After the post Stu made regarding not being allowed to fish the Great Pond I had an email conversation with a senior member of the committee. As far as I am concerned for me, that is an end to it. This is what I sent to him, I realise it may not be the views of other carp anglers at Ravenfield, I am sure you all have your own opinions. Just to fill in one or two gaps, I was told that the decision could not be reversed (I hadn't asked for it to be) and I had been told by one or two people that some members of the club / committee would rather have a day fishing lake than a carp pond, hence the reference to £7 a ticket etc.
I wasn’t expecting a turn around on the decision, I fully understand what is done is done. However the show of good will to let the carp lads have a bash on the Great pond for a week would have been a good time to maybe heal a few wounds and could have even been a bit of a consolation to the ones who have paid to fish this summer on the carp lake and feel that the weed has made it impossible. Even if no one took you up on the offer!
Regarding the posts on the forums, I certainly haven’t edited any out, I obviously don’t know if anyone may have edited their own posts but a quick check just now I can’t see any changes. Things I would delete are posts with bad language, racism or attacks on any individual. I run another forum that has over 4,000 members and I take the same line with that too, and for the last 10 years people have stuck by the same rules and the forum remains a happy place with a wealth of information in it.
People do hide behind the veil of the Internet all too often, but that is not what the forums were put up for. It was an honest attempt to try and improve the quality of fishing on the carp lake, without expense to the club by organising work parties to help out under the supervision of either Keith or yourself or other official.
One of the problems that seems to happen at the pond, and one I was trying to address is the Chinese whispers effect. The whole place is surrounded by rumors and ‘so and so says …..’. I believe the forum has as good a chance as anything to put these things straight. I was told by a handful of people that we would be allowed on the Great pond in August, August came and went and still no news, so people start moaning, not many people now, as the numbers of anglers has dwindled as the weed got thicker. I tried to explain the lack of replies to emails sent to the webmasters address as being an IT fault and not to be taken as a snub, to try and smooth things over.
I have had conversations with pleasure and match anglers at Ravo, including one just on Sunday before I saw Terry. One of the anglers off the Great pond wandered up in a white sweatshirt whilst I was trying to get a bait to a carp and spooked it off, probably a life ban if I had done it to a member of the committee in a match!!!! So as there were now no fish in sight we stood and chatted a while. His opening conversation went something like “me and my dad were going to get permits for the carp lake but I’ll be f***d if I’m paying for this”. His words not mine. He then went on to say he and his old man had fished Ravo for years but they didn’t think they would renew because his dad didn’t like the drive down the lane any more. I guess he meant the narrow road to the venue, but that is by the by. This isn’t an isolated case either. I have spoken to quite a few (certainly more than 5 or 6) potential members on the banks, all to a man (and one lady) were put off by the sight of the weed.
As you said before there are people who would sell the big carp off and stock the lake with ‘stockies’ and charge £7 a day for day permits. Having seen the way the committee voted the other night regarding the night fishing of the Great pond I am surprised that it hasn’t already happened. Carp anglers are obviously nothing more that a pain in the bum to the majority of the committee, but a source of income. The way I see it though; the increased traffic to a day ticket fishery at Ravo will result in problems with the narrow lane to the fishery. At the majority of commercial fisheries you can park within a stones throw of your peg. You would need to increase the stock levels to give the anglers the sport that your average angler now craves from a commercial. I know you have fished Alderfen which is a good example, as is Bank End and Ranskill etc. etc. Limited parking at Ravo for the carp pond would be a problem. Then you would need a bailiff 7 days a week, from opening to closing and the gates would have to be left open at the top. Probably these are the reasons it hasn’t happened yet.
Having chatted to other guys over the last 6 months many would pay more if the lake had less weed and all the pegs were useable, but talk is cheap! The carp fishing at Ravo could be a real asset to the club. The problem is now it is getting a bad reputation and not because of the forum, because permit holders are moaning to anyone who will listen, obviously one of the places fishermen share their experiences is in the local tackle shop, as I mentioned before.
Regarding funding for any improvements; I haven’t heard anyone mention the need for money spending. I appreciate that chemicals cost money but was told that the chemicals have already been purchased or is this another myth?
Not all carp anglers are rule breakers, yes they have had bad press with the barbed hook incident on the official Ravo site, but I was told by a committee member 3 match men were caught using barbed hooks too, shouldn’t they get the ‘public outing’ the carp anglers got? By the way I totally agree with the way the carp anglers were dealt with and told the individual to his face, but surely the same bad publicity should be afforded the match anglers, if the incident did happen and it wasn’t just another myth!!!
Finally, for the record; obviously I don’t know what was said to upset the committee so much to make them come to the decision re the Great Pond, however if it was my comments to Terry about bivvies I feel I need to make sure you got the correct message.
I asked Terry if he would pose a question at the meeting, it went like this.
“Terry can you do me a favor and ask the committee if when we are day fishing on the Great Lake and it starts raining can we pull our bivvies back up to keep our kit dry, after all the other anglers will put their brollies up”. I then went on to say: “If they say no then that’s fair enough, but it would be good to have an official ruling”. I did say I though if they say no they were being silly. Maybe it was me calling them silly that did it!!!
Anyhow, all this typing we are doing is just wasting energy!! I think I have had all the answers to my questions with the result of the committee’s actions re. the Gt Pond and running over the same subjects over and over will do nothing to change anything on the carp pond. I feel I have at least said what I need to say, most, if not all, will have fallen on deaf ears (the committee’s not yours!!) I am sure, and I will ‘wind my neck back in’. I’ll give you a bell if you think anything worthwhile could come out of a face to face at the lake, I know one chap would rather talk than post on the forums!! Ill bring the tea bags.
Adi
I will post my bit above on the forums so anyone interested can see what I have said. These are my views and I don’t want anyone on the committee taking it out on the other carp anglers at Ravenfield if they don’t like what I have said.
