Yateley Charity Fish-in 2017

The 21st Stoney & Friends charity fish-in recently took place on the Yateley West Fishery, giving many of the anglers the opportunity to fish these iconic lakes, whilst helping to raise monies on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Support.

With all the admin and fish safety equipment checks done, the anglers made their way to their respective lakes, with hopes of catching an early fish. Within a couple of hours, news had filtered through from the North Lake that Dan Ibbott had landed a cracking 30Ib Mirror.

As with many lakes around the country the sudden rush of anglers onto the bank, seemed to put the fish on their guard, and so it proved with no further action during the day. As evening approached the barbeques were lit and the rods were prepared in earnest for what was to be a productive evening for some, but a quiet one for many! Whilst the fish were not climbing up the rods, it gave many of the anglers the chance to relax in some beautiful surroundings, whilst socialising with their mates.

Peter Welford with a 27lb mirror from Pads Lake.

A screaming alarm raised Peter Welford from his slumber during the early hours, from which after a hard fought battle, he landed a 27Ib Mirror, his first fish during the event since 2009! He followed this at breakfast, with a very unexpected capture of a 12Ib Pike, caught on piece of luncheon meat!

Peter Welford with an unexpected 12lb pike.

As temperatures rose the fish vacated their feeding areas for the sanctuary of the various weed beds, with some anglers trying to tempt them both with surface fishing and stalking, but to no avail. During this quiet period, members of the Stoney & Friends committee took the opportunity to walk the lakes, selling tickets, for what has proven over the years to be a very well supported raffle, by both the trade and our supporters. This year was no exception with over £1,500 raised from this event alone. Another important activity for the committee, was the AGM, which whilst it proved very productive in terms of agreeing events for the forthcoming year, we were presented with a certificate from Macmillan Cancer Support, celebrating us winning the ‘The 2017 Fundraising Group/Committee Award’ for the London area.

A certificate from Macmillan Cancer Support, celebrating us winning the ‘The 2017 Fundraising Group/Committee Award’ for the London area.

Into the second night and with anglers redoing their rods, many were hopeful of hooking what had proved to be very elusive fish so far. Unfortunately despite their best efforts, no fish were landed, though some were hooked and lost. By midday the fishing had drawn to a close for another year, with the anglers making their way back to the car park for the final event, that being the raffle!!

One aspect of this whole event that cannot be underestimated is the support we get every year, not just from those anglers attending, but also from both the trade and our sponsors, it really does make a difference in terms of the amount of money we raise, with every penny going to Macmillan Cancer Support.

As part of the fundraising efforts, the attending anglers work their magic to encourage their work colleagues and friends to donate to Macmillan, with monies being passed over at this event. This year those 50 anglers attending collected donations to the value of £3,500, which bought the overall total raised for this event alone to £8000 – a fantastic effort I’m sure you’ll agree….

Whilst all the committee work behind the scenes to run the events, without our sponsors and supporters, we would not be able to raise the monies we have (£542,200) over the past 21 years. We endeavor to thank our sponsors through the various media outlets and thank them for their continued support.

Our sponsors for this event were:
Martin Gardener of Yateley West Fishery, CC Moore, Yateley Angling Centre, Gardner Tackle, Korda, Fox International, Munchbaits, Gold Label Tackle, Korda, Mainline Baits, Murphys Lake, Dovetail Games, Drennan/ESP, Vince Scully, Mpress / Calm Productions, Urban Bait, The Tackle Box, Johnson Ross, Copdock Mill, Uxbridge Rovers AC, Grant & Stone Plumbers, Tackle Fanatics, Keith Williams, Mark Jacobs, John Paine