KDAA Newsletter 2026

Kelvedon & DAA News

Gate codes

The membership card for the next season will show a new combination lock number as well as the old number.

Membership deadlines

Memberships open 9th February

Night Permit deadline 14th March

Current membership cards expire 31st March.

AGM news and rule changes

The AGM held at Spring Lodge Community Centre. Witham on the Monday 7th January with 31 members attending. The meeting noted the Committee’s decision for the subscriptions to remain the same and to increase the admin fee by £1.

The following new Rules were agreed.

1. Additional Fish Welfare Rule

Fishing for Pike only is only allowed from October 1st to March 14th. The use of live baits is banned. Pre-frozen coarse and sea dead baits are permitted. Main Line 15lb Minimum or 0.35mm Braid. Wire trace 30lb minimum and 18 inch minimum length for dead baiting. Shorter traces are acceptable for lure fishing.  Anglers must be in possession of long nosed pliers and side cutters minimum of 11inch for removing/cutting treble hooks. Only Barbless or semi-barbless (one micro barbed point and 2 barbless points to hold the dead bait to be used). Appropriate size unhooking mat must for the size of Pike that are likely to be caught. Mats with sides are recommended. Large, rubberised landing nets are recommended. The use of Pike Gags is prohibited

2. Additional Conduct Rule

Night fishing Juniors must be accompanied by a responsible  Adult member, parent or guardian. KDAA consider “accompanied” night fishing for parent and child as follows; the parent or guardian must share the same swim as the child where large/double swims are available to fish. Where no large or double swim is available at a water, the parent or guardian must be in the next swim, these swims must be close enough that the parent or guardian are easily able to monitor their child, this is for personal safety reasons, and to ensure fish welfare at all times. Swims where the distance between them would place the child out of sight, or the parent would not be able to easily monitor or assist their child are not suitable for parent/child night fishing. Where the bailiff identifies a situation where a child member may not be easily monitored from the parent/guardian swim, or where there are obvious safety or fish welfare risks, either the parent or child will be required to move swims

All existing Officials were reappointed. The existing Committee members who have reached the automatic retirement stage were also reappointed Andrew Aves, Paul Howard, Jamie Derry and Stephen Nelson. However, Dean Wootten, has had to resign owing to work commitments and Tim Bealey was elected to fill that vacancy.

Joining arrangements for the new season

The membership will open at 8am on Monday 9th February 2026 for current, new and past season members, however, new and past season members requiring a Night Permit will need to wait until 8am on Sunday 15th March.

Existing members wishing to purchase a night permit will have to rejoin by Saturday 14th March when the night permits will then become available for new and past season members, subject to the limit set by the Committee.

We realised that the Non-fishing Guest subscription free membership plan introduced last year is incompatible with Clubmate and will now be available on the club’s website under the Join dropdown menu.

Guest Tickets will also continue to be issued via the club’s website.

The Committee will continue with Clubmate to manage our membership applications in 2025/26.  More details in the following Membership Secretary’s Report.

Please visit our ‘Join KDAA’ webpage for the latest news on joining arrangements  www.kdaa.co.uk/join-kdaa/

Fishery Manager’s Report

What a busy year it’s been for fisheries management at KDAA!

 This years work all started back in February during what was a cold and frosty week at Layer Marney. The club had engaged contractors to clear the north bank of lake 3 from what had become an ever more imposing tree covering. These trees had greatly reduced the available surface area of the lake over many years.

 In order to improve the aquatic environment, and after taking expert advice from two leading aquatic ecologists, it was recognised that this covering was having a significant impact on both the amount of sunlight and wind that could interact with the surface of the water. The annual, and quite significant leaf litter that fell into lake 3 each year, was also identified as an ongoing problem, allowing what was a wholly avoidable amount of unwanted rotting leaf compost to enter the lake each year.

Following the work by contractors’ volunteers and committee members from KDAA set to work clearing debris from the margins on lake 3 and beginning the long and laborious task of removing and clearing the now felled wood, although there is still some of that work remaining.

The club had also begun to take some proactive steps to managing the longer-term quality of the aquatic environment at Layer Marney. In addition to the tree work, the club has also installed marginal plantings along the now cleared bank on lake 3, and on the steam inlet on lake 1. These plantings consist of native marginal plants contained in coir rolls, that will assist in absorbing some of the nutrients from the surrounding land and the water itself. 

As well as the plantings we have now also completed a second cycle of applying Micronized Gypsum to all three lakes. This product rebalances the composition of the water to reduce silt and rotting materials on the lake beds. In additional a treatment of Nitrifying Bacteria was also applied over the summer months to all three lakes to assist in dealing with excess nutrients that are present, this will be repeated during 2026.

Alongside the work at Layer Marny, the club began to look that the possibility of installing an Otter Fence at Silver End Pits. The Front Pit made sense as a place to start with such a significant investment for the club, as KDAA own the freehold of the Front Pit.

Four separate contractors were invited to provide the club with quotes for the installation of the fence and a final decision was made to engage Embryo Angling Habitats. The fence itself is 600 meters in length and in order to make an effective deterrent to Otters, the club needed to clear a corridor surrounding the pit that would accommodate both the fence and the installation machinery.

Although I will make mention later on about work parties, the successful installation of this fence would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of a few of our member volunteers. These volunteers worked week in week out, from late February through until April, and alongside KDAA Committee members were able to clear this 600m meter corridor of trees, brambles and shrubs.

This was no small undertaking and as a club we all owe them a debt of gratitude for their hard work, Thank You!

Embryo started work on the fence in April and managed to complete the installation within a week. But it doesn’t end there, an otter fence requires regular maintenance and club volunteers have been keeping the fenceline weed free and managing the trees along its route.

2025 was an unusually dry year and this brings additional challenges to the club, the low water levels experienced this year have had an impact on all of our waters, the abnormally dry weather saw an increase nationally, in reportable fish disease outbreaks such as KHV, and increasing instance of algal blooms across the UK.

 The club ensured it reminded members of the importance of biosecurity, particularly concerning the movement of fishing equipment (nets etc.) between waters, and the need to clean and dry fishing equipment between trips.

The Environment Agency’s “Check Clean Dry” campaign information was sent out to all members and the club provided new Check Clean Dry signage across all of our waters.

August greeted us with an algal bloom at Silver End; these algal blooms are created by what is actually a bacterium. These bacteria are naturally occurring in our lakes, but in circumstances where long hot spells occur with little or no water movement and where a high abundance of nutrients are available, populations can quickly get out of hand.

In such great numbers they produce harmful toxins that can impact fish stocks and prove harmful to human health. They block sunlight entering into the water and use up available dissolved oxygen, particularly overnight and when decaying. This has a very real risk of suffocating fish stocks.

The Club had foreseen that blooms such as this were going to be a real risk during the summer and had already secured oxygenation equipment including pumps and solar aerators.

These were deployed at Silver End for a week and although the aeration has little impact on the bloom itself (it needs to run its course). It does support the fish stock and other aquatic life by supplementing the dissolved oxygen (DO), particularly overnight to prevent a DO crash.

These pumps needed continual attention during what was a week-long effort. Once again, we owe a debt of thanks to those volunteers who attended the pit throughout the week to keep things topped-up, charged and running.

Early September saw more activity back at Layer Marney, where the Club has managed to secure agreement with the land owner to place a new ISO container within the main car park area. This container will allow for the Club to store items on-site that will support the on-going management and maintenance of our Layer Marney Complex.

Working Parties are a real bonus for fishing clubs and KDAA is no exception, after our Club Secretary, John Joyce made an appeal for volunteers at the start of the year the club has seen a regular group of enthusiastic members sign up for what is always a sociable and rewarding day on the bank.

I mentioned at the start of this update, that these members have made possible some of the project work that we have undertaken this year. I cannot overstate how grateful the club are to our hard-working volunteers and although I know they would all want to play down their individual roles, a big thank you is due to them all.

Our Working Party Volunteers have this year cleared well over 2 kilometres of bankside trees and shrubs across our waters, they have helped collect litter, maintain swims, install marginal planting, maintained our tracks and roadways, plus many more unseen actions.

December also saw them begin works on the islands at Seabrooks, members often report snagged or tethered fish in the margins of these islands and we recognise that much of the problem is created by the overhanging tree growth.

Our volunteers will continue to work on these islands over the winter and it is hoped that we will be able to avoid the continued presence of lost rigs and lines within the trees.

More importantly though, our volunteers have all enjoyed tea, coffee, a huge quantity of doughnuts and bread pudding, plus of course a chance to make new acquaintances and share fishing tales! 

If you are thinking of attending one of our working parties, please feel free to get in touch with us, you are always welcome!

Stocking of fish is always welcomed by anglers and 2025 was no exception to this, during November 2025, 15 new Mirror Carp were introduced into Silver End front pit, these C5 and C6 fish were supplied by VS Fisheries and it is hoped that they will make great addition to the pit.

We hope that you will be fortunate and land one of these new fish, if you do please be sure to either submit a catch report on the club website, or pass on the fish details and photos to our Silver End Bailiff, Chris Parish.

Pennett’s Farm is also due for some additional stocking in the form of Crucian Carp. These wonderful fish are becoming an increasingly endangered species here in the UK and I am sure you will agree that the club is doing its part to support future generations of Crucians by stocking them in our waters. *please note that at time of writing this update we have not yet received delivery of the fish so unfortunately there are no photos! 

Finally, I would like mention the huge number of other things the Club has been up to with regard to fisheries management, many of these actions are relatively unseen by members, but I hope the following will give you some appreciation of the work that goes into running a successful fishing club.

Safety of both members and volunteers achieved through written risk assessments, the maintenance and upkeep of club equipment and PPE.

• Water quality tests undertaken by Bailiffs for Dissolved Oxygen, PH and Ammonia.
• Working with Contractors for larger projects which include site meetings and specifications for works.
• Working with other Agencies such as the EA, CEFAS, The Angling Trust and the Waterlife Recovery Trust and DEFRA. This has included working with the EA Warranted Bailiff service to address illegal fishing, CEFAS and the EA for all stocking and the reporting of water quality issues.
• DEFRA with regard to Avian Flu reports and the Waterlife Recovery Trust in tackling invasive Mink through the provision of Mink Traps across our waters. This has also included the reporting of Cormorants and other non-native predators to national bodies in conjunction with Clubmate, to support the longer-term reduction in numbers of these unwanted predators from the UK.
• Responding to members reports of fallen or dangerous trees, this year this has included some larger trees at Silver End being substantially cut back or removed as they posed a danger to Anglers.
• Also responding to reports of tethered fish across our waters, these instances have mainly involved large carp and generally required the use of club boats. This has also included the retrieval and collection of a disturbing number of lost rigs, weights, lures, fishing rods and line from all of our waters!

Talking of boats, three new Bic Sportyak boats were purchased by the club during 2025 and we now have boats permanently available at 3 waters, including life jackets and other associated equipment. Prior to this a single club boat was based at Silver End and needed to be transported to individual waters by trailer.

The pipework between all three lakes at Layer Marney was replaced during 2025 which included some track repairs undertaken by the club.

Other equipment has either been replaced or purchased included new PPE and Lifejackets, three trash pumps with associated hoses for emergency aeration or emptying. New weed spraying equipment to maintain a weed free fence line at Silver End Front Pit. Signs and locks for gates, 30 tons of road plannings to maintain tracks and some covert CCTV to monitor for signs of illegal fishing.

There is much more of course, but I think that’s probably enough said for now!

I hope that your fishing in 2026 is both successful and enjoyable, keep us up to date on your successes, “Tight Lines”!

Mark Wilson

Fisheries Manager. 

Club  Match

Layer Marney 1 & 3

1st    Jamie Derry  8lb 4oz

2nd    Jim Bailey 1lb 8oz

3rd Derek Harper 1lb 2oz

S Mason Open

Seabrooks Reservoir

1st Barry Wells       94lb 0oz

2nd Gus Lee            86lb 0oz

3rd John Daniels       64lb 0oz

Club match 

Shemmings Pond

1st  Andy Aves     20lb 5oz

2nd Jamie Derry      12lb 2oz

3rd   Gary Spong    8lb 10oz

Club  Match

Silver End Front Silvers only

1st     Jamie Derry   25lb 02oz

2nd    Andy Wade   21lb 6oz

3rd     Mick Maynard 6lb 9oz

Match man of the Year

1st Jamie Derry

2nd   Gus Lee

=  3rd Andy Aves & Paul Lewis

Lastly, the KDAA match section is a sociable friendly group of anglers that enjoy the company and good humoured banter that goes with the not too serious competition, if you would like to join us for a match feel free to contact me.

Tight Lines for 2026

Derek Harper

Match Secretary

Head Bailiff’s report

Once again it has been another good year for the club with a large number of members using our waters. I am delighted to say that we have very few incidents of rule breaking or unsocial behaviour. Long may that continue.

Three members had written warnings and members had to be reminded to keep to the 50% casting rule.  Also Bailiffs recovered a number of very dangerous carp rigs.

All our bailiffs are not only there to keep the rules but are there to help you with any queries so please talk to them for advice or if you have any concerns and enjoy your fishing

Tight Lines

Bob Reed

Head Bailiff

Treasurer’s Report year end 31 December 2025

Our total revenue is up by over 10% from 2024 driven by consistent subscriptions and increased grants.

These solid results have allowed us to continue to invest heavily in fisheries management with key projects completed across a number of our venues

There are signs of increased costs across the board but the club is in a strong position to absorb these without increases to the subscription

We have a number of projects in the pipeline for 2026 including fish stocking.

The club continues to maintain a healthy balance sheet including reserves set aside to cover 2 years of fixed costs

Kevin Sims

Treasurer

KDAA website

I hope members continue to find our website informative. Members are reminded that it has a Catch Report form for members to submit their photos for the Gallery. We would encourage members to do so in addition to posting them to our Facebook page. It would be good to build up a Gallery of fish from all our waters and all species in addition to carp.

The website also has a Sell or Buy page and we would encourage members to make use of that.

Fred Merrin

Membership and Publicity

Communicating with members

In addition to keeping our Facebook and Website News page up to date,  We send out regular emails via the Clubmate system with the latest news affecting our fishing venues and membership including separate emails to our Working Party Volunteers Group. I believe we are the one of the few local fishing clubs that keep members up to date in this way, although a few other clubs using Clubmate are also sending emails.. Last year 133 emails were sent out.  Unfortunately, it seems according to the Clubmate email statistics about 40% of members do not open their emails to read. Hopefully, they do not end up in ‘junk’ folders, Only 12 members have not provided an email address.

Angling Coaching Initiative

The Coaching Initiative is now in seventh year and is run as a volunteer non-profit making umbrella organisation involving six local fishing clubs.

Just to remind you the Initiative is to recruit youngsters aged 8 –16 and their non-fishing parents and offer coaching sessions, so newcomers learn how to fish and existing junior anglers can develop their skills e.g. waggler and feeder. It is our contribution to help address the significant decline in youngsters taking up the sport  and although we may not see any immediate benefit to our clubs in terms of membership numbers it is very much about taking a long term view.

Nineteen sessions were held on eleven different club waters between the 18 May and the 19 October. Over 275 places were filled last year.

Feedback highlights the Initiative is viewed as well organised, enjoyable, instructive and value for money.

We have found from the start of the Initiative the major limiting factor has been the lack of Voluntary Coaches from the clubs, although this improved slightly last year after a recruitment drive which we will need to repeat again this year.

To make it more successful we need more coaches. With a larger pool of coaches we will be able to improve the student-coach ratio and avoid having to turn applicants away. Voluntary coaches do not need to be qualified just an experienced angler.

The Committees of the six clubs, KDAA, MAS, CAPS, CPS, CAA and Colnes have agreed with continuing with the Initiative this year and dates and venues are shown in the Handbook and on the KDAA and ACI website.

If you have any decent tackle you no longer require, please consider donating it to ACI for us to pass on to the participants, sometimes as competition prizes. Please email ACI at anglingcoaching@gmail.com

If you are willing to help, if only for a few sessions, please contact Chris Burt on 07917781299.

www.anglingcoachinginitiative.co.uk

Gas Lane, Coggeshall river stretch no longer a club water

We are sorry to inform members, following a change in the ownership of land, we have lost access to the Gas Lane, Coggeshall stretch of the river Backwater. The entrance to the meadow has been closed off with barbed wire. The relevant pages will, therefore, be removed from the 2026/27 club Handbook

Horse care

Can anglers please remember to close and lock all the gates surrounding Silver End Back Pit.  Horses have strayed into the wrong fields and escaped from the paddocks onto footpaths. The KDAA shares access to the fields surrounding the Back Pit with three different horse owners who also pay rent to the landowner. Can you please respect the rights of these owners to keep their horses secure.

Angling Times e-magazine – subscribe for free

You may not be aware if you have an Essex Library card, you can subscribe free of charge to hundreds of online magazines including the weekly Angling Times via the Pressreader app or website.

Register via the app/website with your library card number and password, search for Angling Times and subscribe.

‘Under the surface’ presentation by Rob Hughes

You are invited to a free evening presentation by Rob Hughes to be held on Friday evening 23rd January 2026. 19.00-22.00  In Hall 1, Spring Lodge Community Centre Powers Hall Road, Witham CM8 2HE.

Don’t miss out on this exciting Presentation. No matter how good your angling skills are, you will definitely learn something to improve your catch rate and be thoroughly entertained.

KDAA Members only event.  Please email Stephen Nelson if you are attending. stephen.nelson308@gmail.com 

We look forward to seeing you there.

Working Parties

Working Party dates are not pre-set but will be advertised  by email, on the website and our Facebook Page.

If you would like to help please contact Mark Wilson 07711925879  Email:  fisheries.kdaa@gmail.com

Please put something back and help the club maintain our waters.