25-26 round up

The previous year was generally a good year on our stretch of the Thame . We had good attendance across all matches and also the weights show an improvement in the river. We are always looking for new or old members to join in with the matches. The current match guys are a friendly bunch and always willing to give guidance to new anglers, this is also a good way to learn the different swims across our stretches of river. There is a £3 match fee and £7 pools. You do not have to enter the pools.  Personally i had a few good bags of mixed fish into the 6lb region.

The club have now removed nearly 2.5 tons of signal crayfish and have received no reports of crayfish problems. We will carry on with this through the next year. The long term expectation is that this work will help to improve the whole ecology of our river sections and also improve fish recruitment via reduced predation of fish eggs from the signal crayfish.

We have plans for further improvements across all of our stretches through the close season in 2026. We plan to use a digger again to remove trees ( which are in the river ) downstream of Chiselhampton Bridge through to Drayton Bridge. This will improve and open up some of the current swims and possibly give our members a further 4 or 5 new swims along this stretch of river. We also have plans for other work in Drayton farm and down stream Drayton Bridge along with general swim clean up jobs. We are always looking for help from any members willing to give a few hours over a weekend in the close season. Again this is a very good way to gain info about the waters and different swims. If you think you could help then please contact me on richardborrell60@gmail.com or call me on 07958286795.

The AGM will be on Monday 6th April at the Coach and Horses at Chiselhampton as printed on the permit. Please attend if you are interested in the future of your club. If you have any suggestions for improvements across the club or any comments you wish to raise then please contact me via the contact info above.

On the occaisions when the river level has played ball over the current winter we have seen some good chub being caught. Personally i have had just over 20 decent chub this winter . i have seen several chub at the 4lb plus size and managed a PB at 5lb 12oz in January. If any of our members have good catches with both general angling or predator fishing then please let us know as this gives us a good indication of what is happening along our stretches. 

We are also still working with the River Thame Conservation Trust on a water vole project. This involves initially capturing invasive mink and removing. So far, around 50 mink have been removed from the river and we are currently capturing virtually zero which indicates  the vast majority have been removed. if any members spot a mink then please let me know. if you see any of the mink traps along the river , which are within black plastic floats, then please leave alone. The mink removal should also help to improve fish stocks throughout the Thame in general.