The Society is pleased to announce that our fishing rights on Weirwood Resevoir  will continue on a rolling yearly agreement from each December. The fishing on Weirwood was very good over the festive break and it was nice to be informed by Brendan the Manager that a lot of our members used the fishery and caught some nice fish. There were a number of Pike to upper double figures caught from the boats and the South Bank along the wall. Perch are showing also with fish to well over 2lb and one specimen of 48cm was caught by one of the regular visitors. I had one visit on New Year’s Eve with Jason Craven out on a boat and although it was tough drifting with very little breeze and thick fog, I did manage to catch a couple of nice specimen fish, a Pike of 15lb 6oz and a Perch of 2lb 9oz. I also lost another Perch at the net around the same size. The Perch fishing can be fantastic from February through to May, with a chance of a fish of a lifetime.

A small work party consisting of Larry Howard, his son Olly, Ted Bryan and Austin Battell completed the drainage and maintenance entrance to the Old Ballast Pit last week. Two solid days of graft and plenty of coffee got the job done. The new 18” diameter pipe was placed in the existing ditch just inside the gate, it was then backfilled and tracked in and the old bridge that was being used was removed. We also installed a new 3.3m wide field gate for access for maintenance machinery, fish delivery and, if needed, emergency services access. This has really smartened up the entrance to the Pit and should make access with barrows and trollies a lot easier. This area will be seeded where needed and some type one will be tracked in at a later date so that the ground will stay firm. We have also installed the new red marker post which designates the start of the long stay fishing swims towards the bottom end of the lake. We also added some extra barbed wire at the bottom end boundary of the New Lagoon area which should help to stop people entering through that fence line.