Stuff!

19 Thursday Sep 2013

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cinema, experiments, floating, hackney, household, knowledge, london, public, works

The problem is we have too much stuff and when we buy new stuff it is packaged in more stuff. As we run out of space we either rent some space to store it in or we throw it out. Sometimes it gets re-cycled or better still it is re-used and passed on. A generation or two back the passing on of stuff or re-making something was an everyday event…not now or very rarely. So what is the problem with stuff? Well it takes energy to produce, transport and ultimately get rid of and that includes re-cycling.

So why is the Tuesday Swim wittering on about green issues? Well this morning I had meeting with Andreas at Public Works who is putting together a one day event on the Floating Cinema called Experiments in Household Knowledge, and it got me thinking. Firstly I was thinking about my own personal consumption of stuff and my prime pastime of angling. Well the good news is the majority of my tackle was produce before 1975 so I guess that ticks the re-use box, a lot of my bait comes comes from the wormery/composter in the garden and I generally walk to my fishing spots along the Lea. I won’t kid you though as many miles are spent driving throughout the year for good fishing, it’s not easy being green.

Anyhow this weekend there is Experiments in Household Knowledge which showcases people who have a passion for producing something from nature in our hedgerows or supermarket skips or re-working something from discarded stuff. There is also three short films about people who craft things with their own self-taught knowledge. One problem we now have is technology, its beyond our understanding, the art of fixing and repairing is fast becoming lost.

So this weekend is an important event on the Lea Navigation in Hackney Wick, to see folk that can make things, adapt and re-use. Why is it important? Communities in the future will have to become more self-suficient, not in a Tom and Barbara Good manner but more where local authorities draw in the community to be responsible and pro-active.

To begin with, one will have to make a cricket ball using paper-mache and rubber bands….knowledge is power!

Extract from Love Madness Fishing by Dexter Petley – Caught by the River

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in Reading

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dexter, fishing, love, madness, petley

Possibly the best bit of writing I have read for a long time by Mr Dexter Petley…

extract from Love Madness Fishing – Caught by the River.

Now & then on the Lea.

16 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in The Lea Valley

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Tags

anchor, canal, edwardian, hacnkey, history, hope, lea, navigation, pub, river

Modern life moves more quickly each day, the development of technology over the last ten years has proved this fact quite clearly, the process of change has gone into over-drive. For many, the antidote to this constant change is to look back at the past, to find something familiar and reliable that one can trust. This phenomenon of holding onto the past is reflected in this country by the current abundance of preservation societies and conversation groups that spend their time securing the past for the future. Even the youth are in on the act wearing Edwardian style jackets with dressed moustaches and cropped tidy hair, somehow the past seems to be a comfortable place to be for many of us.

Recently I came across a postcard from 1910 of my local pub, the Hope and Anchor that sits on the Lea Navigation between Upper Clapton and Springfield Park, I was pleasantly surprised to see that little had changed in over 100 years apart from the housing estate at the back, the frontage still remains pretty much the same.

Today the Hope and Anchor is an ‘honest’ pub resisting any change, where young and old drinkers frequent the pub along with a healthy canal boat community. The boat people are more live-in rather than the old working community of a hundred years ago, either way they are quite a colourful bunch where drinking seems to go on pretty much all day, everyday at a good steady rate. Beer is served in glasses with handles, there are real ales and larger’s available and water bowls are provided outside for the dogs. My hope is that this pub stays as it is for another 100 years with its open views across Leyton Marshes and along the Lea Navigation. I heard a story that someone caught 20 2-3lb barbel on this stretch just a month or two back, perhaps the fishing is returning back to its former quality, one can hope.

Mackerel on the washing line.

11 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

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bannatyne, Bute, fishing, Isle, mackerel, mullet, of, port, sea

Last week saw the rod box packed once again on the sleeper as we set sights on Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute. This time pike fishing was out of the question as fish lice have become a major issue on Loch Ascog, Quien and Fad, limiting the fishing or completely closing it down as in the case of Loch Fad.

After visiting Bute Angling for some local advice (far more useful than using the mighty internet) my sights were set on mackerel and if I had the time and patience some mullet. With sixteen of us gathered on the isle, time spent fishing was limited but I still managed a few quick trips off the breakwater in Port Bannatyne, where after a failed first attempt I managed a mackerel and two pollock, the pollock were small and returned but the mackerel was taken back and sliced into sashimi.

On the penultimate day we took the boat out across the bay and into thirty foot of water, where each drop of the line took hold of three or four mackerel.

… that night we fed all sixteen, including an additional harvest of langoustines bought on the quayside from two local teenage lads.

While returning to the marina that evening I noticed a group of lurking mullet swirling on the surface…next time perhaps?

Horse & Groom Fishery, Lea Bridge.

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in The Lea Valley

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anglers, angling, bridge, fishing, groom, hackney, horse, house, lea, pub, river, road, station, victorian, White

Back in the day when ‘snatching’ or ‘dragging’ for salmon on the Lea was forbidden from the last day of February to the start of November, the Horse and Groom Fishery was one of the best fishing stations to join, if one was to angle. Mr Teale, the landlord of the Horse and Groom charged the sum of ten shillings and sixpence for the annual subscription or a shilling for the day. At that time the Lea was quite remote for anglers to visit, so taking a stage-coach via Clapton or Walthamstow and disembarking at the Lea Bridge was the main option to get to the river. Crystal clear water would flow over shallow gravel runs perfect for monster barbel to congregate, while views could be enjoyed across the Hackney and Walthamstow marshes and beyond toward Epping Forest. These were good times for the River Lea, before any urbanisation had set in from the near by encroaching villages. Thereafter the river slowly became polluted by domestic and small industrial waste. By the late nineteenth century the Lea was heavily polluted and fish stocks decimated. Thankfully now the river is recovering especially after a big clean up operation for the Olympics in 2012 which has stopped any sewage entering the Lea Navigation at Tottenham and getting washed down into the natural river at Lea Bridge. The marshes still exist today although reduced in size and drained of its water so that locals can enjoy the open space for football, cricket, or the various nature reserves that are dotted around this area. The natural Lea still has a personality that can be recognised from a book written over 150 years ago, the ‘Anglers Guide to the Horse & Groom’, although the abundance of fish species have diminished.

The Lower Lea, a generous day & a carp.

19 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in Carp

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Tags

carp, dark, fishing, lea, linear, mirror, river

After publishing my last post, ‘The Lower Lea – A neglected river & her anglers’ just two days ago I was rewarded with a generous day from the River Lea. As mentioned before the Lower Lea doesn’t give up her quarry too easily but today was different. After some initial carp spotting, some confident and at times explosive feeding I managed to return armed with a rod in the heat of the afternoon and caught a carp in her high teens. The fight was more than spirited, it was tough, being weeded twice and taking numerous long runs down stream, my tackle was well tuned for such a hard fight, this time everything came right and after losing two carp last year on the canal in similar situations I wasn’t going to let this one escape! The dark linear mirror was netted on a very steep bank hence why my image taken on a Iphone is rather shoddy, but photographing my catches are never my priority. Looking at this carp I’m sure it had never been caught before, not one of the true monsters but I love these hard fighting dark Lea carp.

The Lower Lea – A neglected river & her anglers.

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in The Lea Valley

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anglers, angling, carp, east, fishing, hackney, lea, lee, london, lower, river

Since June 16th I’ve not been out fishing due to all sorts of things getting in the way, but I have managed to spend some time observing the Lower Lea, my disguise is my daughters pram and a pair of Polaroids, laden below the perambulator are some free bait offerings and a catapult just in case I come across some feeding carp. The Lea around Hackney doesn’t really get fished that much although I have seen a few regulars all fishing for a different quarry. It is now mid July and we are having a proper heatwave, the river is running clear and the fish are probably only biting at dawn and dusk or in the night.

You may ask why am I pointing out these anglers to you on a fairly average stretch of river? Well, the Lower Lea is not an easy place to fish, with past pollution outbreaks and now a dominant presence of the cormorant, the poor old fish population has suffered but there are plenty of above average fish still in the Lower Lea, I know because I have seen them and on the odd occasion caught them. To be a Lower Lea angler you have to be resourceful, banks are over grown and the fish are hiding below the over hanging branches and under-cut banks from the ever-present cormorant. Getting to a swim can be quite demanding although now in mid July long dry trodden grass reveals the routes taken by anglers to the rivers edge. Once a swim is cleared of the Giant Hogweed and the burning blisters subdued, a session on the river can commence, as I said the Lower Lea angler is no ordinary piscator, he has to take his fishing just a little further.

The rover…

A frequent visitor is the quintessential rover searching for perch and pike, armed with a rucksack, short spinning rod and a few soft and hard lures, he does quite well, I’ve seen some photos of his catches, including a huge perch of 3lbs plus. I’ve seen him walking a good stretch of the river and canal covering a good few miles each time while I dart between glides on a mountain bike, a simple approach but with results.

The specimen hunter…

This chap reeks of the Jim Gibbinson era with his camouflage jacket, aviator Polaroids and shoulder length hair, he starts fishing at around midnight, no bivvie for him just a thick jumper and the shelter of a overhanging bush. I came across this guy one morning tucked away oblivious to many a dog walker as he sat in wait for one of the huge carp that cruise by in the streamer weed. He told me of monster bream he had caught that night, up to 10 lbs! I’m used to listening to anglers tales of monsters but this guy sounded ok to me, his approach and knowledge of the river seemed pretty sound and his captures matched with my own observations of where the big carp and bream lie.

The fly-fisher

On the better dressed side of angling I came across an angler sporting a pair of waders and a red beard in search of chub or possibly an elusive London brownie. After climbing down the side of a broken wall he was seen wading out into the head of a weir casting up into some faster flowing water. I told him of some chub further down and he soon departed and disappeared through the tall grass. A spirited challenge I thought as I moved on pushing the pram.

The Lower Lea has a fascination, quite different from the Walton days and the three hundred years of industrial abuse it has endured afterwards, now I feel that this short stretch of river has reclaimed a sense of being natural again, wild and left to its own. Dog walkers, joggers and pram pushers all pass by, oblivious to the nature and the anglers that lurk, all hidden away.

June 16th & a confusing start.

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in The Lea Valley

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Tags

16th, fishing, june, lea, lee, lower, river, sixteenth

Being quite a indecisive character at times, choosing a venue for the start of the river season can be difficult, but I did have my heart set on some river fishing. On Saturday I made my way over to a small stream I have been looking at only to find some lads in the middle of a boillie fight as they set up camp for midnight, this put a dampener on my plans for the sixteen.

On Saturday evening I was still very much undecided and feeling a little grumpy about my prospects for the following morning, plus I have seen the bream, carp and barbel all spawning over the last few days so I was not feeling too optimistic about the fishing. Then I thought, stay local, get up early and just enjoy the start of the new season, so the Lower Lea was my target, travelling light on my bike , try some trotting along with fish spotting and keep my expectations low.

I awoke at 4.55 am naturally, I very rarely need an alarm clock when going fishing, my inbuilt alarm does the job and very rarely lets me down. By 5.30am I was on the river after taking a short diversion via the canal just incase a feeding carp was in view, they weren’t so I headed straight on to the river.

Surprisingly my first choice swim was already taken as was the second but I soon found a nice over-grown swim with a good long trot of water, the sun was rising just in front of me and I was happy just being.

With little expectation I was not surprised that I caught nothing, but early morning on the river is a tonic that I needed and while enjoying the sights of heron and kingfisher I planned some trips over the forth-coming summer.

Clear waters and summer…at last

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in Carp

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carp, fishing, river, summer

A short bike ride yesterday took me on an unplanned route that inevitably took me to running water and the delightful sight of gin clear water for the first time this year.

…and a lone carp of twenty pounds, finally they are back and in view, the truth is they never went away but seeing carp close up for the first time each year re-kindles the urge to fish for them. Apologies for the Iphone image!

A zander at Fazely. (Stizostedion lucioperca).

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing

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Tags

birmingham, canal, coventry, fazely, lucioperca, plugs, spinning, Stizostedion, zander

I have become more of an opportunist angler these days with a young family restricting my fishing time, so last bank holiday weekend was a good example of a few hours spent by water on a short session and on an unknown canal… the Birmingham and Fazely canal.

At present I quite enjoy using short spinning or bait-casting rods with a multiplier and a few lures. I like the simplicity, the roving aspect plus I am a bit of a sucker for a new (or vintage) lure, a habit I need to keep an eye on! Back in 1984 when I was fourteen I picked up a copy of ‘Tight Lines’ the catalogue published each year by Swedish tackle manufacturer Abu from the counter of Penfolds of Cuckfield my local tackle shop. This little catalogue left a lasting impression on me but like most fishing catalogues of that time I could not afford any of the tackle featured within its pages. But what I didn’t have then I have since made up for and I now own a small collection of Abu rods and reels from the seventies and eighties perfect for pike, perch and zander.

Back to last weekend and the Fazely Canal, Fazely is a small town east of Birmingham which is where the Fazely and Birmingham canal intersects the Coventry canal, a fairly quiet junction with very little towpath or boat traffic, just the occasional dog walker and jogger. Kitted out with my little Milbro bait-caster rod (the main importer of Abu rods in the sixties and seveties) and Ambassadeur reel we set off up the Coventry canal from Fazely in search of pike or zander quite early. After a pleasant two-mile walk we had nothing to show so we returned back down the canal towpath casting every few yards but as the day got brighter and warmer I was only really expecting a young jack.

As we returned back into Fazely and the intersection my luck changed with a sudden burst of energy from just below my feet as a zander hit my Big S plug just under the surface, erupting straight out of the water and making me jump. After a short battle while I single-handedly managed to assemble the landing net, a zander of 4 to 5 lb was carefully netted and returned.