Charters

Chalk rivers are recognised as being one of the most managed types of river system in the UK, having suffered from excessive dredging and channel re-alignment for land drainage purposes, resulting in watercourses which are too wide and deep for natural river flows. This has destroyed habitats, damaged fish and vegetation communities, silted up gravels and disconnected the river with the flood plain with the resultant loss of wetlands.

In the Wessex area the Hampshire/Wiltshire Avon is a well known classic chalk river, famous for its coarse, trout and salmon fishery as well as its large number of nature conservation designations. It has its source in the Marlborough Downs flowing though Wiltshire, the city of Salisbury and continuing through Hampshire and the towns of Fordingbridge and Ringwood, finally discharging into the sea at Christchurch.

‘STREAM’ (STrategic Restoration And Management) and ‘Living River’ are two collaborative, partnership projects involving Natural England, the Environment Agency, Wessex Water and the Wildlife Trusts and are funded by the European Commission's LIFE-Nature fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund to the tune of £2 million. The STREAM project is focussing on river restoration and aims to restore channels to a more natural size and shape, thereby improving their ability to support the multitude of aquatic habitats. In essence by mending or creating new habitat and giving ‘nature a nudge’ both fisheries and the wider conservation interests can be significantly and sustainably improved.

During the last few years over 7km of river have been restored by introducing new ‘physical features’ into the river channel thereby re-energising the river and creating new habitats. Over-wide river reaches have been narrowed by creating artificial berms improving the velocity of the main river to encourage healthy weed and fish populations, but leaving quiet backwater areas suitable for lamprey and the infamous protected Desmoulins or ‘Newbury by-pass’ snail. Steep banks resulting from historic dredging have been re-profiled to create a gradual slope encouraging colonisation by emergent vegetation much loved as food and cover for ‘ratty’- the endangered water vole. Where dredging has left over deep channels, bereft of features essential for many species, river bed raising has been the answer by introducing many hundreds tons of gravel, now much appreciated by salmon, trout, chub, barbel and even the bullhead, all of which are now using these fast flowing riffles for spawning and nursery areas. The ‘wiggle’ has been put back into straightened channelised sections of river creating the beginnings of a more natural and habitat rich meandering river.

This has been achieved by introducing a series of flow deflectors made of natural woody material in-filled with pre-planted coir or recycled textile mats to encourage the establishment of vegetation. Trout fishermen are finding the end of these structures which bounce the flow from one side of the river to the other particularly good fish lies. Fallen trees were once an incredibly important habitat in rivers but a preoccupation with tidiness has encouraged their removal from the river over past decades. The STREAM project has experimentally re-introduced over 25 full sized trees to the river at a number of sites, securely anchoring them to the bank and allowing nature to take its course, but already they have created fantasic fish refuges for both fry and adults. Management of the floodplain inevitably impacts what happens in the river and STREAM has also looked at ways of managing the plethora of historic channels associated with the old water meadow systems to benefit, where possible, both fish populations and wetland birds. Similarly with over 100 hatch control structures, weirs and sluices on the main river alone, the management of water levels is absolutely critical to the wellbeing of flora and fauna of the river, and therefore hatch operating protocols have been developed to ensure that these interests are not compromised.

The Lottery funded Living River project is closely integrated with, and is running alongside the STREAM project however is more ‘people focussed’. Its aim is to increase awareness of the River Avon and its tributaries involving the people and communities who live and work in the river valley in the conservation of the fantastic natural and cultural heritage of the river and valley. Dozens of river related events have been held throughout the valley from enthusing hundreds of volunteers to remove invasive plants such as Himalayan balsam, training events to engage people in river restoration and learn how to identify and measure the quality of invertebrate life in the Avon. Artistic theatre performances have been produced; ‘The River is Revolting’ is a comic theatre piece for the Salisbury International Arts Festival to highlight issues that the river is facing, and an audio river archive, REverberAVON has also been very popular.

Even sculptures inspired by the river have been constructed; look out for the ‘Dragonfly’ made from a Gazelle helicopter by the apprentice mechanics at QinetiQ as you head south on the A303 at Amesbury. Allan Frake, Project Manager for the Environment Agency commented “I have been particularly impressed how this project has integrated both fisheries and the wider conservation interests, engaging angling interests, conservationists and landowners, but also the lengths to which local communities and the general public have been actively and enthusiastically involved throughout the project…it has been brilliant fun and really made a difference to improving the river and raising awareness to local people” For further information on both projects, visit the websites: www.streamlife.org.uk www.livingriver.org.uk

I have just got back from a chilly afternoon on the Dorset Stour. At the moment we are in the middle of another cold snap, a cold snap made special this winter by the snow. The river looked impossibly black as it wound between white drifts. The willows were weighed down with snow but every few moments a layer of it lost its hold and slid with a curious hiss into the slow flowing water. So today was what used to be called classic winter conditions, though I have not fished in weather like this for twenty years.

For me, winter will always be the time when I concentrate on my local rivers. Fish like perch, chub, barbel and roach are in their peak of condition and, once the midwinter solstice is past, there is always the happy thought that each fishing day will be longer than the last until the season ends. Then, when the new season begins again on June 16th (I could never disregard a close season), I head towards my favourite tench and carp ponds, eager to savour the old magic of lily pads, mirrored sunrises and painted quill floats. Ponds and lakes in summer, rivers in winter, with a bit of merging of everything in the autumn; this had been the rhythm of my fishing for most of life – until recently.

A couple of years ago I went down to Cornwall, invited by a fishing pal, to have a few days bass fishing. I had only once caught a bass before, during a teenage summer holiday, and, though I was impressed with it, there had hardly been any more opportunities since then to cast for the species. My friend and I fished around the dramatic rocky coastline in a small dinghy, casting lures between outcrops, along deep gulleys and across shallow but quite treacherous reefs. We used floating plugs, a lure I had never used in the sea before, and the whole experience of exploring endless acres of clear calm mysterious water was completely mesmerising and engrossing. Then, suddenly, we found the bass – and everything was even more wonderful than before.

The event triggered a kind of piscatorial revolution in me. Back at my old willow-shaded haunts a week later, I began to have heretical thoughts. I wondered if my favourite ponds and lakes did not suddenly seem rather too quiet and tame after the more elemental magic of the sea. And the rivers, though lovely, lacked the unpredictable wildness that I had found so compelling about the sea. But I suppose it was the bass, really, that caused the real sea change. They are such terrific fish – so perfectly evolved for their environment, so fiercely beautiful – that I knew another obsession was beginning to creep up on me, just like the addictions I used to have for carp and barbel.

Fortunately, there is a more or less winter long bass close season, when the fish traditionally move offshore into deeper water or migrate south, therefore this new infatuation only truly takes hold in the summer and autumn. However, last year I began bassing in May and was still catching them in mid November, which meant that I was largely absent from the freshwaters where I had been an almost permanent summer fixture for half a century. And this year, once the spring comes once more, then I know the sea will begin to call and I’ll run way again, down to the nearest bit of coastline.

But it was nice today, not to feel that pull of the ocean, just the pull of a sparkling bright coloured perch as it dived down under a sunken willow. Each fish should have its season. Right now it’s the season for the perch, which is appropriate as perch are related to bass and even today I had time to dream myself out of the winter wonderland and imagine the calm blue expanse of a pre dawn sea. The silence before sunrise can be magical, and the stillness hypnotic– and then a fish strikes the surface, sending the sand eels exploding in every direction. I cast beyond the disturbance and draw the lure back across it, waiting for the silhouette of a great fish to rise up and charge the dawn with energy.

'Out of the Blue' Chris Yates’ new book about his seaside infatuation, is published by Hamish Hamilton and priced at £15.99.

Thirty years ago, heavy diggers were driven to the edge of the River Frome, just downstream of Dorchester, to excavate the banks and scoop out the riverbed, in order to make the river deeper and straighter. Now, the diggers have once returned to the exact same stretch of the Frome to fill it all back in again.

Standing on the bank of the Frome, among the recent scars and troughs of heavy plant machinery, John Aplin, river keeper and restorer, explains why his club, the Dorchester Fishing Club, is undoing all the hard work that went on three decades ago.

‘It was all done in the name of flood relief,’ explains John. ‘The river below Dorchester was canalised; dug into a uniform U-profile for a few miles, so that more water could flow and so reduce the risk of the river backing-up to flood the town.’

You might be forgiven for assuming that in these days of global warming and scary flash flood warnings, this kind of flood relief is more necessary than ever. But, as John explained, water and flood management is still in its infancy and still very much a case of trial, error and experimentation. The error that engineers made in the 1970s was to see flood relief as a function of just the river itself, rather than in conjunction with the huge network of water meadows that spread for miles on either side of the river corridor.

Farming practices changed in the 60s and 70s; the water meadow sluice gates and hatches were allowed to fall into disrepair; the tradition of flooding meadows, to warm the soil in preparation for a second crop each year, was abandoned. As the meadows were used less, the water – rather than being leached-out to feed the network of meadows and channels – remained within the river course itself. Not surprisingly, the river couldn’t cope with such a massive increase in volume being forced between its banks. And so ‘canalising’ rivers became the accepted method of dealing with extra flow. By taking out all the interesting kinks and bends and shallows in the river, engineers encouraged more water to pass through.

‘Of course, it was hopeless for fish,’ says John. ‘It was just one big uniform glide with nowhere for young fish to hide and absolutely no shallow gravel redds for fish to spawn into.’

With financial help from English Nature and the Environment Agency, survey help from the Dorset Wildlife Trust and practical expertise from fisheries specialists Kingcombe Aquacare , John ordered 200 tons of local gravel to be delivered and dumped into the river.

The three sites they chose to deposit the gravel are destined to become active redds on which trout, salmon and sea trout will spawn, as early as next month. The huge gravel deposits create shallow sections of river, where it flows quicker over the stones. This extra flow increases oxygen levels and helps to wash away any silt deposit which might otherwise suffocate fish eggs. Adding these three gravel sites has more than doubled the amount of potential spawning sites downstream of Dorchester.

But John’s labours don’t just increase spawning redds. ‘We want riffles, glides, pools and back eddies,’ he says. ‘We want it all. We want to create variation and improve habitat, not just in the water but on the bankside too. We’ve customised steep banks to encourage the local water vole population; we’ve made new habitat for kingfishers and other birds. And all of this has happened because we love our fishing and love this river. Really, without fishermen, none of this would ever get done.’

Since the whole of the Frome valley was declared a Special Site of Scientific Interest, much has been done to improve the river. Many water meadows have been reopened and repaired, which now means many function as intended and help regulate flow and any potential flood. It hasn’t all been easy though. ‘Many of the old school river owners, the retired colonels and majors, were up in arms at the thought of all these university graduates and boffins getting their hands on the river,’ explains John, whose job it was to mediate between the two camps.

The range of improvements that were needed were many and varied, from putting in groynes, or upstream deflectors, to increase flow at strategic positions, to paying local farmers not to grow maize alongside the river. This is done to reduce the amount of top soil run-off that occurs in the autumn, after the maize harvest. A badly situated maize field can cause a vast amount of silt and dissolved mud entering the river and clogging the spawning. John is the first to admit that, much of the time, river restoration is guesswork. ‘We’re all of us on a steep learning curve,’ he explains. ‘We’ve made mistakes and hopefully we’ve learned from them. But at the end of the day, Nature always knows best, and it’s a wise man who listens.’

A river is a living thing, with a mind and a will of its own. Many people who work in restoration have discovered that you can only manhandle and manipulate Nature so far. ‘It sounds weird, I know,’ says John, ‘but a river responds to your respect, and even your love. Of course, you can force it to do something. We have the technology. Or, you can see what the river wants to do. The sites we’ve picked to locate the gravel redds were really dictated by the river. It’s like it knows where these would work best. All we had to do was listen.’

For John Aplin, the work he’s overseeing on the Frome is payback for all the pleasure the river has given him over the years. He moved to Dorchester aged 5 and soon started fishing the Frome. By the time he left school, he knew he wanted to be a river keeper, and has done it with great enthusiasm for the last 22 years. ‘To be working on the bit of river I grew up on and loved so much, makes me a very happy man,’ he said. ‘One of the things that makes me most happy is to see the enjoyment that our work brings to the quality of our members’ fishing.’

Brown trout sits at the top of the food chain in a river like the Frome. If you can keep brown trout healthy and growing well in a river system, then you know that the other end of the food chain is working properly. ‘Look after the bottom end of the food chain,’ says John, ‘the invertebrates, shrimps and insect life. Keep them happy and the trout will take care of themselves.’

To find out more about river restoration, contact the Dorchester Fishing Club (www.grhe.co.uk) or Casterbridge Fisheries Management on 07889 680464 (www.riverworks.co.uk) or Kingcombe Aquacare on 01460 279200.

For many in the wider community, angling is nothing more than a worm at one end and a fool at the other. In actual fact, angling drives a huge economy, which is very important for our region, particularly when it comes to attracting visitors. Some of the larger fisheries cater exclusively for holiday makers. Although the lakes are not available for locals to patronise, the anglers that fish them bring trade to our tackle shops, restaurants and pubs and enable us to enjoy the better service that is offered as a result of plentiful trade. 

Clawford Vineyard near Holsworthy in Devon has been recognised nationally for the quality of both the accommodation and the fishing. Similarly, smaller sites bring tourists on a regular basis to both fish and spend down here in the south west. Everything from a holiday park to a B&B to a camping site, if they have water to fish, anglers will flock to them all year round.

As a photojournalist who concentrates mainly on the match fishing side of the sport, I have seen first hand the numbers of anglers who come down our way to chase the money on offer at the region’s fishing festivals. The Torbay Sea Angling Festival, held in September each year, sees over 400 anglers battling for the prizes. Something like a quarter of the field travel from all corners of the country to pit their wits against the local hot shots. This event is backed by the local council, who recognise the impact it has on the economy of the bay, and are proud to support it.

Parkdean, who own several holiday centres around the UK, host a number of large events every year at their Whiteacres complex near Newquay. For many of this country’s top match anglers winning one of the spring or autumn festivals is the best way to become a name. The climax of these yearly events is the Parkdean Masters, a £25,000 winner-takes-all match fished by 24 of the very best UK match anglers in front of the Sky Sports cameras. To qualify for the match, you first have to win one of the resident’s matches or win a lake during a festival week. This gives you an invite to fish the Preston Innovations Festival, held in October, along with 179 other hopefuls. Pitting your skills against the likes of former World Champion, Tommy Pickering; Fish A Mania regular (former winner and Parkdean Masters winner), Steve Ringer; Drennan Team England star and last year’s Parkdean Master, Des Shipp, you may hope to finish in the top 24 at the end of five day’s hard work. Saturday dawns and you can make your way to your peg on Jenny’s Lake for a titanic five hour struggle against both fish and the cream of the UK’s match talent. Who knows? Maybe your name is on that cheque?

These types of events have become almost a circuit, where regular faces crop up time and again. Not only is this a wonderful way to make new friends and rub shoulders with some of the best in the business, it is also testament to the quality of fishing we have on our doorstep. Clint Elliot at Whiteacres, John Candy at Todber Manor and Andy Seery at Stafford Moor, know how to make people welcome and also know what it takes to keep them returning.

In August 2006, Stafford Moor saw the first event in the ‘Maniac’ series that now sees two matches per year. 80 tickets are sold on a first come first served basis for £50. On the Saturday, those 80 anglers line up across the whole complex in sections of 10. The aim is to finish first or second in your section and thus qualify for the Sunday final. On the Sunday, those 16 anglers fish on Tanners Lake for a £2,000 winner-takes-all pot. It sounds simple enough, but who could have foreseen the way the fishing would go on all three of the events to date? Andy’s fishery has a reputation for ton-up weights in the matches and the first Stafford Maniac final saw three tons hit the scales, with a lowest weight of 44lb. Incredible fishing, but even more incredible was winner Paul Garrett from Glastonbury pipping Midlands based visitor, Mark Saunders by a solitary ounce; 131lb 1oz to 131lb 0oz. Paul went home a happy man; Mark vowed to return...

The second event was held in August 2007 and once again had a nail biting finish, this time between the two youngest competitors in the final. Keeping the money local was Bristol’s Rory Andres, who saw off Matt Parsons from Somerton by 121lb 6oz to 119lb 9oz. 18 year old Rory has not been match fishing for long, but helped by his dad, John, he has watched some of the visiting stars to help him improve and can now compete with the best.

November 2007 saw the first Silver Maniac match, fished using the same format, but with carp banned. So popular was this event that Drennan Team England Manager, Mark Downes, headed down the M5 from his Redditch home to take part. Another close fought battle ensued, with less than 5lb splitting the top four. Exiled Mancunian, Harry Billing, saw off two international stars in third placed Paul Filmore and fourth placed Des Shipp, and Mick Dagnell, the husband of Team England Lady’s international Claire in second, with his 63lb 2oz net of roach and skimmers. This event is one that is sure to be a sell out every year, with plans already afoot to run it twice a year from 2009. Other Stafford Moor fixtures are spring and autumn festivals plus regular fish-ins organised from angling forums. They know when they’re onto a good thing, so book their places well in advance. What a boost to the local economy in that little part of rural mid Devon.

Harry Billing used to travel to Whiteacres to fish the festivals there twice a year and, to misuse a phrase, liked it so much, he moved down here permanently. Silver fish were always one of his strong suits, so the December Silver Fish Festival at Whiteacres was a big draw. This is a week long event, but only 60 tickets are available for this one, although it may expand this year to offer 72 places. 2007 saw Andy Dare win to follow in the footsteps of Garbolino’s UK boss and Drennan Team England star, Darren Cox and Fox Match backed Derek Willan from 2006 and 2005 respectively. Andy is another to settle around the Newquay area having enjoyed his trips from Nottinghamshire to compete in the festivals.

So not only do anglers from all over the country visit our region to stay, fish and soak up the unique Westcountry atmosphere, some of them become a permanent fixture. I landed in Devon in 1998 from Leicestershire (albeit with Somerset in my blood) and it doesn’t take long listening to accents on any weekend match to work out the numbers of ‘blow-ins’ who are a part of the wider community. Brummies, Cockneys and Yorkies make up a healthy number of the coarse fishermen and women who add life to the whole Western peninsula.

It’s time to stand up and be proud to be an angler. To help visitors to our region appreciate the fantastic fishing we have down here and to be an angler who supports local businesses and keeps those tills rolling.

Steve Lockett has worked supplying pictures and articles to most of the major angling publications in Europe for the last ten years.

He is now in partnership with fellow photojournalist Brian Gay. Together they run V2V Angling Productions Ltd, filming high quality DVDs for the angling market.