Members are reminded to carry their membership cards with them when fishing the canal or be asked to buy a day ticket.

As a result of the blanket keepnet ban on all Society stillwaters the 24^th July concessionary match will be fished at Heybridge Basin instead of Rook Hall.

Members of Maldon AS, Chelmsford AA, Kelvedon DAA, Colchester APS and day ticket anglers are reminded that our bailiffs and the Environment Agency will be enforcing the long standing three month close season between the 15th March and 15th June 2018 inclusive on the entire river/canal network.  This includes the whole of the Chelmer & Blackwater river and canal system including any offshoots, backwaters and the stretch below Beeleigh lock to Heybridge Basin.

16 of our stillwaters remain open during the river close season so MAS members who have joined for the 2018-19 season do not have to hang up their rods for 3 months.

The picturesque Ulting stretch of the Chelmer & Blackwater will be re-open for fishing, along with the other 14 miles, on Sat 16th June 2018.

Having received this question from a member I thought it worth sharing his points and my response with our other members who visit this website:

Dear Paul,  further to your post regarding keepnets, surely landing nets should also be dipped ? Will the bailiffing team have the resources to monitor that every member  no matter when they are fishing adheres to this rule ? As for matches the match secretary can ensure compliance. Could I please have your comments.  Regards Jack Morley.

Hi Jack,  thank you for your email.  A lot of thought went into this decision at the committee meeting to ensure that our final decision was practical and made with the welfare of our valuable fish stocks at the heart of it.  The original proposal was for a complete keepnet ban but as that would have meant cancelling most of the remaining matches, or moving them all to the canal, the compromise solution of dipping in Virkon S was proposed and accepted. 

Keepnets are a non-essential angling item to the ordinary member (ie not fishing in a match), unlike landing nets which are compulsory (rule 6.8 refers).  Keepnets are also much larger than landing nets, have fish in contact with them for up to 5 hours at a time rather than a few minutes, and take much longer to dry out thoroughly.  As a result keepnets are seen as a higher risk in the transferal of KHV.

If you can dip your landing nets before each match as well then that will be much appreciated.  The cost and practicality of having a net dip at every venue was discussed but as Virkon S is only effective for 1-3 days max depending upon conditions this was ruled out as being high maintenance / low effectiveness / next to impossible to bailiff as you state above. 

The best form of protection against waterborne fish diseases continues to be thoroughly drying nets in direct sunlight – a difficult proposition at this time of the year! 

All the best for the remainder of the season.  Kind Regards - Paul.

Unfortunately all of our remaining senior club matches, which were all to be fished on the canal, have had to be cancelled following the unexpected resignation of our Senior Match Secretary Russ Samuels at the September committee meeting.  Russ stated that poor turnouts at recent matches had lead to his decision.  Russ was the longest serving member on the current committee and we thank him for all of his hard work over many years of service to the club.

If anyone else would like to pick up the reigns and run the remaining seven matches on the canal please contact one of the committee members as listed in the 2017 rulebook.

The open pike match at Totham Pit on Sunday 26th November will hopefully still be going ahead but any changes will be posted up as we hear them.