AND THE FUTURE WAS LOOKING GREAT 
- by Frank Larg

Coarse Fishing ? In Dundee ? Of course ! Frank Larg is the chairman of the Angus Dragons AC. The story of his club is impressive, the future does look great !

According to all the regular Angling Press, if you want to start or improve your coarse angling join a local angling club. But what do you do if the nearest club is 100 miles away from you and the area you are in is the game fishing capital of the world? In the Tayside area we are surrounded by hundreds of rivers, streams, burns and lochs all dedicated to the pursuit of trout and salmon.

Coarse angling got its first toe-hold at Clatto Country Park thanks to the Senior Ranger, George M Potts who, (although a game angler of some note himself) convinced Tayside Regional Council to stock with roach and bream rather than trout as a contrast to the multitude of trout fisheries in the area and that given time could start a revolution in local angling. His decision proved very popular with the local youngsters and 2 or 3 game anglers who were looking for a new challenge and discovered coarse angling for the first time. All the local kids were charged with enthusiasm but had no direction and the only 4 adults that fished Clatto regularly were spending more time with the youngsters than their own fishing so with the aid of the Ranger Service they decided to start a beginners angling class.

Although we did not know it then, this was when the club originated.

The first class had 40 youngsters between 10 and 16 years old and proved to be so popular that the now yearly summer angling course, lasts 6 weeks and is still well attended.

After the second year of classes, the parents were asking if we had an angling club that their kids could become involved in. The only reply the 4 seniors could give was that a club would be formed for the kids in the near future. Clatto Dragons Angling Club was born - The future looked great.

Now, most clubs are formed and then try to encourage youth, but we started with youth then convinced dads, mums, and grandparents to retire their fly-rods and try match rods and poles. After the first year we had 23 senior members. From these 23 the first club committee was elected and a constitution was drawn up.

Clatto was now well stocked and was turning over 1600 day tickets over the summer, local tackle shops were convinced to stock coarse tackle, membership was improving including our first female, the first club and inter-club matches had been organised, we even had a slight bank balance and - The future was looking great.

While we were slowly expanding, another local club that had started the previous year, were finding new membership very slow. From the first time we met at a match, the amalgamation of both clubs was inevitable.

In July 1993 Angus Dragons Angling Club was formed from the membership of both clubs and we now had a "gentleman's agreement" on the use of a 2 acre pond at Errol, Perthshire. Due to the size of our new club water we had to introduce restrictions on membership. During 1994 the Errol pond was re-stocked, and 15 permanent pegs were built. Now with our own water, a waiting list for membership, a real family atmosphere in the club - with Clatto for larger matches, nothing could stop us now. The future was looking great.

Just when you think its safe to go back to the water - in August 1995 we had to cease our operations at the Errol pond due to an access problem and the hunt was on for a new water and yet another new start. The whole of August and September was a constant search by every club member, for that elusive water. All to no avail and morale was at its lowest in the brief existence of the club. This area is still the game fishing capital of the world.

Problems have to be worked on and this one was no different from any other. It started with a blether with a gillie on the Tay who suggested a blether with a gamekeeper who introduced us to the laird who said he would like to help and that he may have word of a 'pond' shortly. Two weeks later he gave us directions to the 'pond'. Situated 5 miles from Dundee, go up the track from the car park on the main road. We could not believe our eyes - the 'pond' was surrounded by hills, tree lined, a boat shed and dock. From 4½ feet to 10 feet deep the 'pond' is one of the most picturesque 12 ACRE lochs in the Dundee/Perthshire area

The Laird's Loch was once a trout fishery of note but now, apart from a few perch, is devoid of any life. But we had to have it! By the end of October the lease was signed and the Laird's Loch was ours - but we still had to stock it. But the future was looking great.

The Angus Dragons appear to thrive on challenge and when the membership were informed that to cover the extra cost, extra cash would have to be raised, they suggested doubling the yearly subs and started a stocking fund. The funding activities are many and varied with the re-cycling of aluminium cans doing particularly well. At that meeting one of our female members said that she would like to "give the club 100 fish of her choice" as a Christmas gift (pink orfe of course). Her lead was then taken up by the other club members, their wives, parents and girl friends. Each pledging 100 fish of their choice.

When people get together behind something they truly believe in, nothing seems to stand in their way. What started out as a 3 year plan will now be achieved in 3 months and by the end of March 1996 the Laird's Loch will contain, in good numbers, different year classes of roach, rudd, bream, carp, tench, gudgeon, crucian carp, golden orfe, pink orfe, and perch. Now we are a club and not because we have our own water or that we did manage to pay for it and stock it, but because we all worked as a team in friendship and togetherness to achieve it.

Also in 1995 Angus Dragons AC eventually made that 100 mile trip and became members of the Scottish Federation of Coarse Anglers and entered a team in the 1995 Winter League and although they did not set any heather on fire they did smoulder a patch. None of the four founder members were part of that team, but 60% of them were part of the first class of 40 youngsters who turned up at Clatto to learn to fish 8 years ago.

In just 5 years, ADAC had grown from 4 members and now has a complement of 58 full members and 19 junior members and, as we can now accommodate them, the waiting list can be augmented and membership can be re-opened. Once more, the future is looking great.

As in any angling club the future is always looking great because we know that next year we will win that big match and that our next cast is going to hook that record fish, that's the way they breed anglers. If you want to learn or improve your coarse angling join a local club and if there isn't one, form you own, because from that point your life will never be empty.

PS

While compiling this potted history of our angling club, one of our 14 year old members arrived at my home with £100 he had raised for the stocking fund by swimming in his school pool during a 2 period break. He had managed to get the whole school to sponsor him - The future is looking great!