River Wandle and Inner City Fishing - update

[Peter M]

argyll:

The first fish I ever caught was in Victoria Park boating lake, second fish was out of the regents canal on the other side of the road. Always fancied having a little trip back to the canal to see how its fishing.

I work in Bethanl green right by the regents canal and occasionally have a fish after work or even in my lunch hour. there are still quite a few roach and perch, with tench and now carp to keep things interesting.

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

i can only guess argyll lol....theres some big old carp down there....chuby i do agree,about then areas at night ,during the day tho it dont bother me im young myself ,and i have the gift of the gab :cool: and a mean irish right hook...hehe...intersting what peters is saying i never knew ther was tench in there!doesnt it run up o the angel?or is that a difrent cut?

[Peter M]

I often walk down to take a look at the section right by vicky park and have spoken to the local anglers who fish it seriously, they told me the occasional chub is known to turn up. on the wide section below the lock and where the Hertford union canal joins the regents canal I saw a huge shoal of bream early this year Ratty you are right, the regents canal goes through the Angel islington.

[gorton]

I dont know if it is any good to you chaps but over the last 2-3 seasons there has been some decent coverage of Wandle on the river reports section on the "Barbel Fishing World" site, you might find it interesting, a bit secretive but it will give you an idea of some of the catching areas.

 

Hertfordshire man myself so dont really know the river, hope it helps.

[argyll]

Looks like the London media think they have a good story. This was in yesterdays Independent

 

 

Trout caught in London again after river is transformed

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

20 July 2004

 

 

It sounds an ecological impossibility, a trout stream in the middle of London. But trout are flourishing in the river Wandle, one of the capital's largely forgotten rivers such as the Fleet, the Walbrook and the Tyburn.

 

The Wandle has been reborn in one of the most remarkable environmental transformations seen in Britain. In 25 years, what was a lifeless drain through industrial estates and dense Victorian housing, entering the Thames just down from Clap-ham Junction, has come alive with substantial fish such as dace, roach, chub and barbel. Most astonishing is the population of brown trout, fish which need clear, well-oxygenated water. They are the surest sign of river health.

 

Last year, a fly-fisherman caught a 21/2lb trout in a section of the river next to Wandsworth council's bin lorry depot. This is believed to have been the first trout caught in London for 70 years, and the first caught on the fly for more than a century.

 

The Wandle runs for nine miles, from Croydon and Carshalton, at the foot of the North Downs. Even in its lower reaches, where it joins the Thames, fish can be seen. Under the bridge carrying the South Circular Road, in the Wandsworth one-way system, shoals of dace dimple the surface of the clear water.

 

All along the river, beside factories and derelict sites and housing estates and shopping centres, there are fish: gudgeon, roach and, most notably, pods of big chub, some of which are three-pounders, or even heavier.

 

Every few hundred yards or so, a fisherman was after them. The guide was Alan Suttie, a former illustrator and local resident who has perhaps done more than anyone to raise the Wandle's profile, running projects involving fund-raising, restoration and cleaning work, and the education of local children in the wonders of their recovering river.

 

A keen fisherman for 47 of his 53 years, Mr Suttie speaks with passion of the Wandle's rebirth, and with humour of the obstacles to it, such as the rubbish still regularly dumped in the water, supermarket trolleys being a special bugbear. "I'm sure the supermarket trolley is becoming an indigenous species and will eventually breed," he said.

 

But later, standing on a bridge on a lovely stretch of the river in Morden Hall Park, he said: "One day this will be a salmon pool." And it was difficult not to believe him.

 

The rebirth of the Wandle has been possible because it is the most prolific sort of trout river, a chalk stream, fed by pure water from springs in the North Downs chalk, the same sort of watercourse as celebrated trout rivers such as the Test and the Itchen in Hampshire, and the Kennet in Berkshire.

 

Wandle trout were famous. Frederick Halford, the Victorian angler whose writings gave birth to modern fly-fishing, was a Wandle regular in the 1860s and 1870s. But London industry was drawn to the river to take advantage of the powerful flow caused by its relatively steep incline; it falls 100ft in its nine-mile course. Eventually, its banks were lined by 90 mills, producing goods from dyed cotton and leather to gunpowder and snuff. The once-pristine chalk stream ended up brightly coloured, foam-flecked, stinking and dead.

 

But the industry has dwindled and in 1995 Thames Water mounted a multimillion-pound clean-up after a sewage spill killed thousands of fish. As water quality has improved, aquatic insects and other small invertebrates, crucial fish food such as shrimps and water snails, have returned, and the Environment Agency has restocked it with several fish species.

 

Chris Dutton, the agency's local fisheries officer who has overseen the restocking, said that in 1980 when he came to the river, electro-fishing of several miles of it might produce one fish, and all the first restocked fish disappeared. But the trout that the agency stocked it with in 1996 are still there. "I think it's brilliant," Mr Dutton said "And it can only get better."

 

[ 21. July 2004, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

yes peter i was sure it does ive walked it from up near stratford all the way down to angel,that was at night tho so i didnt see anything!its good to hear the fish are stil there,and by the sounds of it,theres a few of em! to.nice article argyll sir they will all be writing articles now.

 

[ 21. July 2004, 06:30 PM: Message edited by: Ratty46 ]

[WandleDuncan]

Just as an update on this thread, I'm pleased to say the Wandle's well on it's way to recovery after last year's pollution incident. Plenty of people who've been fishing the Wandle have reported catching superb barbel, chub, roach, dace and some big trout too. Trout were spotted spawning for what's thought to be the first time in 100 years last winter. We've got an active fishing club going on at the Wandle Piscators as well as at the Morden Hall Angling Club, and we've been engaging in regular riverfly monitoring as an indicator of the health of the river, as well as starting out on some habitat work. Without wanting to tempt fate, it's looking quite rosy at the moment...

[Newt]

Thank you for the update and for those useful links

[Anderoo]

That's great news, well done to everyone involved.

 

The Wandle was my little oasis of calm when I lived in Mitcham

[Angly]

I stopped my car near the bridge just past the The Bill TV studios just last week and got out to have a good look. It's the first time I've really looked at the Wandle for years. I used to walk past it as a lad on the way to work when Connolly Leather appeared to be dumping something into it, and boy has it changed since then! It now looks like a text book chalk stream, absolutely gorgeous! Crystal clear fast paced water, tons of streaming weed with inviting clear pockets, and was that one solitary juvenile chub I saw just sub-surface in the distance? Can't wait to get down there and recce all the access points.