mark99

Morden Hall Park is private club so you cannot fish there. There is plenty of free fishing however. It's no pushover the fish are hard won. I went last week and landed a carp - the only bite of a session. Week before I had only one bite - was probably a carp as it shot off and I never saw it. Mark

Anyone read this? DEINDORFER Robert G. Title: The Incomplete Angler, Fishing Izaak Waltons Favourite Rivers It's hilarious. In the mid 70's this guy from the USA (whom is obviously a very talented author/writer and fly fishes a bit) he comes to the UK as he loves Issacs (sic) style of literature and fishes some of Issac Waltons rivers ..... contempating the difference and trying to feel like Issac did - quoting him here and there. He is helped along the by various peoples like Dick Walker, Archie Braddock, Dickie Carr, Ade Scutt........ but it's the observational humour thats great - really picks out the Britishness and our absurdities ...... gently takes the ****. This is top writing! Rgds Mark

I've never seen the Hiz or been to Hitchin. Looking at easily accessed online resources however the Hiz does flow through Hitchin. To deny this is incorrect. Priory Park appears to be the source of the Hiz and it's no more than a streamlet, not capable of sustaining roach of any size or numbers. However the Hiz at Hitchin Priory looks like a nice roach river. Look below at the website and the river picture. http://www.goingdigital.co.uk/venues.php?i...n-hertfordshire Perhaps this was the swim? Perhaps when talking of catching roach in Priory Park one should talk about Hitchin Priory? Mark

As regards rivers drying up - there are rivers that do this naturally = esp in chalk or limstone strata - it does not mean that all of the river dries up necessarily. For instance - in the River Mole in Surrey, considerable flow dissapears into "swallow holes" along the chalkly North Downs sections and some flow re-appears later downstream (basically the river goes underground for a while). In very dry drought years, the river bed can be dry (around Leatherhead) as water losses are total through the swallow holes, yet upstream and downstream there is flow. The fish just move away during drought as it's not an overnight thing. You can see the whirlpools where the flow goes underground. The Herts rivers like the Minram, Oughton, Beane, Gade, Hiz are chalk streams and may suffer from similar underground flow losses in sections. Abstraction too makes things worse. Mark

I remember years and years ago, R. Walker discussing the capture of 14 two pound roach from the Hiz amongst other notable captures of his of other fish in an article (probably read this in an Walker "anniversary special" in A. Times) long after the event. IIRC he mentioned that the capture was from a private pool stretch, virtually unfished and also he rated it as containing little in the way of angling merit as the fish he explained were leftovers from the era of Issac Walton where they were often referred to as river sheep - unpressured, naive and easy to catch. He probably named the river then because it was no longer viable as all the fish were long gone for whatever reason (one off pollution, long term pollution, abstraction etc). IIR, he went on to state that his catch of est. 1000(!) two pounders over the years was a better indicator of his ability rather than a one off catch of 14 two's. Also of course Walker caught big roach from the Beane up to 3.4oz - a fish he mentioned in very poor condition that was down in weight from peak. Mark