The river Guash is gentle limestone river that winds from Rutland Water, through Great Casterton to Ryhall and across to the North of Stamford to enter the river Welland to the east. It is split into a number of joined beats, that give a variety of pools and riffles.
We have a River Keeper who maintains access to the popular beats throughout the season where possible.
The river flow and height is pretty constant as the water is regulated at the Rutland Water dam with increases around a foot in heavy rain.
Fishing the Guash can be challenging and rewarding. Certain beats are very easy to fish and accessible and for those who want a more challenging stalk and cast, there is plenty to be found along the beats. Shorter rods are preferred and a light line as long casting is not the best method. We are talking about stalking the fish and flicking that fly in a likely stretch. The fish are truly wild and can grow up to 3lb. Grayling are also now being caught on the beat due to a fingerling stocking policy down stream. All fish are free rising throughout the season beginning on April 1st. All fishing is accessible from the bank and wading is allowed outside the spawning season with waders and a wading stick recommended if you enter the river. It can be very silted in places so be very careful.
Car parking, access and banks available are marked on the maps.
No dogs allowed and catch and release is encouraged using barbless hooks.
Thursday 21st March 2024 at The George Hotel, Stamford
Apologies; James Daintith, Philip Baughan, Dick Clarke, Dave Forrest, Edward Coleman, Nigel Woolnough, Richard Holman, Ian Russell, Simon Bonney, Peter Daniels, Peter Connor, Peter Waterhouse, Phil Tushingham, Nigel Fox and Nishinara Toshi.
Members present; Chris Fuller, Trevor Walker, Adrian Forsell, Paul Clarke, Mike Barnes, Martin Barnait, Colin Gordon, Robin Buck, David Neville, Robin Woodall, Patrick Helly, James Maunder Taylor, Gordon Alleyne, Chris Hulbert, James Birch, Stuart Pelsey, Max Woolnough, Nigel Labrum, Edward Brassey, Andy Briggs, Steve Smith, John Pawlyn, David Wood, Peter Voller, David Bailey, Richard Marsh, Jeremy Ball, Andrew Flitcroft, and Ian
Walker.
Minutes of the 2023 AGM; these were read and accepted.
Election of club officers; Trevor Walker stood down as chairman and Robin Buck was elected in his place unopposed. The treasurer (Steve Smith), secretary (Chris Fuller) and membership secretary & catch returns officer (Adrian Forsell) were willing to continue in their respective roles and were elected unopposed.
Re-election of committee members; Stuart Illsley and Mike Barnes were re-elected.
Election of new committee member; Max Woolnough was proposed and elected.
Auditor; Gordon Alleyne agreed to carry on with the role and was thanked for his work in this important post.
Chairman’s report; Well, what a year it has been, your committee have well and truly excelled in the number of activities and projects this past year.
We’ve had a day’s full-on first aid training with annual refreshers planned, something we all hope we’ll never need to use, but essential if someone falls ill or is injured, during a work party on the river or at home…thank you, Paul, for organising the course.
Stuart has started monthly fly-tying sessions which are extremely popular. With all the new patterns being tied, I expect a big increase in catch returns in the coming season…. well done Stuart.
We’ve had our annual fishing day organised by Jeremy and the chairman’s Grayling day last month, this was well attended by 14 members despite the river condition and weather. Martin Barnett was the successful angler, catching a solitary grayling.
Robin has been very busy organising work parties on a regular basis, these have been well attended, resulting in a big improvement to our beats….many thanks to Robin and all that have attended.
The club will continue investing in improving habitat and we will be engaging contractors to keep popular beats open and fishable during the summer months.
We now have a new, much improved web site and new maps…..thanks to Mike, Jeremy and James.
Once again, we had an incident with the land owner opposite beat 10; he decided to dredge the river below the weir and dump the spoils on our bank. The EA and farmer were informed, a meeting between the land owner and the EA was held at which neither we nor the farmer were allowed to be present. The land owner was instructed to make up the dredged river bed with gravel, to date this has not been done, so it’s still in the hands of the EA.
The land adjacent to beat 11 is up for sale, so it’s unsure what will happen to the fishing rights in 2025.
On a more serious note, it has been well publicised that our rivers are in decline due to pollution. In order to monitor the water quality of the Guash, the club has invested in 2 top of the range testing kits. Stuart and Paul have done the research and will be carrying out regular water quality surveys. Stuart will explain in more detail later in the evening.
I would like to thank our river keepers, Mike and Mike, for their fantastic efforts in the last year, it’s not been easy with the summer growth and one of the wettest winters for many a year, so well done guys, you have done a great job.
Finally, after 6 years I’ve decided to step down as Chairman, as you now know I’m handing over to Robin who I know will do a fantastic job, I’d like to thank the members of the committee past and present for their support and excellent work.
New Chairman’s reply; Robin Buck responded and said that Trevor had been chair for 6 years. He had led the committee with authority, giving confidence and engaged with all aspects of the club. Honorary membership was proposed for Trevor which he accepted. He would continue as a committee member.
Treasurer’s report; A spreadsheet was displayed showing the forecast income and expenditure for the period 2017 – 2025. The key points for 2023 were –
· Accounts for 2023 audited and signed – auditor Mr.G. Alleyne.
· New member joining fees - £4k
· Fees received in advance - £3k
· Total income £21k
· Fishing rights increased in 2023- outstanding payments to land owner
· Total expenditure £28k so loss in 2023 of - £7k
· General bank account at end - £51k
· Total including savings account at end - £57k
The key points for 2024 were –
· Fees secured - £18k
· New member joining fees - £6k
· Fees received in advance anticipated – £3k
· Budgeted income - £27k
· Budgeted expenditure £30k including £10k of river improvements
· Loss in 2024 of £3k.
Membership secretary’s report and catch return review;
A catch return analysis has already been distributed to members and just the key points will be covered. The importance of the catch returns in the management of our beats was stressed as was the need for all catch returns to be sent, even nil ones. About one third of the membership did not fish during the season. The prepared graphs of the beat catch returns were displayed. Catch numbers on the Guash were consistent with earlier years but the Upper Welland figures were variable. The very low figures for the Lower Welland are explained by the lack of stocking in the last two years. That stretch does however have a lot of pike as shown by electro fishing results as well as poachers, otters and mink. The Guash figures show that beats 1 – 7 have a lower catch rate than beats 8 – 15 which may indicate access issues. Members were recommended to complete catch returns after each fishing trip or record in a diary for later completion of the catch return. A concern was raised about the pressure being put on a few popular beats and the resulting pressure being put on the fish.
The fishing membership has increased from 115 to 125. For this year, 10 members have not renewed and the waiting list currently stands at 35. Members were asked to let the membership secretary know of any change to postal or email address for obvious reasons.
River improvement report; It has been quite a busy year on our river. The big event has been the bed raising on beat 14.
This was an Anglian Water project as part of their River Basin Management Plan. The budget was enormous at more than £200K. Rob Mungovan of the Wild Trout Trust was design consultant.
It doesn’t look very prepossessing at current water levels but it will be a quite different experience for members. I don’t know what everyone thinks about wading but from the 15th June you will be able to try a quite different method there from the rest of our river. At the moment it does look a bit flat and when the level drops, we are hoping to get Rob Mungovan up again to advise on flow variation with some carefully placed logs that Mike has cut from the little island on the beat. When you are wading, please take a wading stick; it is very easy to drop into a deep, muddy pool and be aware that much of our river is just not suitable to wade.
That sort of investment will not happen again so we are down to our own resources.
Reed pulling continued by work parties and contractors largely on beats 12/13 and upper Welland and I hope we are to see long term benefits.
Stuart, Paul and David continued their great work on beat 4 and it would be good to see more visits there to enjoy it.
We had intended to work with contractors on two berms on beat 8 and one on beat 4 but the weather got the better of us and that budget is carried over to this season.
Winter work parties have been affected by the continuous rain. We have, however, had three mornings on beats 6 & 7, both banks. I do hope you go there occasionally, otherwise we are wasting our time.
We have two more work mornings, Saturday and Tuesday. They are both on beat 15 which has been hardly fished and is sure to have some big fish…I am hoping we will be in the river and opening another hidden wading stretch above the footbridge.
Stocking.
Our stocking budget is much the same as last year but we are resuming stocking on the Lower Welland, albeit with smaller fish to reduce the cost. So, please put the Lower Welland back up your list. We are hoping that the otters and the poachers may have moved on after two poor seasons.
Our first stocking is on Wednesday, next, 27th March. If anyone wants to come, the fish usually arrive about 10.am and then at Harringworth with Mike, later in the morning. Hopefully we will be able to travel on the field.
I am getting excited about the season, there is a great deal of choice out there on our waters. We do need to know where and what you want us to work on, what you are enjoying and what you don’t like. The catch returns are essential for gathering that information and of course the WhatsApp is a terrific tool for sharing.
Any other business;
1)Trevor Walker spoke on the minor rule changes which had been copied out to members. All were in favour.
2) Robin Buck opened a discussion on ways of bringing in younger members. The rules already allow members to bring along as guests juniors under 17 years old. He suggested an extension to this rule whereby the club has a youth membership section for those aged between 17 and 21 at a discount, moving on to full membership at 21. Stuart Illsley raised the committee’s concerns that the club had an ageing membership and there was a need to do more to encourage younger members. An open discussion revealed that golf clubs had similar concerns with clubs offering discounted membership to those under the age of 30. Making a link with Schools and scout groups by offering an open day type event. It was accepted that the club fees were on a par with other clubs so fees were not seen off putting. There was a consensus that the club should look to offering a discounted membership to 18 – 30 year olds (poss. 18-35) with a fee around £100 and a total of 10 or 20 such members.
3) A concern was raised about the ease of access to some parts of our waters, beat 6 was instanced where a steep bank could be difficult to descend to the water’s edge. There were similar problems elsewhere and also path ways were not always fully opened. Other local clubs had addressed the steep bank issue by either cutting in steps or putting in stakes at the top with a rope affixed to assist descent/ascent. Cutting a path to the tail of each pool was suggested.
4) Stuart Illsley explained the reasoning behind the club acquiring 2 full sets of water quality monitoring kits and the aim to do monthly checks at the top and bottom of the Guash. The committee had been looking at stocking grayling in the Guash and had obtained advice from the Grayling Society. That advice emphasized that good water quality was a must, hence the aim to monitor our water.
5) Trout stocking was planned for the 27th March and 29th May for the Upper and Lower Welland with smaller, 9” inch, fish going in to the LW. However, these dates were weather dependent. The usual timings were 9.30 – 10am at Uffington bridge and Harringworth afterwards.
6) Stuart Illsley explained that an informal fly-tying evening was held monthly at the Crown Inn at Great Casterton, dates being 16th April, 21st May and 18th June. However, the April event would in fact be an auction of second-hand fishing gear and commencing at 6.30pm. Twenty percent of each sale would be donated to a prostate cancer charity.
7) A question was asked about the proposed housing development near the white post bridge at Ryhall. The committee were aware of the proposal and had met representatives of the developer. The housing would be back from the water’s edge and if it went ahead, would not impede fishing access. Nevertheless, the club had lodged an objection.
Robin Buck wound up the evening by thanking all those who had attended and saying that he was taking away 3 issues for discussion at the next committee meeting –
· Ease of access to beats,
· The pressure on popular swims, and
· Encouraging younger members.