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

IN THE THEATRE OF DREAMS

                           

Gerry with a dawn scrapper

Generosity is seldom a dominant trait in folk these days but friend Gerry Higham has it in spades. I first fished with him when on the Cauvery River in India, indulging in a marvellous overdose of ‘mahseer magic’. Sharing the sunrise with him while enjoying bite a chuck action and missing most of them is as good as life gets – lots of laughter in the best possible company.

Perfect Spanish roach

We shared a river bank again in December when roaching on the Ebro in Spain and got talking about football – as you do. Gerry has been an ardent supporter of Man U. since childhood and my local team is Southampton so he kindly invited me to watch the contest at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening. He also challenged me to a return fishing contest, for I had beaten him in Spain and he wanted revenge. [A full description of that match and witness statements etc. will follow in a future post].

The greatest football club in the world?

Gerry had kindly arranged for a tour of Old Trafford, so on Tuesday evening there I was at arguably the most famous football club in the world, standing by the hallowed turf in the ‘Theatre of Dreams’. 

Just a few of the stars

In the 'theatre of dreams'

They've won a few

Sir Alex didn't even put me on the bench

As I didn’t expect our football team to beat Man U. and keen to keep up the honour of us ‘southern softies’, I had secretly prepared a deadly cheese paste to ensure I beat him in the fishing match, not a nice way to show gratitude but it had to be done!

Gerry had already done a pitch inspection on the River Dane to ensure the match could go ahead. No doubt he had also sussed out the best swim for himself too! He had even bought a box of extra strong Kleenex, expecting my tears to flow twice during the day … dream on Gerry.

Coloured but fishable

Otters had been fishing here first

Despite arriving at the river earlyish, we immediately realised that we weren’t the first to fish the stretch that day, a family of otters having walked and swum upstream only an hour or so before our arrival. It sure is an indication of how well otters have recovered in England when they are breeding successfully within half an hours drive of Manchester.

Should be chub here don't you think?

Gerry's not smiling as he nets my first chub - funny that!

The match rules hadn’t been set, just so either of us could change them to ensure victory. Being the away team, Gerry gave me first choice of swim – I told you he was generous – which he immediately regretted because almost first cast my secret cheese paste that came with a government health warning had snared a modest chub from the heavily coloured flood water. 1: 0 to Southampton. I wondered if the score would be prophetic. [I doubted it as I had predicted a hat trick for Rooney].

A spectacular kitchen

No more scores by half-time when Gerry brewed a life-saving cup of tea and tasty bacon roll. I had hoped to fish a couple of chub swims to die for but the wind was so strong and the crack willows so tall that I didn’t intend to do so literally, even if it was a match to the death.

The 2 : 0 chub

The contest remained tense until I landed a second chub – nearly four pounds this one – and the Gods must have been smiling on us southerners as Gerry lost both of his chub … cracking under the pressure I reckon. Instead of chub he landed a giant minnow but felt he had a chance of winning when a text from friend Pete Reading suggested to Gerry that chub shouldn’t count – how disloyal is that! No last minute rule changes were allowed so the result remained 2:1 to the southerners. Would this be the score at Southampton v. Man U? Gerry was worried.

It was a big minnow

Sir Bobby Charlton in his youth

Anticipation builds as you walk to Old Trafford for the match, thousands converging from all over the world. And when greeted with friendly warmth and fed a great dinner in the executive lounge you realise that you’ve come to a very special place.

Just before kick off

On entering the stadium, the sight of this massive ground filled to the roof – 75,600 to be precise is impressive and when United equalised the noise of celebration was breathtaking. Southampton had scored first … to stunned silence from the home fans but much jubilation from the Saints supporters.

 Home fans nervous already

Man U on top in first half

I imagined keen fan Chris Yates at home, cheering as he listened on his radio. When Rooney scored again before half-time, with United creating some wonderful flowing moves, my prediction of a hat trick for Wayne looked promising.

Rooney scores his first

The Saints battered them in the second half

However, the second half was all Southampton, silencing the home fans as the Saints battered against United’s famous defence, nearly equalising but for a fine De Gea save from Lambert’s free kick. The Saints fans were in full voice and I thought I might have to offer the Kleenex back to Gerry as he was apoplectic with exasperation.

The Reds fans weren't happy

Despite Southampton's dominance, 2:1 it remained, reversing the result of the fishing match. So honours were even, especially as Sir Alex said that it was the best any opponent had played against them at home all season. I felt proud just to have watched them.

Van Persie free kick

It was an honour to be there

What an experience it had been, the spectacle, the colour, the noise, the friendship and the brilliant football ; sharing all this was one of life’s great privileges. Thank you Gerry, it was really kind of you, though it might be wise not to expect too much generosity from me when we next hold a fishing match!

NATURE ON YOUR DOORSTEP

          

Friends for many years, Simon King and I have shared the thrill of living in Shetland with our respective families while filming otters for the BBC. We both wrote books about the experience, having grown to love the place and it’s people, the otters too.

Simon is not ‘just’ the presenting star that we are familiar with on ‘Springwatch’ but a brilliant cameraman and film maker. He has helped me out with my films several times in the past with tricky sequences like hobbies hunting dragonflies – with predictably splendid results. So when he asked me to make a little film for him celebrating the local otters return to Dorset, a far cry from Shetland, then I was pleased to oblige, particularly as it was for a Wildfowl and Wetland Trust weekend he was hosting in London. The WWT is one of my favourite charities as I’m passionate about wild geese and the wonderfully remote places they live.

Wildest Shetland 

John Busby's lovely illustrations

a far cry from Dorset

'My' otters two cubs

She trusted me

Simon had hoped to join me so that I could film him with the otters but he’s so busy we weren’t able to make it happen. It would have been ‘harmonic convergence’, for when he was a schoolboy he joined me for a week or three when making a film for his dad John and the BBC on the New Forest. I was trying to teach Simon a few basics of the film making business. Maybe I succeeded for the rest, as they say, is history. The boy done good!

Anyway, the attached film is a brief celebration of the return of the otter, one of wildlife conservations greatest success stories. They were almost extinct in southern England, restricted to just a few rivers in Devon and Cornwall, Northern England and Wales but legal protection and more importantly, the banning of the pesticide poisoning of our  countryside allowed them to recover. It just goes to show how, given the chance, nature will bounce back.

Their return has created several issues in the freshwater world but I’ll be going into that in detail in future posts. In the meantime, enjoy the otters on you doorstep while you can. They are wonderful animals.

Dorset Otters by friend Stewart Canham