joolpools

Don't think I can PM yet as Simon shuffled all my posts back into one but thank you for your encouraging comments, I need them. If you want to get involved then you can PM me as I daringly put my work email on p2 or 3 ish Thank you also for your nice comments. Very timely too (well timely that I've finally read this), as Environment Agency have just offered a small grant to get some consultancy advice on fishing improvements so I now need to obtain some quotes.

Belated thanks, very much for this useful advice.

QUOTE An excellent model of "inner city angling", can be found on Clapham Common, where the Clapham Angling Preservation Society, do great work in preserving the angling and encouraging new anglers into the passtime. They will always offer advice, as they were formd as a direct result of anti-angling activity on their own common. http://www.claphamangling.co.uk/ Thanks Dunk, will check out the Clapham Society as they may be able to save quite a bit of reinvention of the wheel

as a result of a petition from an angler, the Superintendent has approved the setting up of an Angling Club. A formal constitution is being drawn up and it is hoped that the new Club will advertise its first meeting early in the New Year. Membership will be an automatic result of acquiring a permit. In the mean time, if you want to get involved or find out more, please email me julie.brownbridge@cityoflondon.gov.uk and I'll email you the contact details of the people organising it. Other HH angling news: a report making the case for lifting the ban on fishing when cygnets are present will be presented to the March meeting of the Hampstead Heath Management Committee. The decision on this will rest with them. Two ‘Learn to Fish’ days were run during the summer holidays and proved very popular. Tackle bins have been installed and signage about the new Fishing Regulations is nearly ready. In-house training has been provided for staff about the new Fishing Regs so they will hopefully be able to liaise with anglers and check permits regularly once the signage is up. A sunken bird raft which was snagging lines on Hampstead No2 has been removed. We have met with Environment Agency Fisheries staff, who are putting in a bid for a grant (from rod license income) for improvements to angling facilities at the Heath. sorry about this, please forgive Please don`t spread one post over multiple posts, it makes the forums look untidy and more difficult to read, Thanks, Si...

I want to let people know what's going on by posting here again but want to get my no. of posts up to 16 so that i can also pm you to make sure you get the message.... so i'm going to be very naughty and spread the news through 8 posts, hope I don't get booted off. This makes 9.

Another v interesting angle, ha ha, on angling at the Heath. I'm v grateful for all this information, thanks boozlebear. And a bit of inspiration too... nice to know you think the ponds have the potential to be fantastic. I think the parents/children thing may just be ignorance on their part, praps we have an educational mission as well as all the other jobs that need doing. Or need to think about dedicated enclosures, from which other users are kept out (tho i know that would be heresy to some other users who loathe fences on the heath). I'm shocked to hear about the bins, i thought keeping on top of litter was one thing we were good at. I'd be interested to know which year it was that you did fish here. I'm definitely taking all these constructive comments on board and will take them to our next ponds team meeting, see what can be done in the shorter term, e.g. re litter and patrolling, other stuff like membership i know would be further down the line. Thanks again, keep em coming... apparently if i can manage a few more posts i can pm youse

Thanks v much for telling me Newt, i'd best keep posting then

aargh rare pleasures, don't seem to be able to send you a personal message and am loathe to put my email address up here. Could it be because you've not enabled the bit in your profile that allows you to be sent them??? or maybe me bein stoopid

You're a star rarepleasures, thanks for all this excellent advice, some of which is very enlightening for me... e.g. i'd not realised we were suffering broken window syndrome but it makes a lot of sense. I had noticed in an old committee report that there were 500+ annual permits issued in 2001 whereas last year, not much past 100 mark. And I hadn't realised the cruelty implications of swims being next to shallow/vegetated water. Lots of food for thought for me here and I'm itching to make some improvements but my managers won't let me do much until we've thought through WHO can organise/oversee the work, it's a (lack of) staffing issue. Minimising dog disturbance & improving disabled access should be relatively straightforward tho. Re the Club idea, i think we couldn't get an Environment Agency grant if we don't keep the fishing free but it's still an idea meriting much more investigation&discussion. At least a decade ago in A to your dredging Q and I think it was only the bathing ponds. I'll try to work out again how to email you directly (couldn't last night) as I would v much like to 'talk' more and take up your v kind offer.

Hello all of you, sorry for the delay in replying. Thank you very much for reading my post rarepleasures, dbrennan, maddog and ayjay (you made me smile re Ladies). The nearby tackle shop contacts will be really useful, thanks. And rarepleasures aka tony?, thanks for the little nb, I wish I could prove you wrong but don't think I can right now. I've worked part-time at the heath about 4 years now and you're right, nothing has actively been done about angling or fish other than surveys 2002/3. Many of the ponds are in a sorry state generally, mostly devoid of aquatic vegetation, terribly nutrient-enriched which means they're prone to infestations of duckweed, toxic blue-green algae and most recently Azolla/water fern on the Viaduct pond/red arches, which depleted oxygen overnight and killed most of the fish. Attention's mainly been focussed on averting disaster. And the bathing ponds have taken up a lot of my time as the water quality is especially critical when people swim in them. We have made a start on more proactive stuff tho, we're trying to plant reedbeds on the Boating Pond for example. It now has water-mixers/oxygenating machines and barley straw to prevent blue-green algae. The barley straw seems to help water fleas to breed which feed the fish... i've heard fishing has improved there last 18 months. And a colleague has put in spawning mats for the carp. I think??? Vale pond is still popular for carp fishing cos they're bigguns and being at the head of the valley and spring fed, it has the best water quality of all ponds on the heath. Altho i can't quote you in the leaflet (i foolishly thought i might get some upbeat comments/fond memories!), I'd like to include your comments in a report to committee asking for more resources (person time basically) to improve the fishing facilities, so I am very grateful for your reply. I'd like to talk more if poss but not v au fait with forums, I'll see if i can send you an email. O and we DO clear up litter, it's someting we do d0, i have depth profiles of vale & hampstead2... there;s some siltation it's natural but lots and lots of deep water left, and sorry re yr troubles getting a permit, can't really say more than that publicly. And yep, aware of clashes between dog owners and anglers... irresponsible dog owners are an issue generally atm and action is being taken but not quick to solve. i could do with you to explain more about cormorants, i vaguely know anglers don't like em cos they eat fish but is there anything managers of a site can do. Can i also ask, do you have to pay to go to Jacks in Hadley?

Thanks for reading Meatballs. That's a good idea which I hope I can find time for... i need to talk to tackle shops at some point anyway re getting a discount for people who do our Learn to Fish sessions in August.

No it's free, you just need to get a fishing permit from Parliament Hill Staff Yard (near tennis courts by Highgate Road) tho I'm trying to make it possible to do online and by post as well. There's 6 ponds where fishing's allowed with carp, bream, rudd, perch, gudgeon, pike, tench, roach. Biggest carp in Vale of Health and Men's Bathing Pond I gather. Yep, you guessed right, the close season is March 16th to June 16th

I work at Hampstead Heath and have to prepare a new angling leaflet ready for June 16th. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about angling but there’s only me can do it. It would be nice to include some information about the different fishing ponds (there’s 6: Vale Pond, Mixed Bathing Pond, Hampstead No2, Viaduct (red arches), Mens Pond, Boating Pond) from an anglers perspective, and some nice photos of our fish (I gather some of the carp have names!). Can anybody out there help, e.g. with a 2 sentence review of a pond you use or picture of a catch you were proud of?