GOLDEN DELIGHTS

                                 

We were all dreaming of sunny springtime days of tench and crucian fishing when we woke to the present coronavirus nightmare. It then dawned that the health crisis might last until October and instead of that first summer cast for tench, it might be for an autumn barbel.

So to cheer our Wimborne club members up I thought it would be rewarding to go down memory lane and remind ourselves of the classic tench and crucian lake that we have created during this past three years. This was the challenge as we began digging ...

Mud, mud, not so glorious mud was the start of the project, for we had to remove years of silt from what was once a trout fishing lake. Following are the before and after pictures ...

Into this beautiful tranquil pool and with the help and support from the EA’s Culverton Fish Farm and the Angling Trust, we stocked with some cracking tench and small crucians from various sources ...

... and as chalk stream river water flows through and encourages thick weed growth, they have all grown fat and bred profusely. The babies are numerous and cute as fish can be.

We had to protect these valuable gold bars so built an otter fence around the lake and ran strings over it to protect them from cormorant predation.

Suitably protected, the fish have grown fast, the crucians to a pound and a half and the tench to approaching four pounds, which given the thick weed is quite big enough.

So our members and guests have enjoyed some idyllic angling in this deepest Dorset countryside, surrounded by fields and serenaded by bird song. I've even managed a few battlers myself ...

 

So I’ll leave their smiles to say what we all hope will be a return to normality very soon. Keep safe and survive this crisis by being patient for that magical first cast.

... and if you prefer bigger fish, our lower pond holds many pristine carp, so enjoy when you can ...

For more details of our Pinnock Lakes fishery please visit our website : www.wimborneanddistrictanglingclub.co.uk

A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

what a cracking stretch of river for a match

At last, a river match for us all to enjoy, the first on WDAC waters since 2011 and what a truly great day it proved to be.

Ten anglers shared in a splendid social occasion and all ten anglers taking part actually caught lots, 55lbs 5ozs of mainly roach to be precise … and all thanks to that club stalwart and river roach champion, Mike Cullen.

He motivated the club and us running water anglers, dealt with all the permissions, pegged the stretch at Bailey’s and sorted the draw.

this was my second choice of swim but Stu D drew it - lucky ...

I knew which of four pegs I’d have liked but needless to say, with my luck at the draw-bag in the past, I didn’t get any of them. I’d never fished a pegged match before but I’d drawn peg 7 in the middle of no-where. It didn’t matter because someone had promoted me on the clubs’  website as a ‘roach fishing legend’ so I was always going to blank – wasn’t I!

However, the river Gods had been very kind, for conditions were as good as we’ll ever get for a match. The water was fining down after a flood, the colour and flow excellent, the weather warm and overcast, the light wind upstream and across. We could control our floats in the middle of the river perfectly, so we had no excuses for blanking, even me.

bagging roach on a previous day - this is the swim that Brian drew - curses!

In spite of being in the ‘wrong’ swim I felt quite confident and after the whistle a ball of ground-bait [with secret additions!] had been lobbed out mid-river. Then first cast with bread punch on the hook, the float buried and a 12oz roach soon slid over the net. Wow, I could hardly believe it, I hadn’t blanked after all and when the float kept on diving under every cast for the next twenty minutes, I thought I was going to bag up big time.

there are some beautiful roach in the stretch

Brian in THE swim - you can just see my spot by the track in the 'wrong' place and Martin in the Roach Bay upstream

I noticed friend and club president Brian on the next swim below giving me jealous glances because he was the one blanking. Then I hooked an even better fish, a one plus roach for sure … but it turned out to be a sea trout, the first I had ever caught from the Stour in thirty-seven years. It went well over a pound but sadly it didn’t count in the match so was reluctantly returned. It would have tasted delicious poached in butter and white wine!

After that my match started to unravel. I was hooking lots of roach but they were getting smaller as well as  falling off. I changed the hook of course, then agonised about whether to add another ball of liquidized … ‘you can’t take it out comes to mind.’ My swim had died and worse still, Brian had started to catch, only small ones at first but then his landing net started to wave about.

Drastic measures were required. I threw another ball of bait, put the rod down to rest the swim and went walk-about. This surprised a few friends because I wasn’t taking the match seriously enough, even though I was eager to treat the day as a social.

I feel there’s more than enough competition in the world without having to compete when indulging in my roach fishing passion and I was surprised how intensely everyone was taking it. No one took their eyes off their floats, all concentrating keenly they were. I was impressed. Frankly, I’d rather help friends catch more fish, even put them in my favourite swims and when it comes to contests, I’ve never been competitive … so long as I win!

Entering into the spirit of the occasion, I tried to distract my competitors by chatting and winding them up when they missed bites. I even took pics of Brian and Stu D because they were in the two best swims and the camera might put a curse on them!

Stu D bagging - I didn't manage to put him off

Much to my surprise, everyone seemed to be using maggots when it looked like a bread day – but what do I know. I even went back to my swim and tried maggots for a while but apart from one or two small roach, my heart wasn’t in it.

Balling in again, I started to concentrate and at two o’clock the bites started coming. I caught plenty, some requiring a landing-net and though several were being bumped or falling off, I was on a roll and thoroughly enjoying myself.

However, below me I could see Brian was catching two to every one of mine and they were bigger. I was being battered by a better angler … but may the best man win.

winner and club president Brian with his splendid bag of roach - nice one!

Brian was indeed the best man and he did win, bagging a splendid net of roach weighing 13lbs 4ozs. Stu D came second with 8lb 12ozs and Stu H our indefatigable Hon. Sec. did particularly well from end peg 1, for he seldom river fishes but landed a level 7lbs and the largest roach of the match, a beautiful pound plusser.

Stu H with another good bag of cracking roach

Stu D came second with a hard earned catch

I scraped together 6lb 2ozs and thoroughly enjoyed the struggle and the camaraderie, for watching a float bury in mid river and landing roach after roach is, in my book, as good as it gets. Even better, everyone was catching and that was very good news.

the club are successfully managing the predation issues

It was clear from the catches that cormorant predation is suppressing the average size of the roach but the fishing is getting better every year, their size is increasing and with cormorant controls now in place and successfully carried out by our Chairman Mike Hirsh and Stu Davison, the future is bright, the future is silver!

winner Brian Heap and organiser Mike Cullen

Everyone really enjoyed the match and with all of us catching lots of roach, we’re hoping that Mike Cullen is up for organising more river matches in the future. Happy days are here again.

a happy gathering of successful anglers

CORMORANTS vs. ROACH

bags of big roach would often include two pounders

Those of us who are old enough to have a free bus pass will remember the good old days when our local River Stour was full of big roach, with two pounders a realistic possibility every day and all wildlife flourishing.

cormorants are big birds with big appetites

roach are a favourite prey - these are some of the survivors from cormorant attack

Then in the 1980’s the invasion of non-native cormorants from Europe increased dramatically, the annual total reaching upwards of 23,000 birds every winter. Each cormorant eats about 1lb of fish every day and with roach being one of their favourite meals, our river fisheries were rapidly decimated.

the famous 'Roach Bay' on Wimborne's River Stour with hungry cormorants hunting our fish

the clubs regular match results over ten years charts a decline to zero roach - nothing caught = no matches

big roach are targeted first - this one weighed 1lb12ozs

As a result, some of the passionate roach anglers on our committee recently tackled the problem full on and applied to Natural England to control the birds by scaring or shooting. We were granted a licence to remove three birds and our Chairman scored three bull’s-eyes. 

BANG! - job done ... meaning some more of our native wildlife will survive, including our fish

The removal of just three birds may seem pathetic but as each cormorant eats at least 100lbs of  fish every winter, three dead birds means that at least 300lbs of our roach have been saved to fight another day … and some of the survivors will probably grow on to become the dreamed of two pounders. The fishing is already improving.

logging your sightings means more fish for us to catch

Better still, the club is putting the facts together to enable an Area Based Management Licence to be applied for and that means we will be able to control cormorants on all the club’s waters and remove more of them, a win win situation all round.

But YOU MUST HELP because we won’t be allowed to control more cormorants if you don’t log your sightings on the clubs website. It only takes a couple of minutes and we need EVERYONE TO DO IT, wherever you see a cormorant, anywhere around our club waters. 

they can be difficult to scare when hungry

Armed with the records of sightings, we have the evidence to prove that we have a problem. No one likes killing wildlife but we have a choice, non-native birds or our native wildlife that belongs here. Fewer cormorants means more fish will survive for our herons, grebes, egrets, otters and kingfishers to eat and every member to catch and enjoy ... and it's important to remember that fish are wildlife too and an essential part of a flourishing ecosystem. 

Bravo to all those who are helping to achieve a healthy balance of wildlife on our waters. Happy days are here again.

BBC - FILMING OTTERS

lots of gear

 isn't Ellie lovely - sure beats holding trophy roach

The BBC have been busy making a series of films this last year with the challenging title “Britain’s Great Wildlife Recovery”, challenging because there are so many examples of decline. Many of us are aware of these sad stories and unlike most of the media where bad news seems to be the only news, there appears to be a reluctance among the TV wildlife execs to face up to the facts and accept that not all is well out in the countryside.

just one of the major problems

dramatic declines in water voles © Stewart Canham

otters aren't always good news © Stewart Canham
The output is improving however, with the ‘Springwatch’ genre starting to tell the truth and explore the bad news stories of decline in a more balanced way … and to be fair, I’m led to believe that this new series is going to do likewise, even if the London based exec. producer is much keener on all the content being ‘happy’. I’ll let you be the judge of the content of the programmes, to be shown on BBC 1 from Sunday 18^th August at about 5pm. It’s a good ‘slot’ as we media types say, and the fact that the series will be showing lots of great British wildlife is a rare treat. The ‘River’ programme, including otters, is to be shown on Sept 7^th.

classic otter country

my Christmas special on BBC 2 

I recently became involved in the series due to my long history of filming otters. I made the first ever wild otter film in Shetland in the early ‘80’s, a BBC One film that attracted an amazing audience of 17.3 million, a figure that highlights the appeal and charisma of this fascinating animal. I followed this up with a 50min film on them for BBC Two, the inspiring experience of living with them in the wilds becoming the subject of my first book.

my first book on these charismatic animals

Regardless of your attitude to otters, there is no doubt that their recovery since the bad old days when our environment was poisoned with pesticides is one of the great success stories of modern conservation. Here in Dorset, they have now been recorded in every river in the county and as far as we can tell, this recovery is purely a natural one.

it's exciting to see them back © Stewart Canham

‘Recovery’ in some other parts of the UK  have been achieved by dumping large numbers of captive bred otters into rivers that probably couldn’t support them in the first place and I for one believe that releasing apex predators into the wild without an environmental impact assessment shows so called ‘conservationists’ in a very bad light. For instance, in 1996, 20 otters were dumped all at once out of the back of a van into Norfolk’s River Waveney and 25 into the Wensum, not only sentencing some of the otters to death through overcrowding and starvation but even worse, destroying the environment and fish life on which they were meant to survive. The perpetrators should be ashamed.

large carp are one of the otters favourite meals

If you’re trying to make a living by breeding carp and running commercial fisheries, the success of the otter recovery is not the best news you’ve had this past few years! However, the appeal of these ‘playful’ monsters to the general public is so great that anglers must keep their hostile attitude under wraps if we’re not to alienate many of Britain’s wildlife enthusiasts. It is one thing to get the law changed on cormorants, a success to be applauded but it ain’t going to happen with otters so we have to find other ways to ensure they don’t destroy our sport and our livelihoods.

perfect fish hide away ... and otters!

Working hard on our rivers and lakes to create habitat for fish to breed and grow successfully is the way forward … and I’ve seen enough examples around the world during my fifty year career making wildlife films to know that nature, given a chance, will recover and do well. More fish in our rivers will ensure otters are less likely to raid our carp lakes and garden ponds … and it might also be wise to cease the highly questionable habit of removing ‘nuisance fish’ from carp lakes, for these fish might get eaten instead of our prize carp.

goldfish snack from our pond

another victim of a nocturnal raid

the sight I dreaded at dawn

I have plenty of sympathy for those who have suffered losses, for our two fish ponds in the garden have been destroyed by the furry beauties. There are no fish left, even the tiny one year old minnows being eaten last week.

Many of these points were included in my interview with the lovely Ellie Harrison on the banks of the River Stour in Dorset - she’s as charming in real life as she is on the tele - though whether the issues get aired on the TV is beyond her control, mine too … but I did try.

preparing for filming

Ellie going over the script with Stephen Moss

dawn on the River Stour and an otter hidden below

Filming took place over two days. I found a family of otters before dawn on day one, a mum and two cubs but by the time the crew arrived they had gone to ground. I had splendid views of them though, one resting on the waters edge within three feet of my boots. Despite their raids on our garden and years of filming them around the world, I still get a thrill whenever I’m lucky enough to watch them.

two cubs following mum

family squabbles

mum spotted me but didn't flee

The crew were in place by sunrise on day two and I’d already found them one of the cubs which they followed in the misty sunrise.

on the trail of a Dorset otter

heading downriver to another otter family

My friend Stewart Canham was helping us and found the second family downstream, so we took off in hot pursuit and they were able to film Ellie watching them, though our best opportunity, when the family came ashore to groom was screwed by two canoeists who refused to delay their journey upriver with abusive language. [Canoeists really do need to start respecting the law and working on their people skills!]

I prefer being behind the camera!

briefing by producer Stephen Moss

Ellie trying to make sense of my ramblings

Then it was my turn to have the cameras turned on me as Ellie asked me about my experiences with otters past and present. I rabbited on about filming them in Shetland and ranted about the situation today so no doubt producer Stephen Moss will face a challenge when it comes to editing!

I'm hoping it will be a good series

It will just be a short piece in a film about rivers so I hope it contributes  a little to a better understanding of the problems faced by them and actually mentions our poor old fish too, so often ignored by everyone, despite being a vital part of a river’s biodiversity.  I won’t be holding my breath.                    BBC 2 Sept 7^th – 5pm.