S&DAA Flyer -Sollom. A bit of a rant.

Last one on the canal before the 2009 summer league starts on the sluice and, if I'm being honest, I'm glad. I haven't been to many of these flyers but each one I have been to has left me wondering why we're having matches on the canal down there. The place is bombarded with anglers almost all week and they throw all sorts of stuff in to try & attract fish.

At this time of year, the fish are still settling down from spawning and are reluctant to feed in any decent numbers. Add to that the fact that the fish in that stretch don't respond well to boat traffic and it's little wonder that there aren't many decent weights beig reported.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great pleasure angling venue and a little further up it's even better; I just think that formal matches are a step to far for the venue.

While I'm on the subject, talk is rife on the bank about how to sort out who is fishing the Rufford Canal and which licences are covering it. It was the same again today, and the penny doesn't seem to have dropped with some people yet. Yes, Southport have the lease, but it only took effect in April - there are other associations who have claimed tenuous links to the fishing rights and there have been some 'robust' proposals suggested to deter their members from continuing to fish. My view on this is simple - the only way to strike up a workable rapport with neighbouring associations to resolve issues like this is through extending the hand of friendship - not by drawing up battle-lines at every opportunity. The same applies to the relationship with people who share the canal as a leisure amenity.

I'd really like to know what has happened down at Sollom to provoke this:

Something has gone seriously wrong somewhere if, less than three months into a lease, the association is being ridiculed in public in this way.

There have been saw-wielding vandals at large at Bank Bridge who have climbed up trees which hang over the canal in order to cut down branches. I spent an hour last Saturday night down there trying to tidy up the damage caused by these lunatics who had left significant branches strewn across the track in the field. All along the stretch there are pegs dug out in the bank (turf and banking removed, including stones setts) which is in direct breach of the lease terms. There have been a few times recently when I've had to think twice about what membership of S&DAA means - witnessing this and listening to anecdotal evidence from people who have seen these things happening is one of those times.