A local strectch of my River Nene in Northampton is 'free'. This stretch has also been knackered by the EA over the years by allowing both dredging and water extraction to the extreme.
The stretch runs through a small village and has recently been made "flood safe" by the Anglian Water Authority (a few walls to stop flooding of gardens / roads that have flooded twice in 17 years !). As a result of their "improvements" the river is now even shallower and has lost features (including numerous overhanging willows where there resides (sorry resided !!) a Chub to 6lb - that I have YET to catch !

I am utterly cheesed off at all this - however ....

How does one go about 'securing' a free water for the purposes of making it a day ticket (for example)
and ...
Would this then give me the right to 'improve' the stretch (namely by placing a dam wall to raise the level back up again !!)

I ask about securing the free stretch as I assume I can't 'improve' the stretch without owning the fishing / water rights

Any thoughts (or should I just dam it in the middle of the night

Try contacting the local newspaper or the town council.

Ask at your local council offices, take with you the OS map reference & find out who actually owns the land.

If it is the council the first thing they'll probably ask you is "can we see your insurance",

I know because i tried to lease a stretch of the Sow where some big pike, perch, river (wild?) carp & chub have come out, the council were quite willing to lease me it but i had to take on all the land that went with it (which was down as grazing land) & they wouldn't consider going any further untill i produced my certificate of insurance so they could verify i had enough cover incase a member of the public got hurt on the land (which doesn't have a public right of way across it so they shouldn't be on there anyway)!!.

When i tried to point out it would be a waste of time getting the insurance before i'd got the "rights" they just didn't want to know

The land wouldn't be a problem - it's farmers fields all the way down one bank and back gardens down the other !

So if nobody owns it ..... can I 'improve it' ??

Jon,

As with the others, I'd recommend talking to the council first. What you see as 'improvements' may be considered as increasing the chances of flooding, and would therefore not be appreciated. The other option would be to find out which farmer owns the fields and talk to him. He may be prepared to give you permission to make some changes on his side. As I understand it, the owner of the adjacent land has rights to the river bed as far as the middle.

I've got a small stream at the bottom of my garden, stuffed with Chub, Dace, Roach, and Perch, I fish it when I want to try experimenting with baits etc. I've made a few cosmetic changes over the years, and no-one has ever questioned it.....apart from the next-door neighbour who thinks I'm crackers

Paul

Jon

If the farmer's fields go down to the river, he probably owns the fishing rights but may permit "free" access, either that or he just does not care.

To carry out any work on the river you need the permisssion of the EA, talk to the local fisheries department at the EA in your region. You will also need to talk to the landowner and get his agreement.

Mike

Ah yes ..... the EA. I am NOT talking to them - they'll recommend dredging it and cutting back all fish holding features so I end up with a nice straight river of 1ft deep. T0ssers every man jack of them.
I'll speak to the farmer I think. Thanks !

You cannot do anything in the water without E.A. approval you could find your self in a very costly law suit.

I think you will find it does not matter if you own the land on either side or not.
The EA/water authority own the water and you will need to speak to them before doing anything.