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Do you fish at Hampstead Heath?


joolpools

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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?

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Hi Joolspool

 

Random thoughts:

If it was me I'd look around for fishery management forums and try to get advice it the same way you have here.

When were the ponds last drained and desilted ?

 

The signs next to the fishing areas need to be repainted and updated.

On Hampstead 2 I'd stick a second sign at the other end of the footway. The signs should ask dog owners to keep their dogs on the other side of the barrier.

 

To give an example of the irresponsible behaviour I encountered a large and boucy labrador not under the owners controll ran onto me and knocked my tackle everywhere, the owner grapped the dog by the collar and pulled him away then immediately let him go and the dog ran straight back along the ponds edge knocking over a toddler who was with a group standing in the next swim.

 

Ideally to my mind the ponds be co-managed by a the formation of local anglers group as they have at Jacks, it exchange for they having some input into what to do with the ponds, they could arrange membership, day tickets, collect rubbish, oversee responsible behaviour etc.

For direction and funding purposes it would be called something like 'Hampstead Anging and Conservation Society' affliated to the Anglers Conservation Association.

Its often overlooked that anglers and conservationists have a lot of the same aims.

Being a seperate body it could also arrange work with other groups such as Les Webber's 'Angling for Schools' project and the British Association of Disabled Anglers (with a little work Hampstead 2 could be make accessible to wheel chair users)

 

My personal opinion is that its a case of 'broken window' syndrome, the ponds aren't mantained so good anglers stay away, with no peer pressure to behave responsibley, litter gets left in swims etc

 

Jacks is day ticket £5 and £50yr membership, but by midday Sat or Sun nearly all the 27 day ticket swins are taken. I'm happy to pay for good fishing, I'm even happy to subsidise concessionary rates for others in exchange for good fishing.

 

 

Regarding the Vale pond in would be totally irresponsible IMHO to fish for carp there, the margins are chocked with rubbish, branches etc and only about 6" to 12" deep, theres no way I would try to land a fish through that, the damage you would do them.

 

If its reasonably dry one weekend I (we ? anyone else prepared to volunteer ?) can walk round the ponds with you if you like and point out things.

Edited by rarepleasures

Tony

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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.

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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

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PM and several other features don't start working until your account reaches post #16.

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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PM and several other features don't start working until your account reaches post #16.

 

 

I was a member for a year at the Heath.

 

My thoughts:

 

Some lovely perch on the boating pond but bites few and far between.

 

People letting their dogs sploosh into the water ALL the time.

 

Parents that can see anglers still letting their kids throw stones and branches into the water.

 

Some beautiful big carp in the boating pond, but they seem almost uncatchable, probably due to all the plebs chucking bread in the water they are stuffed already.

 

The fishing litter bin is always full.

 

Fishing line and sometimes hooks can be found quite often around the waters.

 

My guess is only the people who stay overnight there bother getting permits.

 

The litter is horrible.

 

They could be fantastic fishing waters, I have heard there are some big pikle in the mens swimming pond and have seen carp of at least 30lb in the boating pond and one or two pushing that in the Vale of Heath pond.

 

I think that unless they are stewarded or patrolled better the waters are going to suffer.

 

Perhaps a £25 membership fee would fund such a thing?

 

Just my humble opinion.

 

Simon

www.myspace.com/boozlebear

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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

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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)

 

With Jacks because the lake is signposted as "Hadley Angling & Preservation Society" had because its regularly fished people's behavoiur is moderated by social pressure and they keep their dogs under control.

Tony

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because its regularly fished people's behavoiur is moderated by social pressure and they keep their dogs under control

 

This is an important part. If you can regenerate interest in fishing at the Heath and attract a few anglers then you may well find that it becomes almost self sufficient as most anglers will act responsibly and this influences others to do the same.

 

I would particularly like to see the fishing at Hampstead Heath kept free. It is a great shame that there are so few free fishing waters left in my opinion.

 

It sounds like clearing some of the swims might be a good start Joolspools. Please keep us updated on here as I for one would like to come and fish there once any issues have been resolved and once the season starts.

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