2020 has not been a good year, particularly for raising money for Charity, but Stoke AA set a hard target for its charity, The Macmillan Unit at Yeovil District Hospital, of £1000. 00. Last Sunday’s charity match on Stoke Pond raised £190.00 on the day bringing the Grand Total to £1,006.00.

This has been a wonderful effort for all concerned but I would like outline some key factors that made all this possible;

bulk of the money came from all those members that fished our charity matches turning out on sometimes difficult days to fish. Under normal circumstances to fish a lake would require a considerable sum to pay by way of pegging fees. Not so the case for Stoke Pond however as through the kindness of Rob Hebditch and family we were given free access to the pond at any time we wished to hold a charity match. So first and foremost we must wholeheartedly thank the Hebditch Family for their kindness thankyou Rob and Harry.

Secondly a big thankyou also goes to the members of Stoke AA who fished the matches sometimes going beyond the call of duty to raise extra money. Our thanks also go out to the following contributors;

Steve Chant, PR Floats South West and friends for holding a charity match at Covey Fisheries.

Adam Chamberlain and HMS Heron AC for allowing a charity match on their private lake waiving a pegging fee in favour of the charity – thanks Adam.

Andy Downton who ran an Open Match on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain which raised a welcome sum for the charity – thanks mate.

Private members’ (keep the change) donations – thankyou Chris Norton and Andrew Phillip to name but a couple (sorry if I’ve missed anyone out).

Private members’ pledges in lieu of not being able to fish during covid 19 lockdown 2 – thanks Harry and Chris.

Private member’s pledge who couldn’t make the last match – thanks Andy Burns.

There may be others who I have failed to mention for which I apologise but you can all pat yourselves on the back knowing that you have contributed to a great cause. Harry Hebditch and I will be making the presentation to the YDH Charity in the New Year.

Thanks again,

Tightlines and a Happy and safe New Year.

Hello to all members of the club we would just like to fill you in on what has been going on over the last few months with the club.

We finished the year of with our fantastic Christmas fayre and trophy presentation, it was good to have a great turn out for this and with our final push we raised £1.000 for our charity. Well done to all who helped with this and very well done to Chris White for running his raffle throughout the year. Also well done to all our winners for trophies over the year full list in new club licence.

We have run a winter league from January until March this has gone down well with our hard core anglers and with some great fishing. We set out to try new areas of our river and try some new waters for our winter matches. We fished Muchelney, Up-stream Parrett works, River Yeo at Longload and Covey fishery. Well done to our winner of the winter league Chris White. Thank you all who supported the Winter League.

The club has started to make progress with getting juniors into fishing. A few members went along to Ilchester scouts group to show the scouts some parts of fishing terminal tackle, bait demonstrations, fish species and habitats and how to put a rod together. This was a great evening and lots of fun was had let us hope we can build on this.

The club has been working hard behind the scenes to get more water for the club. We have managed to get a great agreement with Covey Fishery. Anyone holding an up to date Stoke-Sub-Hamdon club Licence will receive a days fishing on Match Lake ONLY for just £5 a day. When you produce your licence to the bailiff. This can all be seen in our new club card this year.

We have also made an agreement with Yeovil and Sherbourne Angling Club to Share the river and Witcombe bottom main drain at Longload. All areas available to fish are in our new club card (MAPS PROVIDED). Also can be seen from our Website.

We have also been in talks with getting hold of more river at Mudford this is the river Yeo again and with work been done by the committee we are sure that this will be more water for the future. As it stands at the moment we are working with the farmers to agree access points parking and the water we can use, so please keep your eyes peeled for updates on our Facebook page.

To finish off we are about to start our new match calendar for the year where everything is reset and its all to fish for again. Anyone who holds a current club card can fish our club matches so why not give it a go and come have some fun with the boys and girls on a match. Can anyone take the Rose Bowl from James White? Is there anyone who can compete for the Club Championship and beat Chris White? Or what about the rivers can anyone get on top of Clifford Gaylard and win the Memorial Shield.

Tight Lines The Committee.