Our History…

The first meeting of the steering committee of the proposed Hermanus Trout Fishing Club was held on 8 May 1978 at 265 5th Street, Voelklip.  Present were Messrs Bob Thomas, Harry Wood, Bosman, Miller, Penstone and Robbins.  The inaugural meeting of the Club happened on 7 June 1976 in the Hermanus library hall with 30 people in attendance.  Mr Bob Thomas was elected as the Chairman and Mrs Anne Thomas as the secretary.  Two years prior to this, the Town Council had invited Mr Thomas and Mr Wood to a meeting about the possibility of stocking De Bos dam with trout fingerlings to create a recreation fishery for the town.  Nature Conservation had stocked 3500 fingerlings into De Bos in 1976.  1000 of those were brown trout.  Every year in February between 2000 and 10 000 fingerlings were released into the dam.  Catch records are sketchy but the term satisfactory by one member is recorded in 1985.  In 1985 the Department gave notice that there was a probability of phasing out the hatchery in Jonkershoek. In 1986, the minutes reflect a tribute to Bob Thomas and the election of Bob Easter as Chairman.  They also reflect that no fish had been caught for many months, general despair and poor finances almost saw the closure of the club.