South London fishing

[Guest Steve Burke]

In my day at Crystal Palace Park Lake there was a boom across the far eastern end of the lake to keep boats away from anglers. Juniors weren't allowed to fish there but the fishing was better elsewhere where it was quieter.

 

My favourite area was about half way along the southern bank at the far right end of a stretch of concrete or tarmac bank. Casting further to the right meant I was fishing an area where the fish weren't continually spooked.

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm

[Guest chesters1]

boats were everywhere when i was a kid ,i only have hazy reccolections now but we used to cast directly at a monster that lived on the edge of the pond ,most times it was fish where you can as it was always packed,remember the lad next to me losing his reel (if only he had tied his line to the spool properly)

[Guest Steve Burke]

The monsters were dinosaurs and I used to fish with them roughly opposite me and somewhat to the left. I can't recall having much trouble from boats, but do remember getting good bags of roach on float-fishing bread, especially late in the day.

 

That swim also produced my first big perch. An old boy taught me that deadbaits fished in the margins as the light faded were deadly. And he was right, both at Crystal Palace and elsewhere!

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm

[Guest Steve Burke]

At South Norwood Lake, which I think was originally an old reservoir, the near end was shallow and the far right in particular was deep - much deeper than a typical park lake. On the left of the shallows there was an island which was the most popular area, but we youngsters often got pushed out of there by adults.

 

My favourite swim was the first one open to fishing on the right bank, just past the cafe. You could ledger againgst the island there or float fish the margins. Unfortunately, when the adults saw us catching more than them from that swim they promptly got it closed!

 

It was there that a friend hooked a perch in the eye. In trying to get the hook out the eye was left on the hook. Danny dropped the float back in and wiped his hands, only to see the float immediately dip. Believe it or not it was the one-eyed perch!! Who said fish feel pain?

 

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Wingham Fisheries

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/fisheries/wingham.htm

[Guest herman]

In answer to youre question colin yes they are, alot of people think they are close to Bromley but they are closer to Biggin Hill.

I have not fished them for many many years but i am sure it is still free but i am not sure what state it is in but i think it is still o.k

Not far south from there there is a big 70 acre pit owned by Holmesdale angling society who have there own website, a angler took over 300lb of bream last season in a 24hr session but pre-baiting is a must,there is also some big pike in there, the river darenth flows through it with rumours of some catfish being caught, have a look at there website.

cheers

[Guest Bill Eborn]

Great to hear about you catching fish in the Wandle. I was living in your neck of the woods during the late eighties, early ninties and although this was before I could use my son as a good excuse to invest in some fishing tackle. I often used to wonder down the Wandle fantasising about fishing it. The bit around Merton/Colliers Wood (near the Savacentre) looked nice too I remember. Up until I was seventeen I lived on the other side of the Thames at Brentford and fished a lot just below Kew Bridge on the north bank at Strand on the Green. This was in the days when matches upstream at Richmond could be won with over twenty pounds of Dace although I was about ten thousand miles away from that level.

 

What was nice about Kew (apart from all the Fullers pubs that line the bank) was that there was a gravel bottom to the river there and we used to wade out on the inside of the islands where the boats were less of a problem and work a stick float, the best time I remember being either side of low tide. I read an fishery review on a rival website a while ago about the fishing at Twickenham which said that although the Dace fishing has declined, the Bream and Roach have really come on in recent years, with breadflake best (because of the duckfeeding that goes on around there).

 

By the way, now that the Wandle seems to be doing O.K, moving over to West London, does anybody know if the Brent is fishing at all, where I used to live in Brentford there was a short stretch which came off the Grand Union Canal that stank to high heaven. I fished it once or twice just as an experiment and to use up some maggots and gained the impression that it was fishless, but i read somewhere else that that particular stretch of the canal has improved a bit now, so it may be that the little river has improved too.

 

Cheers

 

Bill

[Guest peter morton]

Colin,

Unfortunatly the lake in Crystal Palace Park has closed,as the whole area is being landscaped and restored with a grant from the National Lottery.I have been told when it reopens that fishing will not be allowed.

This will be a great shame as it will deprive a great many locals of a decent venue.The one remaining lake is the intermediate lake behind the concert bowl,but this is only fishable with a Crystal Palace club ticket (no day tickets)for which there is quite a long waiting list.

South Norwood Lake is making a slow comeback from a major fish kill due to deoxegenation a couple of years ago,but is nowhere as good as it was,but it's getting there,so may be worth a try.

PETER

 

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HAPPINESS IS A ROD IN YOUR HAND

 

[This message has been edited by peter morton (edited 09 November 2001).]

[Guest Matt P]

I've lived in S London all my life until, horror or horrors, moving north of the river about six months ago. (Although that's a mixed blessing because I do have the tidal River Lea within easy walking distance now which has yielded some nice bream, chub, carp and pike for me this season...)

 

But anyway, you live in Streatham and need some local fishing... As well as Crystal Palace and Norwood, you've got Wandsworth and Tooting Common Lakes on a Wandsworth Council season ticket - but it seems a bit of a rip-off frankly for what's on offer. I never bothered. Silty lakes, a few carp. Battersea Park, which is also Wandsworth Council and has a similar season ticket deal, is more interesting, although less so than when I was a kid when you could fish anywhere in the lake for free and catch carp, roach, bream, eels and flounders(!). Now it costs and you can only fish a small section of the bank. Another pond worth a try is One Island Lake at Mitcham. It's the smaller of the two lakes on Mitcham Common. The bigger one, I gather, has been netted out recently; why I don't know. The smaller one has carp, perch, some nice tench, and maybe a few surprises. It's free. Pen Ponds in Richmond is on a Royal Parks season ticket. As is the Serpentine in Hyde Park. I phoned the Park Wardens the other day, interested in fishing here (I never have, just always knew you could). They said it costs £14 for a year and less than 20 people have taken up the offer this season. I don't know what's in there, has anyone tried it? Other places - the Thames obviously, and Richmond to Hampton Court's definitely the best free fishing in London. The Wandle - I don't know where you tried but Merton Abbey Mills is a popular spot, also Plough Lane to Wandsworth, and upstream at Mitcham. Never had much luck there myself though. Clapham Common is free fishing: two small ponds, lots of optimistic carp anglers fishing on the pavement. Wimbledon Park Lake looks fantastic but the rights are owned by an infuriating shadowy "club", apparently, who won't even answer enquiries about membership enclosing an SAE (I tried). Don't know about the ponds on Wimbledon Common. Surrey Docks has fishing but I've never tried it - I think it's day ticket.

 

Interested to hear people talking about fishing the tidal Thames at Chiswick and downstream - I fancy a go myself with a stick float round there this winter, maybe even as far downstream as Putney. Anybody tried recently?

[Guest Bill Eborn]

Interested to hear people talking about fishing the tidal Thames at Chiswick and downstream - I fancy a go myself with a stick float round there this winter, maybe even as far downstream as Putney.  Anybody tried recently?

 

No I haven't Matt but I thought I might have a go for old times sake, next time I come up to town. I thought it might be a nice place to introduce my son Holden to the delicate art as well, so if you or anyone else would like to join us you'd be very welcome.

[Guest Allan]

Reading some of these posts, reminds me of the mornings on the way to School, when Bob James and I used to stand at the railings, around the pond in King Georges Park, and watch the Bream tails waving in the air as they fed.