Minutes of BAC Committee Meeting Saturday 16th October2021 Apologies. Nil.
Present:David Sellers, Paul Summerlin, Jim Braithwaite, Iain Morrison, Charlie Simpson, Neil Mackenzie, Yorky Brocklehurst,
Approval of Minutes and AGM. Prop, Paul Summerlin Sec, Charlie Simpson
The AGM for the Season of 2021 will be the first week in December on Friday the 3rd December. Dave Sellers to book the Lovat Arms for the Back room at 7.30pm.
Matters not on Agenda.The committee members who worked on the Clubs river Beats at the BHP said that we could do this next season too .as the owner seemed to agree with the club about them doing the bank work.
Beauly River Board ! Jim’s Report to the Committee. Jim Braithwaite gave the committee a full and frank report and started by saying how busy Ali Skinner the new Bailiff has been since started this season. He has made over 56 visits to the BAC beats and into the estuary. 400 patrols for the season, several people caught fishing without a permit, some fishing with a net Police called out to arrest some! He also works along with the scientists who are working with Himalayan  Balsam and Japanese Knot weed.  They are using the Corfe House as an office and car park. Jim told us that the dams are now using the Bolam lifts 3 times per day and are hoping to start using it 1 lift per night.
Pink Salmon, a few have been caught in the beats above Lovat Bridge. The temperature of the water in the river has been too hot for the fish this season and several fish have been found dead or very nearly so by the waters edge with no marks on them, presumably have been over come by the lack of oxygen in the river!! The highest temperature was taken as 22 degrees in July.
Young People Fishing Days.   Yorky was thanked by the committee for his work with the Junior Members fishing at the Orrin Fishery on many Sundays. He said that he was presented with a couple of bottles of Scotch by the parents as thanks!! Yorky has done a lot of work clearing the slimy weed that became rather thick during the “Lockdown” when fishing was not allowed there. The 2 young girls that had become intermediate members this season who were given the chance to fish a prime beats on the river Conon with some other young ones from several clubs on the 24th August were mentioned in this months Trout and Salmon .
Returns By 31st October.  
AOB
Tight Lines.
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Minutes of BAC Committee Meeting Monday 23rd August 2021
Apologies Yorky Brocklehurst, Charlie Simpson.
Present Wendy Harpe, Dave Sellers Paul Summerlin, Jim Braithwaite, Iain Morrison, Neil Mackenzie. Approval of minutes & AGM Prop Jim Braithwaite Sec Wendy Harpe. The AGM for the 2021 Season will be the First week in December on Friday 3rd December.
Matters not on the Agenda. Wendy to write to SSE about when will they be getting rid of the Dams that are “out of date and the Counters have not been working correctly for more than 20 years “ Increased Levy and Benefits, The new water bailiff Ali Skinner is an improvement and has caught Poachers and people fishing without a Permit but we are already paying too much for what we get. Jim Braithwaite to try to find out exactly what we get for our money at the next River Board meeting.
Bills we pay to Bidwells. Wendy has told them that the club won’t pay any invoices unless we have a receipt from our last payment. This is a sad state of affairs but it seems the only way we can get them to provide receipts and hence the only way we can audit our accounts. She suggested that the Club continues this policy.
Competitions. The Seniors Competition was at Tarvie on an awful evening weather wise and not many fish caught either!! Jim Braithwaite caught one of the few fish and that turned out to be the heaviest. We need to rethink where we hold the next  Competition because the previous one at Meig was no better!
Young People Fishing Days.
1. Number of Fishing days 2021 8 to date.      One more to do.
2. Number of individual kids who have attended 28.
3. Total Number of attendances 82
4.Costs to Date. £1025. Next year will probably in the region of £1500.
5. Finding somebody to do Face Book. Hopefully Wendy will be getting someone to take over from with Paul Summerlin to do this.
6.Yorky Brocklehurst thinks that the club could possibly get more than 30 Junior members next year.
7.The 2 Intermediate members Julia and Liam Leslie are to be given the chance to fish the River Conon Private beats with the head Ghillie John Macaskill on Tuesday 24th of August.  John Brocklehurst and their parents will accompany them.         

Committee- Officers and Membership. As previously said Wendy will be standing down at the AGM due to ill health. The Committee need to be looking for a new Chair. Also maybe another couple of members need to be brought into the committee. The membership seems to be doing quite well, there is over 30 juniors, approx. half are over 11 years old. We have approx. 84 seniors/senior citizens. John Szarkiewicz says that he is prepared to look after the Membership in 2022. Wendy said she would Chair the AGM which hopefully we will have at the Lovat Arms on the Friday 3rd December.
AOB The latest catch returns are 3 grilse which were all caught on the top 3 beats, the river is pretty low when the tide is out but we are not getting too much being sent down from the Hydro Dams as it has been pretty dry this year and we cannot grumble about “Too much water in the BAC beats“ Tight lines. Dave Sellers
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Minutes of BAC Committee Meeting Monday 17th May 2021

Apologies Nil

Present Wendy Harpe, Dave Sellers, Paul Summerlin, Jim Braithwaite, Charlie Simpson, Iain Morrison, John Brocklehurst, Neil Mackenzie.

Approval of minutes & AGM The AGM for the 2021 Season will be the First week in December on Friday 3rd December.

Matters not on the Agenda  The Committee welcomed Iain Morrison and Charlie Simpson as new Committee Members.
Membership as at May 2021 Note: Seniors there are about 12 members that have not re-joined the Club. Dave should send out an email to these telling them that we are still keeping the Permit price down at £70 and attach a renewal form for this year so.

The Downie Fishings Catch Returns, some Members did not put in their catch return however these have all been contacted and we now have the returns. We do not as yet have a receipt for the payment Wendy said that the state of the road was shocking and that Bidwells did nothing about the potholes. Also, they failed to put the water on for using the toilet in the Fishing Hut.

Competitions. The Seniors Competition will be at Tarvie on a Thursday evening. Neil is looking into a date for this event. Once we have a date then Dave will notify Club members. Inter-Club Competition is at Watten this Saturday 23rd, all boats are booked.

Young People Fishing Days. Yorky will be checking with the owners of Orrin Fishery and speaking to Karl Brocklehurst then letting Wendy know when the young people can go fishing there. All the trees and bushes have been cut back. The weed in the pond still needs to be cut. Once the site is ready, Yorky will set a date for the first event and start contacting the families. Currently the weather is still a bit cold and windy for the young ones but hopefully this will change in the near future.

Face book. This is probably best done by a young member who use Face Book on a regular basis. Julia or Liam Leslie are possibilities. Paul Summerlin to speak to them to see if they would be happy to run the page for the Club, at the next Junior Fishing event. If so, this will provide us with another place to publicise the Club, encourage membership, sell tickets and so on.

Fisheries Board Jim Braithwaite went to the latest Fisheries Board meeting. The Board would like SSE to provide more lifts for the Smolts so increasing the current 2 to 3. The Bird Count had a turn-out of 3 Club members which was down on previous years. Ruth, the biologist, is mapping Himalayan Balsam and would like help from local volunteers.
Further information from Jim Braithwaite: Jim was asked by Yorky if the BAC committee could be given a copy of the minutes so that we could discuss them. Jim said that the Board was thinking of putting its minutes on their website, so we could down load them and circulate to Committee members, The new bailiff, Ali Skinner, is very keen and Jim thinks that he will make a big difference as he gets more familiar with the River and the Board.

AOB
1). The Old Bench at beat 2. Ian Morrison and Charlie Simpson asked the owner of BHP, Alan Hogan, if they could take away the “Old Bench” at beat 2 and replace it with a new bench. He agreed that they could, so we now have a new bench at Beat 2. The old Bench has been transported to the “Bridge Car Park” to be used by the members for sitting down to change their waders etc. Alan Hogan also agreed to having the footpath from near the Lovat Bridge beat to the bottom of beat 2 strimmed, etc. So well done Charlie and Iain.
2). Wendy told the meeting that she will not be able to continue to be the Chair or do the membership due to poor health. John Szarkiewicz has agreed to do the membership. But by the AGM a new Chair would have to be appointed. In the meantime Wendy will continues as Chair, though she will be away in June. The Committee will cover for her while she is away and one or two have volunteered to assist Yorky and Karl with the Young members fishing days at Orrin fishery.

Meeting Closed (next meeting’s date is To Be Advised)