Tag Archives: lea

Now & then on the Lea.

16 Friday Aug 2013

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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.

Hope anchor 1910 Hope Anchor 2013

Horse & Groom Fishery, Lea Bridge.

25 Thursday Jul 2013

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the horse and groom public house Lea Bridge

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

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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.

Lea carp

The Lower Lea – A neglected river & her anglers.

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

IMG_1012The 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

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IMG_0958Being 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.

Lower LeaFloat and RodLower Lea Lower LeaWith 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.

The Inaccessible Angler.

11 Monday Jun 2012

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I wrote this piece a few years back about the Lower Lea just after a new season had begun, so in anticipation of the 2012/13 season here is the piece …

 Last year I made a decision to simplify my angling techniques and reduce the amount of tackle I took with me. Going through my tackle I found I had too many floats, weights, reels, bank stick, swim feeders…the list goes on!

Now armed with only one rod and a small bag of essentials my fishing has become liberated and each week I manage to whittle down the kit further. Not once, last season did I sit at the waters edge and discover that I was short of a particular item of tackle.

After my liberation last year I decided this year I would take my new lightweight approach one step further and start to fish spots that to most anglers are inaccessible.

Steep and overgrown banks are the main culprits. My first new piece of angling kit came from a pet shop, a ground anchor, designed to tether your dog to the ground!

Screwed into the ground like a large corkscrew at the top of a steep bank, with some Para cord attached I am able to lower myself down to the bottom of a riverbank and more importantly I can get myself back up. To make it all easier I have put some loops in the cord for easier grip. A couple of year s ago I was barbel fishing on the Wye in November and I could have done with the ground anchor then, not so much for getting down the bank but more for safety as the flow was immense, and the bottom of a very steep bank was only about 18 inches wide, I digress.

To put theory into practice I set off for the river Lea on the first week of the new season. There has been a spot that I have had my eye on for three years now, looking down I have seen large bream and very large carp cruising about and feeding off the bottom, but access was impossible. Now armed with my ground anchor I could lower myself through some waist high undergrowth, down about twelve feet to a tiny ledge at the bottom, and if I did get lucky I could wade into the Lea as it is only about a foot deep at the edge.

From the start I threw handful of red maggots in and straight away a congregation of four large carp and one bream of about 8lbs froze me! I kept the maggots coming and after 10 minutes my meeting had expanded to about eight large carp all with their heads down and totally oblivious to my statue, just four feet away.

Slowly I moved my rod into position and dropped a bunch of red maggots into the mass of grazing carp, the water was clear so I could see the maggots on the riverbed occasionally obscured by a drifting carp. After a minute one of the smaller carp got its lips over my bait, I was poised to strike but the carp drifted away leaving the bait behind. A minute late the same carp returned and this time committed to my bait, my rod took on a bend as the other gang members scattered in all directions. Being perched at the bottom of the bank, landing this fish was proving tricky, so I slid into the water, after all I was determined to land this golden nugget. After a short hit and hold style battle the landing net engulfed a small but slender river carp of around 8lb.

Update: Four years on I shall not be returning to this spot as it is now in the Olympic Park area and climbing down steep banks attached to ropes could be taken as an act of terrorism! The spot still exists untouched by the landscaping so when the party finishes I shall slip back into position…

A word on canal pike…

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

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Last weekend the tuesday swim was at sea on the Lea Navigation next to the Middlesex filter beds in Hackney (not to be confused with the area of North West London). I was canal boat sitting for the weekend and in search of my first pike of the season.

My pike fishing is generally divided into two disciplines, casting dead-baits into lakes usually down in Sussex in the dead of winter and secondly short sessions spent plug fishing on the Lea Navigation and River Lea. Urban or canal pike fishing has a special place in my heart as it suites the targeted species, often the location is as remote and as still as the lone pike. Pike are often described as ‘angry’ fish, I disagree on this matter, pike by nature have to be still, solitary, lurk in darkened holes awaiting unsuspecting prey. When pike target a fish, they do it in the most economical manner, ‘anger’  doesn’t come into it, ‘lazy’ could be used to describe the pike’s behaviour, ‘efficient’ would be my favoured description of the pike.

Arriving at the boat a perfect scene lay before me, the moon was just rising, a warm wind blew, perhaps a little too warm for my first pike session but as darkness fell I cast out a blue Abu HI-Lo plug.

As the canal deepened it tone from grey to black, some kids opposite in the local park started up a mini-moto and put pay to the peace for the next hour, so slightly irritated I packed away the little bait-casting rod and headed inside the boat and lit the wood burner. After an hour or so the mini-moto had been ridden away into a nearby estate and I stood alone on the boat with wood smoke in the air with a cool light breeze …stillness had returned and the moon appeared almost in a full phase.

The next morning I was expecting visitors including various kids, so the fishing became more of a tutorial in casting and pike location, in the end our efforts were fruitless but the blustery autumnal day fired my hunger to seek out a lone esox lucius on another and probably a more wintery day…

The Bow Back Waters…remembered.

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

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On the 6th July 2005 a hopeful crowd gathered in Trafalgar Square to hear the winning bid for the 2012 Olympic venue. At 12.49 BST, Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic committee announced that London would be the host.

Meanwhile back in the area known as Fish Island and beyond, in the East End, a sleepy forgotten patch of post industrial land lay quiet and untouched, a lone dog walker, jogger, cyclist or on some occasions an angler would pass through this quiet oasis, known as The Bow Back waters.

To explain the Bow Back Waters, where it’s borders start and finish is not easily defined and even after spending a few years wandering the network of flood relief channels, navigable canals and natural brooks, the footprint is ambiguous but I would say looking at a map, north of Three Mills to Old Ford Lock marks this area.

The history.

The Bow Back Waters originally called Stratford Marsh goes back to pre-history but in Roman times there was evidence of occupation here especially at the Ford Bridge which crossed the river Lea at low tide and allowed a passage to Colchester.

Throughout the next 2000 years the River Lea’s path has been diverted, blocked and widened. Alfred the Great drained the river at Leamouth to halt the advance of the Danes and prevent an invasion from the River Thames. By the eighteenth century industrialisation was taking place and many wharfs were created to accommodate the import of timber, chalk, stone, coal, and wheat. By 1821, the earliest proper dock named Stratford Dock, later called Meggs Dock was created just up from Bow Bridge but after 1920, the whole site had been filled in and was occupied by factories and workshops that didn’t depend on water access. Now the majority of these factories have been demolished for the new Olympic site.

Somewhere on the Bow Back Waters around 1900 (above).

The images below were taken around 2007…

Pudding Mill stream (above).

To the left of this image is the new olympics stadium (above).

Some local conservation work to preserve the banks of the Bow Back Waters and create nesting areas for waterfowl (above).

Remainders of a more industrial time (above and below).

Carp and bream were often found cruising along this stretch which still exists, up ahead is Old Ford Lock (above).

Shortly after the olympic announcement the Bow Back Waters were electro-netted and the carp, bream along with pike and plenty of silver fish were removed and put into the Lea Navigation, I believe Pudding Mill stream was completely dug out and filled in.

Three months ago I was invited onto the Olympic site and saw the work done on the original River Lea, which had been widened to take industrial barges containing the new steel for the Olympic build. The work was sympathetic but also heavily landscaped, now banks of wild flowers and regimented forests of silver birch will greet the excited sports fans. The Lea of old has lost its real wild and neglected appeal.

From my window the Olympic stadium stands just a quarter of a mile away, now a permanent feature. I am in favour of the Olympics and the Olympic park but I do sometimes miss that quiet hidden corner of East London, spending an hour casting a floating crust for the Channel Relief carp. On occasion I did hook the odd carp but never actually managed to get one on the bank, frustrating and now, never to be repeated.

Fishing the Hackney Marshes in 1877…

24 Saturday Sep 2011

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Here is an extract from ‘Angling’ or ‘How to angle and where to go’ by Robert Blakey from 1877.

‘The White Horse, Hackney Marsh, is a locality much frequented. The liberty of fishing here is let out either by the year, or by the day. The subscription for the season is ten shillings and sixpence; this includes the right of trolling  for trout or jack. One shilling is the charge for a day’s sport, including fly fishing  and bottom fishing, but not trolling. There are great numbers of fish here; and some capital sport is occasionally obtained.’

‘The Horse & Groom, at Lea Bridge, is a very old angling station, having been used as such for upwards of a century. The angler has here the liberty of two miles of water on each side of the house; and the terms are precisely the same as at the White Horse. The fish are commonly more numerous here than on any other portion of the river, chiefly on account of the locks being here, and the fish can ascend no further unless a passage be opened out for them. Sometimes the fish may be seen in immense shoals about the vicinity of the locks, and may readily be taken by even lowering naked hooks amongst them. Trout of twelve, pike of twenty-five ,barbel of nine, and chub of four pounds, have been taken out of the Lea in this locality.’