River angling sadly is in decline, those that do fish rivers are getting older and most rivers haven't got easy access to parking with long difficult walks, yes there are exceptions, but this is to do with specimen size fish predominantly Barbell. Many clubs have a stretch of river just to make their portfolio's look complete, not giving it the attention of their still waters, especially if they have large carp. And there in lies the answer. At the last count, there were 935,000 rod licences sold, I dont think the E.A. would have a breakdown of all the categories of anglers who have a licence, but let's be generous. Let's say a third are river enthusiasts, thats roughly 308,000 across the country. Go into your local tackle shop if you have one ? What's predominates carp gear. I dont understand the fascination with this passive type of angling, but it appears that's what most of the 935k want. Me a river any day.
As a Reading DAA member I used to fish Theale Lagoon, sometimes known as ‘Amey’s Pit’, the big 120 acre lagoon seen from the M4 near Reading. It was renowned for bream but also good roach, big tench and some huge pike. I think it’s syndicate now.
It was full of all sorts of fish , hence why it did a 36lb pike , what you probably don’t know was the owner netted lots of the bream out and sold them
Environmental agency needs an overall many of our waters are falling into disrepair & huge sections being sold off to developers. I've taken to fishing small farm ponds. I clean them up & give them a fish it's kinda therapeutic & had some great crucian catches, a true treasure chest .
Midland and northern rivers have changed from prodigious silver fish waters, to big fish venues like the Trent. In some cases heavily polluted rivers that contained nothing bigger than a stickleback, are trout and grayling fisheries. Unfortunately water companies have returned to dumping sewage, and chemical spills continue to wipe out waters because paying the fine is cheaper than solving the problem. One day ticket lake from my childhood has been abandoned by the council. It was never spectacular, but threw up the odd nice tench and perch, or big pike. I wouldn't like to see what has become of it, preferring the memories.
Used to fish the little Cambridgeshire river delph a lovely fishery full of bream roach Rudd tench pike perch won my first match on at manea in the 60s ,I think it used to be Sheffield Amalgamated water ,I don’t think you can get on the water now as it’s an RSBB protected site ,shame would love to go back to it
My local club, King's Lynn Angling Association, lost the rights to fish sections of two lovely little rivers, the Wissey and the LIttle Oue some years back. I don't know the reasons but as they were the only little rivers they had, I was very dissapointed.
there's a couple that spring to mind in my area..not lost altogether but no more matches...earlstoke lake which was brilliant skimmer fishing is one and the other is longleat lakes.
This is why I believe in Associations of clubs and the main reason I started the TVAA 27 years ago. If all local clubs to a venue agree not to bid against each other and an association negotiates with the landowner for cheaper licences with the assurance that the Association will bailiff the venue, then everyone benefits. And not everyone will want to fish it and the place get overcrowded. Ours don't and we haven't increased our membership prices for over 20 years; in fact they came down then.
As a youngster, I joined Christchurch Angling Club to fish the lakes at Warren Park Farm. That same year, the club to lost those lakes due to the owner deciding to make them fishable for the tenants of the bankside chalets only! Two other lakes CAC lost were the Wash Pit and the Roach pit. One lost RDAA venue I have read about, but never fished, was the stretch of the Avon at East Mills in Fordingbridge, famous for its roach and barbel.
CAC had and lost other waters - I did fish Warren Park Farm, the Roach Pit and East Mills (less said the better!) - at one time they had Harrow Pond and Ivy Lane PIit
In my area we have lost Pallington and, until recently, Golden Springs. Radipole Lake has been severely restricted by the RSPB with the fishing largely confined to one bank alongside a noisy road. Years ago Eric Sherwood took me to a small stream or spring fed water at nether Cerne or upcerne ( I forget which as I was very young). It had beautiful big Roach. I remember he caught one on flake. It was a stunning fish and I desperately wanted one but only caught a Trout. Eric said it was a Rainbow but I knew it was a wild Brown, but he appreciated it more than me. I used to catch dozens in my local River Wey as well as some thumping Dace and Flounders would you believe?! All the fishing on the Wey has gone now. Fenced off or totally overgrown. Nowhere for the young anglers but Carp ponds! I'd love to return to Cerne for those Roach but no doubt it's an overstocked Carp puddle now! I actually do believe it is seriously! I've recently started fishing Sherborne Lake again which was a terrific Roach water 40 years ago before the Bream went in. The Bream though are lovely young bright fish and average 6lb and are well worth fishing for as they are no pushover. I caught one of 10.14 couple of weeks ago and I've had a few over 8lb. Hope they don't ruin it by stuffing them in keepnets ( too many matches for my liking). Anyway, as always, I'll enjoy it while it lasts! 👍
I remember Eric Sherwood; my dad worked with him. I didn't fish Pallington many times but before 'Pallet Racx' I used to negociate withe owner so that DDAS and WDAS members could fish for half-price day tickets. I did fish it three times one week as DDAS had an open on the Saturday which I somehow won but after that they didn't want me to fish any more...
@MarkWintleFishing Eric and Gordon Smallwood were good to me. They could see I was keen and living in Weymouth they went out of their way to help. Another guy, Bob Pitt used to pick me up and take me to the Stour as did Terry Hatcliffe the Weymouth tackle dealer. All these people are gone but the memories stay with me as it is with you I'm sure. My two grandsons will have a proper education when they start soon. Small Roach, Perch and going on from there. Wish we could avoid Carp til later but things have changed so.much it's impossible to do so!
There were 3 popular stillwaters within two miles of my house when I moved here 20 years ago. All three are Council owned and fishing is now banned on all three. Fishing is apparently regarded as incompatible with "conservation". Meanwhile, in a neighbouring authority, a progressive angling club, with the blessing of the local authority, does a brilliant job of managing fishing in the city's parks where fishing adds to the amenities. Another aspect of Lost Waters: previously accessible mixed fisheries re-purposed as carp waters where stocking and rules enforce this depressingly limited version of the sport.
I live near Little Canford, it used to be a CAC water apparently with some large Grass carp and a variety of other fish, however I didn’t find out about it until about 5 years ago, found out quite quickly it had been decimated over a year or so by the Otters coming over the field from the Stour at Little Canford (near Canford School) I now spend my time during the course season fishing along Little Canford in search of a Barbel, never seen one but speaking to the small handful of anglers I occasionally see some believe Barbel still frequent the stretch, I’m less sure, two solid seasons on there covering lots of swims I’ve only ever had Chub out, what do you think Mark?
I believe the owner of Bournemouth Fishing Lodge is looking at restoring the ponds at Little Canford. I have seen barbel at Little Canford but it was quite a few years ago, as you say probably mainly chub. When CAC first got it in 1998 I had a 2lb roach on my first visit but never repeated that feat.
@@MarkWintleFishing that’s interesting to read, I hadn’t heard that, it was incredibly weedy and from speaking to one or two people online all that was left in there was the odd fry and silverfish, all carp, tench, pike etc had been decimated. Interesting to read you’ve seen barbel in the stretch, I’ve walked it hundreds of times and just sat and watched swims, all I can ever spot is Chub, was this up the top end by the Canford bottom roundabout or in the deep water above the weir?
Your assessment of Little Canford ponds is correct, very shallow and silted and little bar tiny roach etc. so a major job to turn it around. I saw barbel in the shallows at the bottom of the first field of the CAC water working from the upstream end.
One large lake turned out some huge coarse specimens either side of WW2, before becoming off limits to all but friends of the landowner. It came back as a fishery a few years ago, with a season ticket costing £900pa, probably north of a grand now. If I still lived locally I *might* cough up and live on the water, but for four or five trips a year it's too steep for my pocket.
Personally I like you, think on the river's, their are many reasons. But ultimately it is down to one word and that is pollution. Pollution as I said to someone the other day, is not necessarily, seeing dead fish floating down the river, it can and is in most cases caused by farm and road run off effecting the gravels in turn the invertebrates and weed growth, fish are not then growing on because even if they manage to spawn, they can't get past the critical 1st few years. Look in any river now compared with say 10 years ago, you just don't see the shoals of fish, another issue is the invasive crayfish, which predate on the fish eggs. Added to this is sewerage discharge and abstraction, it is not good for the future. Stretches of river, I walk, looking for wildlife and in particular otters, I never see anglers on, the otters wouldn't be there if their was no fish, but the issue is that the fish that are from natural growth, are not in sufficient numbers, and with many year classes missing. Added to this most people coming into fishing generally want to fish stillwater's and for carp. Their appears to be very few pioneers in angling now, who go and fish waters that others don't. Bear in mind that a lot of the big barbel and chub have probably grown on to higher average size, due to lack of competition, and some of the underfished stretches could contain some big fish.
Our club used to share a stretch of the Great Ouse upper Bedford. We paid the farmer a few hundred pounds per season. The British record barbel was caught there. Somebody offered the farmer £20.000 of course we were thrown off. A few months later those horrible otters ate the record fish! . Poetic justice.
@@MarkWintleFishing hello Mark. I was at the Potters Bar club at the time. I’m no longer with this club but I believe the other club Milton Keynes got the water back. I saw the damage that otters did to this fantastic stretch of river. I saw hundreds of roach all huddled up together, they were frightened. I saw fifty chub stranded with no cover because the barbel had taken all available safe swims. I actually hooked the record barbel but I couldn’t hold on to it.
Very true Mark, I share many of the your thoughts on this subject. Very sad to see 😥
I've had many comments on this on Facebook as well.
River angling sadly is in decline, those that do fish rivers are getting older and most rivers haven't got easy access to parking with long difficult walks, yes there are exceptions, but this is to do with specimen size fish predominantly Barbell. Many clubs have a stretch of river just to make their portfolio's look complete, not giving it the attention of their still waters, especially if they have large carp. And there in lies the answer. At the last count, there were 935,000 rod licences sold, I dont think the E.A. would have a breakdown of all the categories of anglers who have a licence, but let's be generous. Let's say a third are river enthusiasts, thats roughly 308,000 across the country. Go into your local tackle shop if you have one ? What's predominates carp gear. I dont understand the fascination with this passive type of angling, but it appears that's what most of the 935k want. Me a river any day.
👍🎣
a lot of the big match venues of the 60s and 70s on the river witham are now inaccessible. overgrown due to lack of use.
As a Reading DAA member I used to fish Theale Lagoon, sometimes known as ‘Amey’s Pit’, the big 120 acre lagoon seen from the M4 near Reading. It was renowned for bream but also good roach, big tench and some huge pike. I think it’s syndicate now.
I think I fished there in a league match in 1990, catching some bream on the feeder.
It was full of all sorts of fish , hence why it did a 36lb pike , what you probably don’t know was the owner netted lots of the bream out and sold them
Environmental agency needs an overall many of our waters are falling into disrepair & huge sections being sold off to developers.
I've taken to fishing small farm ponds. I clean them up & give them a fish it's kinda therapeutic & had some great crucian catches, a true treasure chest .
Midland and northern rivers have changed from prodigious silver fish waters, to big fish venues like the Trent. In some cases heavily polluted rivers that contained nothing bigger than a stickleback, are trout and grayling fisheries. Unfortunately water companies have returned to dumping sewage, and chemical spills continue to wipe out waters because paying the fine is cheaper than solving the problem. One day ticket lake from my childhood has been abandoned by the council. It was never spectacular, but threw up the odd nice tench and perch, or big pike. I wouldn't like to see what has become of it, preferring the memories.
Used to fish the little Cambridgeshire river delph a lovely fishery full of bream roach Rudd tench pike perch won my first match on at manea in the 60s ,I think it used to be Sheffield Amalgamated water ,I don’t think you can get on the water now as it’s an RSBB protected site ,shame would love to go back to it
My local club, King's Lynn Angling Association, lost the rights to fish sections of two lovely little rivers, the Wissey and the LIttle Oue some years back. I don't know the reasons but as they were the only little rivers they had, I was very dissapointed.
there's a couple that spring to mind in my area..not lost altogether but no more matches...earlstoke lake which was brilliant skimmer fishing is one and the other is longleat lakes.
I fished a few opens on Longleat in the mid 80s before the carp went in, did OK.
This is why I believe in Associations of clubs and the main reason I started the TVAA 27 years ago. If all local clubs to a venue agree not to bid against each other and an association negotiates with the landowner for cheaper licences with the assurance that the Association will bailiff the venue, then everyone benefits. And not everyone will want to fish it and the place get overcrowded. Ours don't and we haven't increased our membership prices for over 20 years; in fact they came down then.
As a youngster, I joined Christchurch Angling Club to fish the lakes at Warren Park Farm. That same year, the club to lost those lakes due to the owner deciding to make them fishable for the tenants of the bankside chalets only! Two other lakes CAC lost were the Wash Pit and the Roach pit. One lost RDAA venue I have read about, but never fished, was the stretch of the Avon at East Mills in Fordingbridge, famous for its roach and barbel.
CAC had and lost other waters - I did fish Warren Park Farm, the Roach Pit and East Mills (less said the better!) - at one time they had Harrow Pond and Ivy Lane PIit
In my area we have lost Pallington and, until recently, Golden Springs. Radipole Lake has been severely restricted by the RSPB with the fishing largely confined to one bank alongside a noisy road. Years ago Eric Sherwood took me to a small stream or spring fed water at nether Cerne or upcerne ( I forget which as I was very young). It had beautiful big Roach. I remember he caught one on flake. It was a stunning fish and I desperately wanted one but only caught a Trout. Eric said it was a Rainbow but I knew it was a wild Brown, but he appreciated it more than me. I used to catch dozens in my local River Wey as well as some thumping Dace and Flounders would you believe?! All the fishing on the Wey has gone now. Fenced off or totally overgrown. Nowhere for the young anglers but Carp ponds!
I'd love to return to Cerne for those Roach but no doubt it's an overstocked Carp puddle now! I actually do believe it is seriously!
I've recently started fishing Sherborne Lake again which was a terrific Roach water 40 years ago before the Bream went in. The Bream though are lovely young bright fish and average 6lb and are well worth fishing for as they are no pushover. I caught one of 10.14 couple of weeks ago and I've had a few over 8lb. Hope they don't ruin it by stuffing them in keepnets ( too many matches for my liking). Anyway, as always, I'll enjoy it while it lasts! 👍
I remember Eric Sherwood; my dad worked with him.
I didn't fish Pallington many times but before 'Pallet Racx' I used to negociate withe owner so that DDAS and WDAS members could fish for half-price day tickets. I did fish it three times one week as DDAS had an open on the Saturday which I somehow won but after that they didn't want me to fish any more...
@MarkWintleFishing Eric and Gordon Smallwood were good to me. They could see I was keen and living in Weymouth they went out of their way to help. Another guy, Bob Pitt used to pick me up and take me to the Stour as did Terry Hatcliffe the Weymouth tackle dealer. All these people are gone but the memories stay with me as it is with you I'm sure. My two grandsons will have a proper education when they start soon. Small Roach, Perch and going on from there. Wish we could avoid Carp til later but things have changed so.much it's impossible to do so!
There were 3 popular stillwaters within two miles of my house when I moved here 20 years ago. All three are Council owned and fishing is now banned on all three. Fishing is apparently regarded as incompatible with "conservation". Meanwhile, in a neighbouring authority, a progressive angling club, with the blessing of the local authority, does a brilliant job of managing fishing in the city's parks where fishing adds to the amenities. Another aspect of Lost Waters: previously accessible mixed fisheries re-purposed as carp waters where stocking and rules enforce this depressingly limited version of the sport.
I live near Little Canford, it used to be a CAC water apparently with some large Grass carp and a variety of other fish, however I didn’t find out about it until about 5 years ago, found out quite quickly it had been decimated over a year or so by the Otters coming over the field from the Stour at Little Canford (near Canford School)
I now spend my time during the course season fishing along Little Canford in search of a Barbel, never seen one but speaking to the small handful of anglers I occasionally see some believe Barbel still frequent the stretch, I’m less sure, two solid seasons on there covering lots of swims I’ve only ever had Chub out, what do you think Mark?
I believe the owner of Bournemouth Fishing Lodge is looking at restoring the ponds at Little Canford.
I have seen barbel at Little Canford but it was quite a few years ago, as you say probably mainly chub. When CAC first got it in 1998 I had a 2lb roach on my first visit but never repeated that feat.
@@MarkWintleFishing that’s interesting to read, I hadn’t heard that, it was incredibly weedy and from speaking to one or two people online all that was left in there was the odd fry and silverfish, all carp, tench, pike etc had been decimated.
Interesting to read you’ve seen barbel in the stretch, I’ve walked it hundreds of times and just sat and watched swims, all I can ever spot is Chub, was this up the top end by the Canford bottom roundabout or in the deep water above the weir?
Your assessment of Little Canford ponds is correct, very shallow and silted and little bar tiny roach etc. so a major job to turn it around.
I saw barbel in the shallows at the bottom of the first field of the CAC water working from the upstream end.
All down to how big your pockets are
In some cases 'new' landowners don't seem interested in allowing anglers to continue fishing venues.
One large lake turned out some huge coarse specimens either side of WW2, before becoming off limits to all but friends of the landowner. It came back as a fishery a few years ago, with a season ticket costing £900pa, probably north of a grand now. If I still lived locally I *might* cough up and live on the water, but for four or five trips a year it's too steep for my pocket.
Personally I like you, think on the river's, their are many reasons. But ultimately it is down to one word and that is pollution. Pollution as I said to someone the other day, is not necessarily, seeing dead fish floating down the river, it can and is in most cases caused by farm and road run off effecting the gravels in turn the invertebrates and weed growth, fish are not then growing on because even if they manage to spawn, they can't get past the critical 1st few years. Look in any river now compared with say 10 years ago, you just don't see the shoals of fish, another issue is the invasive crayfish, which predate on the fish eggs. Added to this is sewerage discharge and abstraction, it is not good for the future. Stretches of river, I walk, looking for wildlife and in particular otters, I never see anglers on, the otters wouldn't be there if their was no fish, but the issue is that the fish that are from natural growth, are not in sufficient numbers, and with many year classes missing. Added to this most people coming into fishing generally want to fish stillwater's and for carp. Their appears to be very few pioneers in angling now, who go and fish waters that others don't. Bear in mind that a lot of the big barbel and chub have probably grown on to higher average size, due to lack of competition, and some of the underfished stretches could contain some big fish.
Our club used to share a stretch of the Great Ouse upper Bedford. We paid the farmer a few hundred pounds per season. The British record barbel was caught there. Somebody offered the farmer £20.000 of course we were thrown off. A few months later those horrible otters ate the record fish! . Poetic justice.
Does anyone fish it now?
@@MarkWintleFishing hello Mark. I was at the Potters Bar club at the time. I’m no longer with this club but I believe the other club Milton Keynes got the water back. I saw the damage that otters did to this fantastic stretch of river. I saw hundreds of roach all huddled up together, they were frightened. I saw fifty chub stranded with no cover because the barbel had taken all available safe swims. I actually hooked the record barbel but I couldn’t hold on to it.
I've posted a short story on my Facebook page about the sad demise of Cheshunt reservoir. I have another story in the pipeline.
Yo