Beauly Angling Club A.G.M. 30th November 2023
Iain opened the meeting at 7.40pm (20 attending in total).
1:Apologies: Albert Sutherland, Richard Sawicki, Frank Durdle and Mark Jamieson.
2:Reading and Approval of AGM Minutes
from 2023:
3: Accounts: –The spreadsheet was handed out to the participants of the AGM. It was noted that £8959 came into the club with £7480 being spent. Although the clubs bank balance is sitting fairly healthy at the moment costs are increasing with the likes of insurance and the cost of the fishing from Lovat estates. The donations, junior donation and raffles held this year have generated £4500 for the club and we will look to hold some again in the coming season.
4: Report from The Chair:
Day Tickets. Both river tickets and firth ticket sales have gone up this year mostly due to the great work Grahams in Inverness have done in selling them this year. We will look to continue the arrangement with them next year.
Membership 2024
Senior Citizens – 26 this year a loss of 6 from last year.
Senior Members – 18 – (29 last year) which is a serious drop.
Juniors (30) much the same as last year.
Intermediate members – none again this year.
Associate members- none (none).
Fish Caught 2023:
Salmon and Grilse – 2
Sea Trout – 4 Finnock – 44
Iain thanked everyone for attending with a remarked improvement on the attendance from last year. (20) attended this year.
Iain spoke about how the high water from May through to September affected our fishing on the club water this year. There were lots of fish about with Gordon the head ghillie of the lower Beauly stating it was the most salmon he has seen on the river since starting as ghillie here. When the water levels were settled for a week in July the two salmon were caught. Iain is hoping not to be plagued by high water again through 2025. Iain stated several times that the club is in trouble with regards to the number of members returning. The high water has contributed to this. Wendy suggested having meetings with SSEN and to keep challenging them along with getting local MP’s and Councillors involved to help to build a case for them not releasing lots of water throughout the season. Iain raised the motion to remove the 5 year rule for senior citizens which would make the senior citizen membership £50 instead of the £70 until you have been in the club for 5 years. This motion was passed unanimously by everyone at the meeting as well as removing the £20 joining fee for new members to encourage others to join the club. The club made a slight loss on the Downie syndicate this year due to the fact that only 17 out of the 30 rods were taken up. The club will be running the syndicate again in 2025 and Iain urges members to use it or we might not take it up again in future years.
Iain stated again the issues the club has been having with being able to clear the banks at the caravan side due to the park owner not allowing the club to come along and carry out the necessary works. This is a worry for potential members or day tickets as the grass and ferns were getting very large by the end of the season which has the potential to be a hazard for anglers. Iain stated that the club is the cheapest in the area so we need to encourage members to the club to help keep it this way he was open to any suggestions that would help the club grow again.
The opening day will be on the 15th of February at the Downie hut which Gordon has kindly said we can use for both the opening day and throughout the first seven weeks of the season when we have our syndicate there. We will be running a raffle again and are welcoming any donations. Tickets will be sold at £1 a ticket.
Iain wants members to join who have a passion for angling and will help to improve the club. The club members only fished a collective 61 days on the river this year which along with the high water equates to less fish caught.
Seals have been spotted in the lift at the dam this year which is a real concern here’s hoping the ghillies can get a licence for them soon.
Jim Braithwaite suggested holding a ladies day on the river to encourage ladies to try fishing and hopefully become members of the club.
There was talk of possibly putting an advert in the trout and salmon for the club to help to grow membership.
What with the high water and also high voltage buried cables SSEN have got a lot of questions to answer. Iain suggested getting some tools/machines to check what electric field was coming off of the buried cables as the salmon don’t seem to be lying where the cables are now whereas they did before.
Iain has spoken to Mark at loch Achilty with the hope of running a competition there again but sadly he doesn’t want any competitions at all on the loch.
Returns 2024
Most of the returns were received this year with only 5 seniors not putting their returns back in and will be due a £10 fine on renewing their membership.
5:Competitions and Prizes: 2 Salmon were caught this year with Toby Hardwick with the biggest at 7lb 8oz who will receive the Matheson Cup
The Tommy Mightens Cup for heaviest Sea Trout will be awarded to Iain Morrison – 2lb 8oz.
The Senior Shield went to Iain Morrison with the largest fish at Achnagour 1 ¾lb.
The Junior Shield was awarded to Melanie Hardwick with a fish of 1lb 8oz.
6:Election of Office Bearers:
Iain Morrison was voted back in as Chairman – proposed Paul Summerlin, sec. Ewen Robertson.
Toby Hardwick was voted back as Secretary, prop. Paul Summerlin, sec .Jim Braithwaite.
Treasurer for digital banking Paul Summerlin with Yorky Brocklehurst as executive treasurer – prop. Iain Morrison, sec. Charlie Simpson.
All other members of the committee were voted back in to their previous roles for the Club.
7:Proposals for revised rules and constitution: The Junior Rules will be added into the main fishing booklet after the main rules section. The returns sheet will be added to the middle of the booklet with a push towards returns being submitted online.
The prices are remaining the same for the 2025 season.
£20 joining fee is now removed as is the 5 year rule for senior citizens.
Firth and river tickets remaining the same price.
Juniors will now have the option or filing a return for the year only from the river.
8: Members Proposals: Iain asked members to encourage juniors to use switch rods with the view to holding junior days on the river. We have several qualified casting instructors in the club along with other members who could show juniors how to fish in a river along with the associated dangers. There seems to be lots of juniors in the club but not seem to be fishing the river or becoming intermediate members. Frank Spencer-Nairn has offered the use of the Farrar along the wooden Jetty to take juniors along as it wouldn’t require any wading so they could focus on getting used to casting a switch rod. John Macaskill has invited a junior along from the club to fish at Coul House fishings on the river Conon which has benefitted those who have gone along.
It was stated that if we had a junior day on beat 3 and down at the Ferry the children that do well could be offered a day on the Farrar to encourage trying other rivers as well as the Beauly.
Ewen Robertson also proposed casting lessons on the grass which would take away the danger of the river when the children were learning to cast the double handed rod.
Jim Braithwaite could provide a number of live jackets for the children to use on the junior days.
It would be offered to 10 years and older. It will be encouraged that the parents also come along and learn with the hope that some will join the club and also to assist their child if they wanted to fish on the river without a member of the club being present. Parents need to attend these sessions due to insurance purposes.
9: Matters arising not on the agenda: Jim Braithwaite talked about the Fishery Board Trust report will be added to the newsletter in the spring. Loch Fadda was raised by a member Yorky has stated that he has a meeting with the factor early next year and is hopeful that the club will get the fishing on it again. Any news that comes from the meeting will go into the newsletter.
10: Any Other Business: Yorky spoke about the juniors. Orrin lochs is requiring bank and weed clearance before the junior sessions start possibly around March/April time. An email will go out requesting help around this time. Juniors are now coming from as far as Evanton both of whom are very good fly fishers. Competition went ahead this year with Melanie Hardwick winning with the biggest fish. On average there were 7-8 juniors fishing each week. Junior membership is currently over 30. Belladrum reduced the numbers on that weekend so likely there won’t be a session that week. Juniors are picking up fly fishing more. Proposed to split the loch in half for bait and fly to encourage more to fly fish. Once they start fly fishing the bait rod should go away. Those who are regularly fly fishing will be invited to the junior days. Jim Braithwaite suggested offering parents lessons to encourage them to help their child and also with the view to them joining the club. Karl Brocklehurst spoke about his concerns with the same juniors seeming to be at Orrin lochs each week Yorky stated he phones each juniors parents/guardians each week and the first to respond get priority with the fishing.
Yorky suggested if anyone has any unwanted rods, nets and disgorgers at their house they could donate them to the club for the juniors to use to encourage them into fly fishing and moving onto the river. The club currently has two single handed rods that the juniors can try out fly fishing with.
11: Proposed date of the next AGM 20th November 2025, venue to be arranged (most likely Lovat arms again).
12: Presentation from the Ruth Watts, Beauly Fishery Board
Ruth Watts gave a presentation to the Club of the work she and Ali Skinner had been performing throughout the season to encourage the fish and smolts, working with the owners and SSEN with the dams. Ali sends his apologies as he wasn’t well at the time of the meeting.
Ruth went over four key aims that they have been focussing on.
1: Bailiff presence along the river. Ali has done a great job this year with Reece Paton working alongside him on a part time basis. There has been some letters handed out this year mainly foreigners spinning in the river.
2: Smolt passage. The fishery board have had a 4 and 6 foot trap at Fasnakyle, Erchless and at the Erchless hut this year to monitor smolt numbers. If there are smolts running the board let SSEN know to let them through with studies showing that there is less fatality when the turbines are running under load. The board is going to push for an audit to get exact figures of how many smolts were stuck in the turbines.
In 2018 – 10,000 Smolts got stuck and were lost in the turbines.
In 2020 – 120 got stuck probably the best it can be.
In 2021 – 200 got stuck.
In 2024 – 500 got stuck mainly due to an outage on one of the turbines.
Trap efficiency not as high as the board wanted. The board want a small survival study to be conducted on dams and the smolts.
Yorkie asked about the return of Kelts back through the dam. Ruth responded saying that if Ali sees Kelts in or around the dam he informs SSEN who do a release to let them through. There is also someone watching the dams who will do a release if they see Kelts.
3: Spawning Habitat. In 2023 there was a lack of pebbles downstream of Kilmorack and Benevean dam. There is no sediment management on both dams. SSEN are to manage the sediment better. |Board is to try and come up with a plan to increase spawning habitat – sediment management possibly on the Farrar. Board has looked at pre dam photos to now the Farrar is remarkable on how much gravel it has lost after the dams have been built. The lower Beauly is not as affected. There have been no formal redd counting since 2020. The board has proposed a fly over to check the numbers of redds. Sediment pebbles need to go back to help to create spawning habitat.
4: Predation. Since 2020 it has gotten worse there is now a seal resident at the dam. The board is putting together a licence plan application. In 2021 no fishery boards were granted a licence. In 2024 3 now have a licence. The fish counters on the dams are not reliable with 1400 or so discrepancy between the counters at the dams. Electro fishing gives a better idea of numbers in the river and provided better data. Ruth asked for volunteers for both the smolt traps and electro fishing with the view to doing it on Lower Beauly in 2025.
Japanese knot weed is having ongoing treatment with this being the third year of it being funded. There is a dedicated group in Beauly called the Beauly Balsam Bashers and Ruth welcomes more people to join.
Iain thanked Ruth for her presentation.
Iain thanked everyone for attending and the board members for helping to keep the club running and wished everyone a successful season in 2025.
Meeting was closed at 9.22pm.
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Committee meeting Minutes November 2024.
Present – Neil, Jim, Karl, Yorkie, Charlie, Iain, Paul and Toby.
A proposal was put forward to change the bank for the club to the co-op by Paul Summerlin as the bank of Scotland was due to start charging monthly for the current account. All committee members approved the move.
Iain mentioned that membership numbers are continuing to decrease with only 18 senior members and 25 senior citizen members. Junior membership stayed around the same.
Some form of advertising to encourage new members to the club was suggested.
Iain suggested members/casting instructors taking juniors onto the river to show them the dangers of fishing a river and how to fish the river correctly. This would likely be from July onwards.
Jim will not make the date of the AGM he will forward notes on to read out about the progress of the fishery board.
Downie hasn’t been confirmed yet but will likely be in the next few weeks before the AGM.
AGM – email to go out to get numbers up with another reminder closer to the date.
Toby raised the question about having a presence from the club at the Beauly gala to try and gain more members and interest in the club.
Iain thanked Neil for the use of his garage and the date of the AGM was set for 21st November 2024.
Beauly Angling Club Committee meeting minutes 11th April 2024
Committee members present; Iain Morrison, Yorky Brocklehurst, Neil Mackenzie, Charlie Simpson, Jim Braithwaite, Paul Summerlin and Toby Hardwick.
Apologies; Derek Maclean and Karl Brocklehurst.
Iain welcomed us all to the meeting and thanked Neil for the use of his garage for the meeting.
Toby is to send out an email to the junior members to remind them to rejoin the club this year and also to members asking for help for the weed clearing on the 27th of April (both emails have since been sent).
The juniors will be run as last year with two sessions on Sundays per month from 11am until 2pm.
Maximum of 10 juniors per session with a rota of club/committee members to help out each time.
Toby to send email out to remind parents that there must be an adult or guardian with each child at the fishing for insurance purposes. Iain is going to make up pegs numbered 1-10 children will draw a number at the start of the fishing to determine where they will start. They will rotate clockwise every half an hour to give them all a fair shot at the spots on the loch.
The recent Beauly Fishery Board conservation policy slightly differs to what we have on the permit. The difference isn’t drastic so the one on the permit will remain for the club.
Neil has spoken to Mark at Loch Achilty he is happy to have the club competition there again this year. Mark now has 7 boats on the loch so it opens it up to more members.
Iain mentioned that we haven’t received the exchange tickets from Dingwall angling club yet Toby has since been to the model shop and has left the permits with Paul Summerlin.
Anyone buying a ticket to fish on the club water will be told they are allowed to go through the gate that has been put up by the caravan park to allow access to our beats. Paul and Iain will inform anyone of this when they buy the tickets off them.
A date for the next meeting is to be decided along with a date for bank clearance along our beats. Iain is going to speak to Alan at the holiday park to see when we can go down (good luck Iain).