Puddledock Snake Saturday 20th June

[Dave C]

As the Angling Trust have now been given the governments approval that Fishing Matches can go ahead it looks fairly certain that we will be able to start our season at Puddledock. https://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?s ... temid=5271

I will now try to work out some procedures for money, draw and weigh in so we are ready. I will need to confirm things with Steve at Puddledock but am sure there wont be a problem.

[Spamwham]

Right, let me start the ball rolling on how we might organise ourselves to stay safe at our matches moving forward. I think this is key to getting most/all to feel confident about attending.

These are just my thoughts - so you can kick 'em around, improve on them or scrub.

1. Monies - personally my ideal would be to go cashless. Pay Dave online, and he pays the fishery online. Could even pay pools online. Realistically this may not be always be possible, in which case its bring the right money and individually place into a box/tin one at a time. Dave or the match organiser should have the correct lake fees ready in advance to pay the bailiff 'at distance'. This would avoid excessive handling of cash by the match organiser at the match. Even so after the match the organiser will still have to clean the money/take to bank etc. Not ideal for vulnerable person.

2. Draw - done in advance by match organiser and posted on the website. Alternatively done by the match organiser on the day in front of everyone (all at distance of course).

3. Weigh-in. This is the most tricky bit imho. Certainly each of us will have to bring their own net(s) to the scales - probably several times, placing your unweighed fish back in the lake between weighs. If you are not able to do that then you must arrange in advance for someone else to do it for you - all at strict distance! Also sadly no more following the weigh-in round the lake. We will have to use the plastic weighing tub that Terry got last season - it would be placed on the ground by the scalesman, who then steps back while you carefully tip some/all of your net into it - there will be no-one else holding it while you do this! You step back and the scalesman lifts, weighs and records your weight(s). The scalesman then returns fish to lake (you'll see why in a mo) and repeat.... It may all seem like a bit of a faff and it will certainly take longer, so please be patient. Also its a lot of work for one scalesman to lift, hook up, weigh and record everything, so we will need to spread the load. First thing we can do is have a second person, at distance, to call and record the weights. Even then there's still a lot of work and it will need to be shared. My suggestion is the first peg in each section is automatically the scalesman for that section - that way we will have 3, 4 or 5 people sharing all the lifting and returning. One issue is that each scalesman cant do this and weigh his own net, so the scalesman from the previous section should do this before handing over. Likewise the new scalesman will also do the first peg of the next section etc etc. Another issue we have to avoid is the handles of the tub being held by virtually everyone. So only the scalesmen use the handles for lifting, and this is why they should also return the fish to the lake. Each scalesman will either need to wash their hands after, or wear gloves or both!

If this all seems very complicated - it is. If you can think of any improvements they would be most welcome. Maybe you know what other clubs are doing or trying. I'm sure there's much more I have'n't thought of or covered.

Finally I think its really important we try to take the proper steps during our matches while covid19 is still with us. PLEASE everyone MUST stick to the distancing rules. No exceptions. Think how glad you'll be that we did this if one of us unfortunately goes down with coronavirus in the days after a match.

When I go out for a walk I'm repeatedly amazed (and very annoyed) at just how many people dont bother or care about distancing.
Over to you guys

[joshdon]

Agree with all of your ideas Tony!

Money - PayPal or socially distanced cash payment (2m landing net and pole sock on the end)

Draw - On the day by 1 person if possible - I think
some will be disheartened by the draw if announced beforehand?

Weigh - Agree apart from I’d say some of us youngsters should just volunteer to run the scales for a match each and rotate - that way it’s less of a mix of people touching the tub. Happy to volunteer myself first up for that role @ Puddledock

I plan to have 1 or 2 socially distanced matches under my belt by our Puddledock match, so if I find any more clever ways of doing things I’ll share!

[Dave C]

Money.
Payment to the fishery will be entirely dependant on how they want it. I will pay by card or bank transfer to those with the facilities, if they require cash I will pay them from a supply of clean money I have here.

Collecting match fees.
I don’t have Paypal nor do I wish to try and keep track of who has or hasn’t paid in my bank account. I will have an open bag for members to deposit a £10 match fee into one at a time. I will only accept £10 or £5 notes or £1 coins ( but preferably only notes). I will then seal the bag to take home where it will be left a week and then washed and used to pay the fishery on the following match.

The £10 match fee will include £2 towards pools and any shortfall on the day will be paid from club funds. I may require a £10 donation later in the year to replenish funds depending how long this goes on for. Anyone who wins a section can choose to accept cash or preferably have it carried forward to pay the next match fee.

Draw
The easiest way appears to be that once I know they pegs that we will be fishing the draw be done on the Thursday or Friday before the match by a neutral ( my wife). This allows everyone to go straight to their pegs and avoid congregating in the car park.
However I know some members would prefer to draw themselves so I could obtain the peg numbers we will be fishing before hand and safely prepare sealed packets to be placed out for members to draw from one at a time and retaining the packet themselves. The main downside is that we have to stay together in the car park for longer though if this is done at the same time as paying fees it may be better.

I will leave the weigh in to others but would make a suggestion that we impose our own net limit of 50lb per net. This would remove the need to do multiple weighs for a net and make it easier for whoever is getting the nets out. Any nets over 50lb are reduced to 50lb.

[Dave C]

I have just received a phone call from Puddledock wanting to confirm if we still want to fish and I have said yes. They only deal in cash so I have confirmed we can do that safely. We provisionally have from peg 1 to peg 30 and fishing every other peg.

[Clive]

Just an observation about the weighing in we are going to need some sort of support for the weigh tub when the fish are tipped in or it is going to be chaos with fish escaping everywhere
Its bad enough with someone holding it trying to do it with 1 person is a recipe for disaster imo

[Dave C]

Tony is on the case Clive. I will be give him the dimensions of the weigh bucket tomorrow. we were also discussing if it’s worth getting another weigh bucket so we can speed up weigh ins using both sets of scales.

Any suggestions or comments from everyone welcome.

[SiDev]

I have just weighted myself in, seems I have 300lb...I will pass my bank details on for the money

[Dave C]

So has everyone else, unfortunately your bank details aren’t needed as you appear to have only come 14th out of 15.

PS you seem to have forgotten to pay the match fee, please send me £10 ASAP.

[john_holdsworth]

Hi Dave put me on the list for this one please
Looking forward to seeing everyone