name that everyone remembered, even those meeting him for the first time and who was always ready to share information. Our thoughts and deepest condolences go to Margaret, Stephen and family. A sad loss indeed. R.I.P. Davy.  From all at BODSAA.

Many thanks to Steve Murphy who joined some of the Committee to carry out more bank clearance at Pickhill. Thanks also to Matt, our River Manager, who has already done a huge amount of clearance single-handedly on that beat. We hope to see more volunteers in future.

We are holding a work party on Saturday 29th July. Please see the recent Forum post from Matt Klimaszewski for full details. We hope as many members as possible will attend as there is a huge amount of bank clearance to be done. If you are able to attend it would be helpful if you could confirm by adding a comment under Matt's Forum post. Please note that all members who have not yet done so must complete our Volunteer  Agreement before attending. We also suggest that you read our Health & Safety Policy. 

For our Volunteer Agreement  CLICK HERE

For our Health & Safety Policy CLICK HERE.

Sincere thanks to Keith Evans and Matt Klimaszewski for giving up their Sunday mornings on 2nd and 9th July, respectively, to conduct beat familiarisation walks. We hope those members who participated found them informative and enjoyable. 

We have arranged 2 beat walks for early July. Our Chairman,  Keith Evans,  will lead one on Sunday 2nd covering the Village Beat, Ormrods and down to Pickhill. Our River Manager, Matt Klimaszewski, will lead another on Sunday 9th working upstream from Old Lower Hall to Pickhill (weather and stamina permitting). Meeting point for both will be the Royal Oak car park, meeting at 9.45am for a 10.00 start. If you wish to join either or both walks please add your name to the relevant thread in the members forum under "Club Events and Working Parties".

Ben Disch has now relinquished the role of Membership Secretary in readiness for a move abroad with his family. We want to express our sincere gratitude for all the work he has done during his long stint in the job and particularly for steering us through the difficult process of implementing the Clubmate system at the end of last year. We wish Ben and his family all the very best for their new adventure.  Bon voyage Ben!

On behalf of our River Manager, Matt Klimaszewski, we would like to thank Mark Blythen for his help yesterday laying the concrete plinth for Stan Adams' memorial bench in Bangor. His skills and work were very much appreciated. The job wouldn't have looked anywhere near as professional without his help.

We are installing a concrete base for a memorial bench for a much respected club member, Stan Adams. This will be placed by the memorial in Bangor on Dee, opposite the Oak pub. We need a couple of volunteers to help for just a couple of hours on Saturday 29th April, meeting at 10.00 am. If you are able to come, please let us know via the "Contact us " link on our website. Any members wishing to join this or other future work parties, must first complete the Volunteer Agreement on our website; https://www.bodsaa.org.uk/work-party-volunteer-agreement

A message from our River Manager, Matt Klimaszewski:
Hi All, I'd like to thank Dave Timmins for his help on last Saturday's work party repairing the Pickhill track. His top quality raking and sense of humour made short work of the job. The big dip just before the car park Is now filled in, as are the smaller ones in the field. We can now get to the parking without risking our sumps again! The end of the road is still ropey, but passable with care in a normal car. I've informed the council about this but not had a response yet. I'm sure that if any other members complain, the council may look into it sooner.
Thanks again Dave.

A work party has been arranged for 25th March to fix the dip in the track near the Pickhill carpark. Matt Klimaszewski, our River Manager,  needs just one volunteer plus himself,  as most of the work will be done by the farmer with his tractor. It should just involve raking and shovelling and shouldn't take long, so it might be worth bringing your fishing gear for afterwards. Meeting point will be the old bridge in Bangor at 10.45. You can car share with Matt if necessary. Bring your favourite shovel or rake if you have one, but Matt will have spares. If you are interested just use the "Contact us" link on the home page. Please note, as with all future work parties, you must first complete our Work Party Volunteer Agreement.

Minutes of the 2023 AGM are now available on the Members Forum

Thank you to all those members who attended the AGM last night (3rd  March). We hope you found it worthwhile. The minutes will be published in the next few days.

Until then, a couple of points that came up during the meeting are worth sharing now:

Fish Legal are asking all anglers to sign an on-line parliamentary petition to prevent a change in the law that could allow the water companies to fail to publish their discharge data. It only takes a few moments to complete: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/633609

With Covid lockdowns behind us we hope to commence work parties this spring and would welcome more volunteers. If you are willing to help, please complete the Volunteer Agreement on our website. The link is http://bodsaa.org.uk/work-party-volunteer-agreement . You may also want to read our Health-and-Safety Policy at http://bodsaa.org.uk\health-and-safety-policy