05 Wednesday Jun 2013
Posted in Carp
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!
11 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in General fishing, Music
Encouraging young anglers or indeed any angler to fish the rivers and canals must be a good thing. So with the new Canal and River Trust all singing from the same hymn sheet we can sigh a sense of relief as one body represents all who enjoy this network of water.
Looking at the new website http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/, there are plenty of videos and lovely images including Brian Blessed opening lock gates in mid laughter only in the manner Mr Blessed knows, from first impressions its looks ok if not a little cheesy. The fishing section shows you a list of commercial still waters in your area…. hang on Canal and Rivers Trust, surely the whole point is to promote, canals and rivers? Already the message is getting a little cloudy.
It seems the website is another example of .org.uk, gloss with very little content. For example this is what it states about fishing the canals and rivers of Britain, ‘Fishing rights to many stretches of our canal network belong to local fisheries or angling clubs. You can find their contact details using our ‘find a fishery’ search.’ Fine if a little vague but when I did finally find my local stretch of canal it states ‘click on the website for more details,’ well it is actually an email address but close, oh and an email address that doesn’t work!
We now get onto the Wanderers scheme where with just one season ticket you can fish selected stretches of canal throughout the UK for the cost of £20 per year. This sounds like a good idea, so I contacted the Canal and rivers trust and a reply from John came, with the good news that the Lea Navigation was to be included into this Wanderers scheme from April 1st. My details where passed onto another person who would tell me where I could obtain the Wanderers permit. A day later an email arrived from another John using a private email address (not the trust) saying that the Wanderers scheme was not to include the Lea Navigation. I replied asking who would know who does run the Lower Lea stretch and the reply was ‘As far as I know it is a club called Rural A.C., unfortunately I do not have contact details.’ A search for ‘rural AC’ came up with nothing.
So without this post sounding like an episode of BBC Watchdog, please sort your act out Canals and River Trust. I shall be fishing the Lea Navigation without a permit this season, my money is waiting, I’ve tried to support your cause and now after numerous emails and web searching I have given up. It’s a real disappointment that this is how our sport is run, when it could easily be done so well especially with many anglers looking for quieter waters to fish.
Here’s a song for the two Johns at the Canal & Rivers Trust…
15 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Reading
Following on from yesterdays post about authors and fishing (quite by accident) is a programme on Radio Four – Words on Water featuring John Andrews, Luke Jennings, Dexter Petley, Chris Yates and others. This is a great insight angling writers and what drives them to write, best you listen to it rather than read my clumsy scribbles!
And Caught by the River has just published another letter from Arcadia this morning featuring Dexter Petley. Read here.
07 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in General fishing
Tags
box, Hardy, hargreaves, jack, management, river, rod, victorian
Jacks stepson Simon, kindly sent me this link recently on river management. Although the snow is receding here in London, there is a cold wind keeping me inside tonight, so a spot of Jack seems to be in order in between conserving an old Hardy’s rod box. The box sourced by Mr Andrews of Arcadia, a fine service in keeping with the quality of the box itself.
So, as I prepare to travel to the Isle of Bute this weekend, my pike rods are to be sent in a plastic drain pipe via Parcel Force tomorrow morning and not in a rather battered but beautifully crafted pine box on the night sleeper to Glasgow.
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Pike
Tags
bung, by, canal, caught, esox, fishing, gimp, hertford, nature, On, park, pike, regents, river, victoria, winter, wire
It’s the start of January, work is back on the agenda, rain is lashing sideways on my window, even a kestrel has landed on my window sill to shelter from the driving rain and lost opportunities in search of pike over Christmas play on my mind.
Only now the unemployed, unemployable, retired or just plain fortunate can benefit from a short mid-week session in search of Esox. At weekends with limited time the challenge is to leave the comfort of your own home or the lure of the local for a pint of brown and an open fire. January is a fine month for short sessions in the pub, while others take themselves jogging around the park, detoxing and stretching muscles they thought they never had, the January pub is a quiet place for the guiltless few to be enjoyed before the joggers return in a month or two…dissapointed, as predictable as the returning swifts!
But a far more rewarding day can be had venturing out for pike! Armed with gimp wire, a small bag of basics, a few sprats and some plugs, one can be lost in a darkened grey scene with only the orange or yellow of a bung to focus on. So my next excursion will be on the Regents Canal where my friends narrow boat is moored for the winter months. It’s a spot that holds pike, only a few months ago I watched a young eastern european lad (wearing a jaunty placed grey/silver Trilby) spin for pike and although not connecting with one, managed to lure two away from their lair, only at the last-minute the pike veered off, maybe the pike saw that silvery hat!
So without Trilby I shall be on the Regents and The Hertford Union Canal around Victoria Park in E3 in the month of January and February in search of Esox with the added bonus of a wood burner and hot tea to make the experience a little more comfortable.
For those who don’t make it out this winter for pike may instead want to read ‘On Nature’ the second compilation by the Caught by the River crowd. Part of that crowd is John Andrews who has written (with a lot more skill than I can ever hope to) a piece titled ‘Winter Pike Fishing’, this short, sums up the pike and the pike angler perfectly for me. Other writers include Chris Yates, Dexter Petley, Luke Jennings, Bill Drummond and Charles Rangeley-Wilson.
Just as I write this an email has come in from John Andrews also supporting the January social scene with a gathering at The Stag in Hampstead on the 24th January with the first Caught by the River event of 2012. See you there?
02 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in General fishing
My current read is Jon Berry’s Beneath the Black Water a book that logs Jon’s pursuit and obsession of the ferox trout, one of Britain’s true mystical and wild fish. A large proportion of the book talks of the Alness boys and the surrounding area, coincidently the river Alness was the location were I first hooked a salmon. Before my first salmon trip my fishing partner Tony and I spent few long lunches in the St James area of London talking tactics and tackle after an expensive shop in Farlow’s of Pall Mall for various tube flies. Tube flies were unfamiliar to me and like most fishermen, shiny fishing tackle brings on the magpie effect, the Visa card probably came out too many times. The advice that came from Tony, who had regularly fished the Alness for ten years, was all new, but the unknown is what makes fishing such an exciting pursuit. One of my questions before the trip was “is it worth taking a fly rod for trout or spinning gear?” The answer was flatly “no, there’s no point when there is salmon in the river!”
On arriving in Scotland (with only one double-handed salmon rod) I was seduced by my quarry, the salmon, I was absorbed in my new surroundings, a complete contrast to the gentler southern english rivers I was used to. The Alness which runs for only twelve miles cuts its way through dark gullies with high cliffs of dark stone on one side, the other side covered with gravel banks and high trees of the Ardross forest. The river is spotted with huge boulders that takes the river on a fast flowing course occasionally broken with slower runs. The water was dark but clear like stewed tea without the milk.
As our week progressed the penultimate day was spent on the upper beat which was unlike all the other beats, no longer were we surrounded by forest and high cliffs but instead the landscape opened up to reveal heather and gorse. This upper beat (number six) ran slowly after flowing out of Loch Morie. With four days behind us of wading in fast flowing water this was a pleasant break, the sky was bigger and a sense of space gave way to a more relaxed approach, salmon fishing can get quite intense at times!
Above beat six was Loch Morie itself and at this point I wished that I had brought a spinning outfit or trout fly rod and ignored the advice given to me back in St James the previous month. Saying that, ferox hunting should not be taken lightly and stealing a day on Loch Morie to catch a ferox was fairly unrealistic, specialist down riggers, fish finders, weighted lures and most importantly a boat is needed and at that point in time I was unaware that ferox roamed the loch, but casting a trout fly would have been a welcome break. So back to the salmon fishing I went and finally at the end of my week a grilse was caught, small but my salmon rod had been bloodied.
While writing this piece I have come to the end of ‘Beneath the Black Water’ and now I have another piscatorial seed planted in my head. Not this year, perhaps not next year but at some time in the future I shall troll the depths of Scotland or Ireland and seek out the ferox trout.
12 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted in Pike
Tags
abu, baitcasting, canal, fishing, Hi Lo, lea, london, marco, navigation, pike, plugs, river, rod
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…
05 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted in Reading
Tags
andrews, caught, charles, chris, evening, jennings, john, luke, rangeley, river, stag, wilson, yates
Last night, Caught by the River held an evening with John Andrews, Luke Jennings, Charles Rangeley-Wilson and Chris Yates at the Stag in Hampstead. As John said “welcome to the CBTR lounge” and that’s exactly what it was, friendly, funny and at times quite moving. The ‘four’ all distinct in their style of writing and delivery created an atmosphere similar to that of a fireside chat after a day on the river, reading favourite passages and telling tales of monsters, lost and found.
Luke, you better finish that book…
03 Monday Oct 2011
Posted in General
A nice little video on Kelly Kettle firing and tea making by Chris Yates. For those who may prefer something a little stronger, pop into The Stag in Hampstead, North London, tomorrow night and enjoy a Caught by the River evening with Mr Yates, John Andrews, Luke Jennings and Charles Rangeley-Wilson.
The only way to view this video is to copy and paste the code below into your browser, most annoying but worth a watch over a cuppa…
28 Wednesday Sep 2011
Posted in The Lea Valley
Tags
alfred, back, bow, east, ford, great, history, lea, lock, mill, old, olympic, pudding, river, stream, waters
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.
the tuesday swim... 