Broads Authority - Not fit for purpose!

Anyone who has read my ramblings over the past couple of years may remember that I have tried to highlight the potential problems of the Broads Authority’s dredging policy. Well it seems the worst fears of anglers may be coming true. http://fishingsgreat.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/walking-precipice.html

Let me recap for those at the back;

The Broads Authority (an unelected quango) gave itself permission to dredge Heigham Sound through its own, in-house planning committee. This dredging is to appease sailors trying to use craft that are too big and unsuitable for a shallow system. Anglers have always been the poor relations of the wealthy sailing fraternity in the eyes of the BA.

The BA is using antiquated equipment when it is acknowledged by all that there are safer, more efficient ways to do the work.

The data on sediment the BA is quoting comes from minimal field study and is mostly theory produced by students in a classroom at Cranfield University.

Anglers led by John Currie, (also thanks to Steve Roberts, Micky Cox, the Norwich PAC & NDPC), highlighted the potential danger. Historic evidence suggests that disturbed sediment (caused by dredging) “coincides” with blooms of the dangerous algae Prymnesium Parva which, when it dies, releases fish killing toxins. PP outbreaks wiped out the Thurne system in 1969 and in the intervening years other sporadic outbreaks have devastated localised areas of the broads.

John Currie has gathered scientific opinion from around the world which unanimously says “we don’t know enough about Prymnesium Parva, leave it alone, do not dredge”. The BA has ignored overwhelming evidence and the warnings from toll paying anglers. Overseeing all of this is Natural England, a government group of eco-fascists who really should be supporting the views of anglers but sit on the fence because protecting fish is “not within their remit”.

Jump forward to the present. The BA have been dredging for several weeks as part of a farcical “Island recreation” scheme. The water temperatures have steadily risen and all of a sudden we have an outbreak of Prymnesium Parva; Pike, Perch, Roach & Bream are dying right now while you are reading this. Because these deaths have occurred a mile away from the dredging site the BA claim it has nothing to do with their work, which shows they know nothing about tidal flows, currents and undertows. BA’s Dan Hoare claims that Hickling Broad is “poorly flushed” so he’s obviously never been afloat when there’s a decent wind blowing!! This lack of practical experience and ignorance of water movements from the Broads Authority’s “Environment and Design Supervisor” is shocking.

Surely it would be safe to assume that the dredging work would be suspended while an investigation takes place? No! They are carrying on the work regardless. What is more the BA purchased an “impermeable silt curtain” to stop the movement of sediment but they are NOT using it!! Why? Because it “moved and drifted…causing more sediment…”. Put more weight on it you idiots!!!

So there we have it. The Broads Authority has ignored the fears and warnings from anglers and other concerned water users. They've dredged regardless and fish are dying but it’s not their fault. If a business ignored its customers it would go bust pretty quickly. The BA is not fit for purpose and people within its hierarchy should resign. Let us all hope this is just an isolated outbreak in a localised area which is over quickly and not a repeat of 1969.

Please lend your support by emailing one or more of the following people to express your opinion, Thank you.

Dan.Hoare@broads-authority.gov.uk
Rob.Rogers@broads-authority.gov.uk
adrian.clarke@broads-authority.gov.uk
John.Packman@broads-authority.gov.uk
Trudi.Wakelin@broads-authority.gov.uk

Indiana Isaac and the waterless marsh

After a week where the temperatures reached almost 20 degrees here in the east, typically they plummeted when the weekend arrived, Sods law. However Sunday dawned bright and sunny and once I’d dragged him out of bed Isaac was keen for a couple of hours down by the water.

We were fishing by about 0900, I set up a whip with a light rig baited with maggots and Isaac was soon catching Rudd and Roach, almost a bite a chuck. A couple of these were put to one side and soon mounted on a paternoster rig which Isaac managed to hurl out a few yards with a crash and a splash. No harm done, would he christen his Pike rod today? I had planned to set up a rod of my own, fishing a boilie but where would I cast it? The swim was roomy enough but the areas I fancied would clash with where Isaac was fishing so in the end I didn’t bother.

After a while Isaac went for a wander so I took over with the whip, catching a fish after fish. All were Rudd or Roach and each seemed a little bigger than the last. I wondered why the fishing didn’t hold Isaac’s attention as much as it did my own at a similar age? When I was nine I’d probably spent five years or even more exploring hedgerows, hills, trees and bushes. To be out in the countryside on a spring day was totally normal to me at that age. Sadly my generation are more paranoid than our own parents and it’s only fairly recently that Isaac has started to spend more time away from the house and away from his parents. I’m sure the world we live in today is no more or less safe than the one I grew up in but attitudes have certainly changed. If my children were roaming the fields and streets at a young age, as I was, some busy-body would have called social services.

The morning stayed bright and warm, the cloud the forecast had threatened never materialised and the temperature climbed despite the northerly wind. Many bushes are in blossom and a few trees have signs of buds beginning. The birds were audible; the cackle of a green woodpecker stood out. I also heard a high pitched mewing which sounded like a stray buzzard but I didn’t see the culprit.

Isaac returned grinning and grubby, he’d been Indiana Jones in the jungle apparently. After bothering the silver fish a while longer he decided he’d had enough and sat behind his Pike rod for a while, willing the float to dive under. Unfortunately it didn’t, not today. After a couple of hours we’d had enough so tidied the gear then went for a stroll around the lake. Isaac became “Indi” again as we explored the woods and reed beds. I pointed out a Treecreeper climbing a mossy trunk but I’m not sure if Indi/Isi saw it. The winter drought has taken its toll as the water’s edge which is now about ten metres away from where it was twelve months ago. The “marsh” doesn’t earn that nickname any more. It feels like it’s never going to rain again.

Views

A few photos from the season about to pass...

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Today for the first time in almost a year, I bank fished for Pike, with deadbaits. As the temperatures gradually climb, My 9 year old - Isaac, finds it comfortable enough to venture out with me and this is my main motivation. Isaac has dipped in and out of fishing since he was about 3 but lately he’s shown more of an interest which I hope to encourage. This coming spring I hope to immerse him (and the rest of the family if willing!) in enough angling to find out if he’ll share my passion, ultimately the decision will be his. To be honest, in the past I‘ve always made the kids fishing second priority to my own, it had to fit around what I was doing. This coming season priorities will be reversed, hopefully this blog will be as much about Isaac’s progress as my own failure to catch Tench I’d love to include Madison in this too and maybe I will but at the moment fishing doesn’t enter the sphere of this twelve year old girl.

Madi, aged 6 with her first Pike

Anyway, back to today. We left the house at the crack of 0835 and half an hour later we were soaking a couple of deadbaits at a local stillwater. I legered a sardine to the left and Isaac, after a refresher course in casting, plopped a bluey out to the right. Both baits were popped up to sit clear of silt and our set ups differed only with the addition of a float on Isaac’s rod, give him something to look at. The morning was chilly with light rain being carried on a fresh south easterly so we immediately took shelter under my little pop up bivvy. And there we pretty much stayed while the rain got heavier and more unpleasant. We endured because Isaac is determined to christen his very own Pike rod, which he has owned over a year but only used once. Isaac has caught a handful of Pike over the years and has a current PB of nine pounds, all have been on trolled lures so his next Pike will be a whole different experience. Unfortunately the rod christening didn’t happen today but it was nice to spend a little one on one time with my son, even though the theorising on what would have happened if the Jedi had not won got a little wearing. After a couple of hours we were back home, drying off and drinking the tea we were unable to enjoy whilst fishing. Isaac’s muppet of a father packed the flask of boiling water, mugs, milk and sugar but forgot the tea bags.

But spring isn’t quite here yet and before I make too many plans there’s still just time for a couple more trips in the boat before the river season ends of 14^th March. On final, big effort and then it’ll be time for a rest.

and Isaac aged 4 with his first

At work we have started selling fishing magazines which means I get to read them all in down times. Sadly the standard hasn’t improved since I was a regular reader. I hate the way the weeklies assume their readers are fuckwitts. Angling times is tolerable but the Anglers Mail is excruciating from beginning to end. Carp talk is worse. I’ve been reading the Carp mags in an attempt to understand a little better what the customers want, as these make up the majority of the tackle trade nowadays. Some of the writing is very good and some isn’t. Something I’ve never understood is the use of military metaphors in angling writing. Why do anglers “plan a campaign”? and why do they have “lines of attack”? I cringe every time I read those or any other hideous military cliché. I guess anglers write that way because they’ve read others in the past that have written in the same way, a style handed down through generations. That must mean, that somebody somewhere is or maybe was, responsible for the whole lot. Whoever was the originator of all this military jargon has a lot to answer for.

As well as having probably the most comprehensive Pike fishing website in the world, (set up by Dave Lumb and currently managed by Mike Skipper, see link on the right), the PAC of GB also has a Facebook presence and it was here that the activities of a certain Mr Stuart Campbell Wilson were brought to light- to me at least. Mr Wilson has been “harvesting” Pike from waters in Scotland and it is unclear if this is being done for reasons of Science, fishery management or finance. Whatever the reason, Mr Wilson has been using gill nets and long lines to randomly destroy the Pike populations on fisheries with obvious knock on effects to the rest of the environment. He has also promoted Pike as a food for sale to restaurants but I’m not sure where the science comes into the picture. He was then daft enough to post the photographic evidence on Facebook. Much of this has subsequently been deleted but some images still remain here

http://www.facebook.com/groups/133564416678990/

and here.

http://eatscotland.visitscotland.com/who-who/profiles/fish-fisheries/trossachs-country-foods-fish.html

And here

http://www.the-pikers-pit.com/t4945-not-only-the-ee-s-then

Subsequently the PAC and PAAS have become involved together with furious local anglers prompting the removal of the offending photographs and a promise from visitscotland.com that their article will be removed. Fish ins and socials are great but this is PAC at its best and big credit goes to the guys fighting the good fight. Micky Jones, Graham Slater, Brian Marshall, Scott Davidson & the Ayrshire branch, Pike Anglers Alliance Scotland, Sean Allan, Alan Daly, Dave Mcinllaly and apologies to anyone I’ve left off.

And still people ask “What have the the PAC/PAAS ever done for me?”

Pikin' Tunes

Every autumn Mr Rob would post on the P&P forum, selecting his travelling music for the coming winter and inviting brother Pikers to do the same. Now this music is important, it sets the scene for the day ahead and determines what frame of mind you arrive at the water in. This season I think I’ve got my selection right, more on that later, but in seasons past I’ve got it badly wrong.

I love Happy Mondays but the ‘Uncle Dysfunctional’ album didn’t work at all. Likewise, I’m a massive fan of the Prodigy but they haven’t got me in a Pikey frame of mind so far, “Invaders must die” or “Smack my bitch up” don’t really accompany a day on the water. I’m quite partial to a bit of hip-hop but playing N.W.A. was a disaster, the fucking boat sank! Rich’s best season came with Led Zep in his motor and I love them but copying other peoples choices won’t work either. I struggled to get the right combination, you can’t force it – can’t think about it too hard, it just has to happen.

This Autumn I got it right, the sounds are personal to me, had me singing along and in the zone when I got on the water.

My first choice was brand new, the latest Red Hot Chilli Peppers album “I’m with you”. An internationally renowned band, which will need no introduction to anybody. If you like the peppers you’ll love this, everything you’d expect from them and more. Stand out tracks are “Brendan’s death song” and “Police station”. Both will go down as chilli peppers classics.

The next was “The essential Eels”. This band played the best gig I saw all of last year, a blinding set played by brilliant musicians. The main man is Mark Everett AKA Mr E, a superb songwriter. Some of his music is very dark, some has moments of euphoria and all of it has humour. "Novocaine for the Soul" brilliant!

Next was a classic, “Leftism” by Leftfield. A mid 90’s dance classic, real steering wheel thumping music, particularly the cameo by John Lydon on “Open up”. This was the soundtrack to a week in Ireland with Giles a few years ago...that is another story!

There is always a bit of reggae in the motor and this season it was “Talkin’ blues” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Old, raw versions of familiar Marley classics, with some ‘Scratch Perry’ remixes thrown in. "Cold ground was my bed last night, and rock was my pillow too..."

I changed the music selection for the mid-winter period but fishing results were not as good although the Ministry of Sound XX collection really hit the mark. Now spring has arrived and I’ve reverted to my autumn selection again coincidently I’m back amongst the fish!!

Attention to detail. That’s one of the things I’ve managed to get right this season, doing the simple things right. Tackle, line, hooks and traces all razor sharp and top notch. Bait has been the best I can lay my hands on and a couple of brother Pikers have been kind there too. I’ve gone out onto the water in the right frame of mind, confident and relaxed. OK the music might not have put fish in the boat but it certainly hasn’t hurt.

Thanks to Rob for supplying the title

Sneaking around

2012 has finally seen some ‘proper’ winter weather and as I sit here tonight the countryside is blanketed in snow. All very nice for a day of fun with the family but tedious when it stretches into a second day. If the current cold weather continues I may even give the fishing a miss this week, we’ll see. The trouble is, at this time of year someone speeds up the calendar and all of a sudden the season ends. Anyway, a few weeks ago I had a day on the water…

My third move of the day saw me row into a bay, one I like fishing and one I’ve caught Pike from at this time of year in the past and also one that fishes well in a North westerly wind. Why? I have a theory about that but… It may just be because this wind allows me to position the boat in such a way I cover water more effectively. It may be because I’m able to get really comfortable here in these conditions or it could be because….

Three float legered deadbaits; Mackerel, Bluey and Herring, were carefully positioned in open water downwind of the boat. On my fourth rod I used a leger rig and cast this upwind towards a snaggy area. Four baits that have caught me plenty of fish and in which I have loads of confidence. However, today I wouldn’t have minded a livebait wriggling away out there…

Legering from a boat is frowned upon by many Pike anglers as apparently it can lead to deep hooking. I suppose this could be true if the angler is fishing badly, not paying attention or even asleep. How many anglers, fishing in a cuddied boat and facing downwind, actually look at a float cast upwind? Many don’t seem to look at floats cast downwind for that matter and lets face it it can be difficult to scan three or four floats some times, unless you have the neck of an owl. Anyway, done properly there is nothing wrong with legering in a boat. Heavy lead and tight line, position the rod so you can see the tip and treat it as a stepped up quiver tip. Keep an eye on the tip and the line and if you have any doubt what so ever, wind down and check it out! Legering from a boat does not cause Pike any harm, bad angling does.

After forty minutes the line on the leger rod fell surprisingly slack so I picked the rod up, wound down and…felt nothing. I wound in and inspected the bait, were there teeth marks in the Lamprey? I couldn’t see any so recast to the same spot. Another hour past and I was considering my next move having written off the bay as a bad move when the rod tip tapped and the line tightened sharply on the leger rod. No doubt this time so I quickly wound down and bent into what felt a decent weight. The Pike did little, well actually the Pike did absolutely nothing bar wave a decent size head on the surface before being led into the landing net. A decent fish but when I lifted the Pike into the sladle I had a very pleasant surprise, not only was she my first Pike of 2012 she was considerably bigger than I had thought! A long fish with flawless flanks and a big head but loads of leeches tucking in.

The hooks came out easily and I snapped a couple of quick photos off before hoisting the weigh bag onto the scales which confirmed she was heavier than I’d dared think when I drew her over the net. I definitely wanted a proper trophy shot of this one but as I began to sort things out I heard the very unwelcome sound of an outboard entering the bay. I looked over my shoulder in time to see a boat approaching so quickly lowered the sladle back over the side of the boat. I hoped the boat would see me then veer off somewhere else but no. The occupants, all three of them were loudly disappointed that I was already fishing but instead of heading off elsewhere they dropped their weights a little way away. What should I do? I wanted a photo but didn’t want the new arrivals to see what I was doing. Should I just slip her back? No bugger that! I quickly got the camera ready and while the three noisy young lads were still setting up I discretely drained the sladle, hoisted the fish back aboard, clicked off one quick photo then slipped her back. She swam down strongly while my ears strained to hear evidence that I’d been caught in the act, none came. I glanced up to see the lads still busy tackling up and taking the piss out of each other. I’d got away with it and what’s more the single, rushed self-take photo came out well.

Having just boated a good fish I obviously wanted to stay in the area a while longer but I didn’t really want the other boat to gain too many clues from what I was doing. Maybe it was fortuitous that no more Pike put in an appearance that afternoon. After a while I grew tired of the “three men chavs in a boat” buggering about and making a racket. Luckily there was little wind today, as this boat definitely wasn’t big enough to cope with three people on a windy day. I hope they don’t learn that lesson the hard way.

That was the first and last action of the day and a happy angler made his way back to the slip.

Tribute to the greatest

Muhammad Ali, the greatest sportsman of all time was 70 earlier this week. As a child growing up in the seventies, Ali was part of our lives, he was everywhere, even TV adverts for milk! I loved the man then and now, thirty years later, I love the man still. TV is quite rightly celebrating Ali's birthday by showing re-runs of some of his greatest fights. 'Rose tinted specs' do not come into it, watching these fights again only reinforces the FACTS that Ali was without a doubt the greatest heavyweight that ever entered a ring. The men he fought in a golden era; George Foreman, Sonny Liston, Floyd Paterson, Kenny Norton and the late, great Smokin' Joe Frazier would all crush any heavyweight currently fighting but Ali was better than all of them. Outside the ring Ali was equally brave, firstly when white America tried to dismantle him and later in his fight against illness. He has always stood up for his beliefs and has been an ambassador for his faith.

I have many heroes; musical, political, personal and sporting but one man stands head and shoulders above them all. Happy birthday Muhammad Ali, you really are the greatest of all time.