December Newsletter

RAUMATI SPORTS FISHING CLUB

An update from the Club…… Plenty has been happening behind the scenes as we lead into the new fishing season. Did you notice that as soon as the boat and rod maintenance is done the winds start to blow? Hope they disappear just as fast as they turned up. Lets keep our fingers crossed the weather gods will look after us in the next few months. Some of the items of interest are:-

A successful AGM was held on 16 October looking back on a very solid year and heralding a healthy outlook for the Club. In his report our President William Scollay summarised the past year as one of good progress particularly with the Club’s assets on the improve with the new tractor purchases. The Club was being well represented in the fishing and local communities. William made special mention of our loyal supporters, without whom we would be unable to survive. Special thanks to The Big Chill for acting as our hosts and allowing us to sell our raffles, Bill Brown from Raumati Village Meats for the supply of meat packs for the raffles and also the sausages etc for our competitions and BBQs. Boat City, Proline Engineering and some club stalwarts such as Messrs. Andrews, Saxton and Southerwood for their help in the acquisition and delivery of the tractors were also mentioned. William thanked the committee for their support and made special mention to Garth Bloomfield for doggedly giving up his time each Friday to go to the Chill to sell raffle tickets. Steve Bryant our outgoing weigh-master was also thanked. William Scollay is standing down from club President after two stints and a total of 8 years in the role due to workloads and health issues. He will, however, be an active member of the new committee. Garth Bloomfield moved a vote of thanks to William for his enthusiasm, dedication and guidance over the last few years. Thoughts echoed by all. Thanks Will.

The new Committee has been elected and have held their first meeting. Kevin Close has been elected President and Club Captain, Mike Ferris will continue as Secretary, Chris MacDonald (ably assisted by his wife Michelle) is Treasurer. Brian Stocker is Chairman of the Committee and Ross Fletcher will be Weigh-master. Other Committee members are Fred Southerwood, Jo Foster, Grant Piercy, Mark Collett and Garth Bloomfield. Congratulations Kevin and good luck for your Presidency. We in the Committee look forward to serving the fishing club members and in turn seek the support and assistance of those members during the coming season. We cannot work in isolation and will call on the members’ skills as and when needed. We thank you in anticipation. Please do not hesitate to contact any of your committee should you have any queries, problems, etc. etc.

TRACTOR SHED WORKING BEE You will no doubt be aware of the extra door that has been added to the tractor shed. We are almost ready to place our second tractor in the shed but need to do some “housekeeping” before this can be done. There will be a working bee to paint the inside of the shed on Saturday 3rd December from 10.00am to about 3.00pm so if you can please bring along painting gear and plenty of energy.

The new tractor will be in place in the next couple of weeks and this will allow for an orderly transition to exchange winches and other bits off the existing tractor. Our goal is to always have a second tractor available for use when there is a breakdown. The second tractor will not be in permanent use but will be available at short notice and accessed by a committee member only. Thanks again to all who have helped with the tractors…… without these tractors we do not have a club, So let’s look after them.

2006 SURFCASTING COMPETITION The 2006 surfcasting competition is to be held on Sunday 26 March 2006. Mark your diary now. A sub-committee, led by Brian Stocker, will be organising this event. We will be looking for club members to assist with the event so please make yourself available to Brian if you can help.

CATCH REPORTS Jo Foster is the local correspondent for NZ Fishing Coast to Coast magazine and would appreciate receiving catch reports to be included in her monthly articles. Any bits of information that you have on the local fishing scene please phone Jo on 905 7353 or email her on [email protected].

MEMBERSHIPS To-date we have about half our usual number of club members registered (about normal for this time of the year) so could you please spread the good word and tell your friends and colleagues about our activities. Without these memberships we will find it difficult to support and maintain our level of services. Membership inquiries and payments can be made to Mike Ferris, contact- phone 905 4878 or email [email protected].

Membership subs are:

• •$25 adult • $10 child • $50 family • $120 tractor option.

FRIDAY NIGHT RAFFLE AND DRINKS As always, it is good to see Club members dropping in to The Big Chill on Friday at 5.00pm to support Garth with the raffles and to share a drink or two. The Big Chill is a great supporter of the Club and this is one way we can repay that support. Club members, prospective members and fishos in general are always welcome.

And some festive season thoughts ………

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. ~Larry Wilde,

The Merry Book of Christmas He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. ~Roy L. Smith

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it. ~Richard Lamm

Until next time……..Good Fishing and Merry Christmas