Minutes of AAT GM 19th November 2023
MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEETING
10.00 am Sunday 19 November 2023
Great Lake Community Centre, Miena
Present
Gary France Chair, Howard Jones Vice Chair, Tim Munro Executive Officer, Phillip Charlesworth NWFA, Peter Coventry Devonport Anglers, John Butler Devonport Anglers, Keith Symons Independent South, Jonathan Wadwell Exec Committee, Malcolm Crosse Exec Committee
Guest: James Johns Miena Village
The meeting opened at 10:12am
Apologies
Mark Rockliff Independent NW, Wayne Bellette Tas Fly Tyers, Terry Byard Exec Committee, Chris Hilton Tas Fly Tyers, Adrian Hope Tas Flyfishing Association, Peter Wisniewski NWFA
Minutes of last GM
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 20 August 2023 held at the Great Lake Community Centre were distributed. The meeting passed a motion that the minutes be accepted.
Moved Phillip Charlesworth, seconded Jonathan Wadwell
Matters Arising
Peter Coventry and John Butler spoke about the need for additional fish stocks for the North West Junior angling dam, noting that their association had already spent around $3,000 on fish. They are looking to stock 400 – 600 fish in the 800gm to 1kg range. They are prepared to contribute up to $600 for transport costs for the fish. After discussion around fish size and angler expectation it was agreed that Tim Munro would establish contact with fish suppliers to see if 500 fish in this size range could be made available.
Finance Report
The profit and loss report and balance sheet as at 31 October 2023 had been distributed with the meeting papers. Tim Munro advised that AAT is receiving income for webcam subscriptions ($1569 as at the reporting date) and that this figure was increasing.
The Balance sheet remains strong with Assets of $52,312 and Liabilities of $300.46 which relates to GST. The meeting resolved to accept the financial report.
Moved by Malcolm Crosse and seconded by Howard Jones Shallow Waters Project – Interim Report
Shallow Waters Project – Interim Report
Howard Jones presented the Shallow Waters interim report, walking through the key findings. Whilst the report is based on data derived from research at Penstock Lagoon, it is considered that the findings relate to shallow waters generally (Little Pine Lagoon and areas of Four Springs Lake being popular examples). The project aims to discover whether angler reports of declining insect life (particularly mayfly nymphs) in shallow waters is in fact occurring and what might be contributing factors to any such decline.
Research undertaken includes sampling of insect life, drone photo-mapping of the lake bottom, chemical analysis of lake water, and a range of desktop research covering relevant topics such as angler numbers and lake level data.
The interim reports notes that there is indeed a low insect count at Penstock Lagoon and suggests angler behaviour and boating impacts along with other factors may be contributing to this.
The report includes some draft suggestions for how to reduce the impacts on the habitat.
The report needs some approvals (Hydro, Ron Thresher and others) in order to be finalised, Howard Jones is to drive that process. It was agreed that plans would need to be in place to implement the report’s recommendations by the end of this trout season.
Howard will co-ordinate a subcommittee to move this forward.
Guest Speaker: James Johns, Miena Village
The Chair introduced James and invited him to speak to the meeting on business developments involving Miena Village.
James discussed AAT play an important role in a potential fishing event to be run in conjunction with the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation. Essentially, two competitions would be run in the one event. The event would promote catch and release with anglers photographing caught fish against a ‘ruler’ background. Regular anglers would enter the longest fish competition, and novice or first time anglers, a mystery length competition.
James also gave the meeting an update on the Great Lake Trail, noting that there was some misinformation in the community. Although not yet approved by Hydro Tasmania, the trial is intended to feature:
• 107 km of smooth gravel 1800mm wide situated at the 1040m height around Great Lake
• Toilets (maintained by Miena Village) located every 20km along the route
• Improved access or walkers, cyclists and fishers around Great Lake.
The meeting discussed the fishing competition after James left agreeing to support the proposal and to form a working group consisting of Malcolm Crosse, Jonathan Waddell and Philip Charlesworth. (Tim is to let James know this outcome.)
Correspondence
Social Media Report
The report was discussed with committee members noting that more content involving Hydro Tasmania might be welcome. It was also explained that AAT members could submit potential content to Fiona Dewar for consideration/publication.
Water Management Plan
Terry Byard’s email was noted along with the frustration in progressing the discussion with NRE on the water management plan for Lakes Sorell and Crescent and the Clyde River
What’s going on with Woods Lake
The Hydro Tas publication outlining the development of a water management strategy for Woods to disrupt the algal bloom was noted.
Webcam Update
Malcolm Crosse gave an update on progress with Webcam service contract discussions and subscriptions. AAT has already achieved around 330 subscribers to the webcam service.
Productive discussions with Rob Vernon of Indicium Dynamics are underway regarding maintenance of the webcams. The meeting asked Malcolm to continue contract negotiations on the basis of $65 per hour plus travel and accomodation allowances, a 72 hour response time to fix technical issues and a 1 to 2 year contract.
Potential webcam sponsors were identified:
• Lake Leake Hotel
• Miena Village
• Spot On
• Essential Fly Fisher
• Hydro Tas
• Oatlands Distillery
It was agreed that recognition on the website, advertising links and banners should be made available to webcam sponsors. Web Manager, Sam Shelley will be invited to future AAT meetings to discuss this.
General Business
Next General Meeting Date Sunday 18 February 2024 Great Lake Community Centre. Future meetings: 19 May 2024, 18 August 2024
Meeting closed 2:07
