A BIG thank you.

Many thanks to everybody who turned out to the meeting last night. We were treated to a very informative and entertaing talk by Mr Fickling, followed by a lively Q&A/discussion session covering a variety of topics from pike conservation and the merits of single vs treble hooks through to the popularity of facial hair amongst pike anglers (thanks Rob!) Neville also signed copies of his latest book for people and very kindly donated a signed copy for the raffle at the next meeting. Once again thanks for attending everybody, especially Nigel who drove all the way from Truro. See you all at the next one.

First Meeting

The first meeting of the new season is this Thursday 21st October and we are lucky enough to have Mr Neville Fickling to give us our first talk/slideshow of the season. The meetings are held in the function room at The Barge Inn, 93 High Street, Halberton, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 7AG. Doors open at 19.30 and the talk starts at 20.00. Everybody is welcome PAC member or not, there is a small admission charge on the door £2.50 for members and £3.50 for non-members, we also be holding our raffle with some great tackle as prizes.
We have put together a quite extensive and ambitious programme of events for this season with some great speakers, a film screening/tackle sale and a comprehensive range of matches, competitions and social fish-ins, so we look forward to seeing some of you there.

Newsletter

As we dont have an e-mail address for all the regions members we have decided to step back into the dark ages and send out a newsletter via the postal service! My daughter is folding letters and putting them in envelopes as I write this. I have used the official PAC membership list to get everybodys address, so as long as you are up to date on that list you should receive your newsletter within the next couple of days certainly before the end of this week I would hope. If you havent received your copy by the weekend then please e-mail me with your membership number and address.
Plans are also afoot for a couple of matches/competitions in the next couple of months including the resurrection of the South-West regional trophy, so check the blog regularly for more details. Anyway I look forward to seeing everybody at the first meeting of the new season.

December Meeting

We have decided that it would be a good idea to have the December meeting earlier in the month so as not to clash with the festivities. Also we are planning something a little different, a second hand tackle sale, a chance for you all to palm off your old tat on somebody else! Or looking at it another way a chance to get some last minute christmas prezzies. A small percentage of everybodys sales will be given to the regions kitty. The date we are thinking is Friday 17th December.
This will be followed/interspersed with a screening of the incredible short film Lair Of The Water Wolf this is what the films author Dean Burman has to say about it "I came to the conclusion that most of our native species have been covered in one way or another. So once again i donned my scuba gear and headed off to film an infamous freshwater legend The Pike (Esox Lucius). Lair of the Waterwolf was a real labour of love, even the aspect of diving in water that could drop to 3oc didn’t deter me from filming this amazing creature. Spending day after day in two territories I finally witnessed and captured some unique behavioural footage. This was the filmmaking i’d dreamt of knuckling down to some real, testing hard work and uncovering secrets that helped to change peoples impressions of my subject. Lair of the Waterwolf went on to win 8 international film awards to date, including North Cyprus, Belgrade and again at Moscow. It also won the appreciation of eminent Natural History filmmaker Peter Scoones at the British Underwater Film Festival and some sequences are featured heavily in the primetime, blue chip BBC one series ‘The Nature Of Britain’ with TV personality Alan Titchmarsh"

We are hoping that if he is available Dean will come and talk to us about the making of the film or if not that he will sign a copy for us to raffle. More details will be released nearer to the date. If we do not already have your e-mail address and you would like to be sent the Devon Region newsletter which will be starting in September then please e-mail me devonpiker@yahoo.co.uk

More News for Winter!

We are very pleased to announce that our second speaker for the coming winter will be Pete Climo, I have just spoken to him and he has told me he is planning a brand new talk for us entitled "Lure Fishing for Big Pike". The date for the talk is Friday 26th November. We will be releasing more details start times etc nearer to the date. See you all then.

More details for next week

Regarding the friendly/lure/jerk match next weekend.
Ok after speaking to Rob about this Jerk/Lure match the details are as follows
Meet 6am at the Lime Kilns car park, fish through till 2, £5 per person entry, winning team takes all.Team size will be decided by how many people turn up. (According to Rob the winning team buys the beers!) Above is a picture of Rob with a fish smaller than most of his lures!

EDAA pike rules apply
(i.e.: you MUST have a large net & unhooking mat, etc)

First speaker confirmed for the winter!

I know it seems like a long way off and I have no wish to dismiss the summer before we have had it. But I am very pleased to announce that renowned big fish angler and celebrated angling journalist Mr Neville Fickling has agreed to come and give us a talk for our first meeting of the new winter season on October 21st. More details will be released nearer to the date but I was so pleased that I just had to let everyone know.