Category: DAA News

The Committee have decided to reduce the subscriptions by approximately 7.5%

These can be paid any time from now either via Clubmate or by direct bank transfer. ( https://dartanglingassociation.clubmate.co.uk ) Subs are due by the end of January 2024. Those of you who pay by monthly installment will need to amend your bank instructions.
Promotion fees have been rescinded for this year only.  Now is a good time to change your membership class if you wish.
New subs – Salmon £300, Sea Trout £215, Brown trout £135, Junior £10.
DONT FORGET TO RETURN YOUR CATCH RETURNS TO PHIL PROWSE

One on fly for Tim Bowman. It’s September 2023. Nursery Pool. 10 or 11 lb. Safely returned.

Last Friday afternoon a member was trout fishing at Caddaford from the Fogdens bank when he became aware of the tail of a good sized fish behaving strangely in the pool tail. He waded across the pool (getting his waders full in the process) and found a grilse of about six or seven pounds with what appeared to be a rabbit snare and heavy nylon attached around the gills. After quite a struggle he managed to remove the snare and the fish swam away.
The matter has been reported to the Environment Agency but would members please be aware that despite low numbers of returning salmon incidents such as this may still be occurring. This type of poaching was quite prevalent in years gone by, usually in lower water conditions which have not been prevalent recently, although we cannot be sure how long the fish was snared up or where the fish was initially entangled.
Please be vigilant for incidents such as this or any illegal fishing.
EA Reporting Incidents no; 0800 807060 

A Brown Trout of about 4lbs caught recently in the lower river by Tim Bowman. It seems likely that this is one of the larger stocked trout from last year.

Just posted here:

Notes and illustrations that formed part of the beginners fly fishing instructional notes supplied to attendees of the courses run on the Dart by the late Charles Bingham. Charles ran the courses at Fogdens on the Dart and also on the West Dart, the Fogdens fishing now being owned by the Association.
Charles was an excellent writer of salmon and sea trout fishing books that often concentrated on the application in smaller rivers, indeed one book is titled ‘Salmon Fishing in Small Rivers’, something which of course has great resonance with anglers particularly in the south west.
These notes and illustrations are still very useful to beginners today and we are grateful to committee member Chris Baxter for their inclusion to the website and to Charles’s family for allowing us to make them available to members.

P.Prowse Hon Sec May 23

NOTE: As the notes referred to above are page scans, they may be difficult to read on smaller screens. As well as following the link above, the notes also can be found in the ‘Pages’ section, either on the left of page or under the “Hamburger” icon at the top of smaller screens.

Bank clearing this Sunday (26/2/2023) is cancelled. This would have been the last session this year.

Subject to weather forecast and river height, the following bank clearing is scheduled to take place, all commencing 9.30am:

8^th Jan – Nursery to Abbots Mead- Fogden’s (park in Colston Road)

15^th Jan- Kilbury to Austin’s Bridge – Kilbury Weir parking

22^nd Jan- Nursery to Abbots Mead (CC) – Caddaford layby

29^th Jan- Abbots Mead to Quarry Pool (CC)- Caddaford layby

5^th Feb- Quarry to Lower Style (CC)- Stretchford Layby A384

12^th Feb- Staverton Weir- Staverton Bridge/ Station

19^th Feb- Hangman’s Pool to Park Stickle- Staverton Church

26^th Feb- Horsehill – Park at Queen of the Dart parking (please do not obstruct QotD gate) CANCELLED

As much help as possible would be appreciated for this important work. For newer members this is a great opportunity to get to know the river (and your fellow members) better and to work off some of that Christmas pudding!

According to a study by citizen science environmental organisation Planet Patrol, which oversaw water quality tests in 48 freshwater sites in the UK, the Dart is the only site to have ‘acceptable’ polution levels.

See article on Devon Live website:

River Dart is the only freshwater site in the UK to pass water quality test – Devon Live

The DAA’s Annual General Meeting will be held this year at the Dartmoor Lodge Ashburton On Friday 2^nd December 2022 at 7pm.

(Don’t turn up to Staverton village hall as in former years – we won’t be there!)

For those of you interested in Dart water quality measurements in detail, the following link will take you to a list of the twenty most recent sampling results at Totnes weir, from Nov 2019 to May 2022.

https://environment.data.gov.uk/water-quality/view/sampling-point/SW-70720104

(Opens in new tab)

There are also some classification data here:

Dart | Catchment Data Explorer | Catchment Data Explorer

The latter appear to be the latest data available, from 2019 (opens in new tab)