Who are we?

Founded in October 1983, the Walton-on-Thames Region of the PAC meets most months of the year at the Bagster House CIU Club in Walton Lane, Shepperton, Middlesex. We are part of the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain which was set up to promote the conservation and development of pike fisheries and the highest standards of the sport of pike angling, and to promote public awareness of these standards and the need for conservation throughout Great Britain.

Our Region is  made up of a wide range of individuals of all ages and backgrounds, and of varying piking skills. We are a very friendly bunch and we do our best to make new members feel at home.

We meet on the 2nd Monday of every month except for June, July and August and the meetings start at 8-00pm. Whenever possible we arrange guest speakers and we have an extensive collection of piking videos and magazines. Throughout the year we arrange a number of trips to all parts of the country, from Slapton Lee in Devon to Lochs Ken and Lomond in Scotland as well as to more local waters.

Annual membership of the PAC currently costs £19.50, in addition to this we charge a Regional membership of £5-00 and there is a charge of £2 levied at the meetings  to cover room hire and general expenses. Anyone is welcome to attend our  meetings but we do expect regular visitors to join both the PAC and the Region.

The region is run by a committee. Dave Fish is our Regional Organiser and produces our monthly newsletter, Pike Zone.

Chris Sims is our treasurer and Neil Depledge looks after the website and produces DropBack, our Regional magazine.

Walton-on-Thames PAC Region 15 has been running since October 1983. Malcolm Green formed the Region at the start of the winter pike season of that year, although Malcolm had been a member of the PAC for some years prior to this. In the beginning, the Region consisted of just five friends, all avid pike anglers, who would meet once a month in a local pub and talk about piking.

I saw a poster advertising the PAC which gave Malcolm's details. I contacted him and attended a number of the meetings. At this time the group used to meet in the bar of the Old House at Home pub, Hersham. The meetings were very informal and just consisted of a chat and a pint.

Malcolm and I hit it off right from the start and we became very good friends, he is Godfather to my son. Whilst fishing we often discussed the PAC and the Region and decided to try and make the meetings more formal. I volunteered to help Malc with the Region and we set about finding a venue where we could have a separate room. We eventually found a pub with a room, The Cannon at Molesey and this became the venue for our monthly meetings. The room was separate from the pub and was freezing cold in the winter. I am sure some of the older members will remember it.

This was the start of the proper monthly meetings, and at one of these meetings it was decided, after a vote, that we would hold the meetings all year round except for August. For personal reasons Malcolm was unable to devote as much time as he would like to the Region, in fact he stopped fishing altogether.

I then became RO but felt that the position was a two-man job. After some arm twisting Trevor Nichols came forward to help me run the Region. The Region went from strength to strength and the meetings continued at The Cannon until the beginning of 1989 when the land upon which the hut was standing was sold off for redevelopment. On average about 25 members now attended the meetings. We had various guest speakers and slide shows, we arranged trips to different venues and we started to publish "DropBack", our Regional magazine.

In 1990 we moved to the District Arms, Ashford, where we had use of the function room at the rear, for a very reasonable rate. At some point in 1992 Trevor decided that he wanted to stand down and Neil Depledge took over as joint RO. We had various venue changes over the years, and in 1998 found our current meeting place. Bagster House CIU Club, in Walton Lane is an excellent venue, with our own bar and comfortable seating for about 100.

In May 2000 I announced my intention to stand down, due to work and family commitments. Neil Depledge made the decision to continue to run the region, alone. Things continued under the guidance of Neil. The monthly meetings continued to be well attended and speakers made appearances on a regular basis. Neil ran the region single handed for a while, but after a while I returned to help with events and with the monthly newsletter “Pike Zone”.

Neil stood down in May 2002, and so in June Tony Horwell and myself ran the region jointly, with the help of a few other members with whom we had formed a committee. Meetings were well attended, with guest speakers, and Thorpe Park days went well, if not so good from a fishing point of view.

In September 2003, Tony stood down, and the region has almost gone full circle, with myself as RO, and the committee of Chris Sims (treasurer), Jeff Kennet (Public Relations and Drop-Back editor, assited by Neil Depledge), and John Rinaldi helping with the web site.

The region has always been fairly active, with a hard core of about 20 members, and we always seem to gain a few and lose a few others each year. Dave and the committee will guide the region onwards, and hope you enjoy the entertainment and fishing opportunities to come.

Dave Fish