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Angler's Guide

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Angler's Guide An Angler’s Guide to the River Wandle In memory of Jed Edge - a fine fisherman and great friend of the Wandle. ISBN 978-1-78808-485-7 John O’Brien with expert input from Theo Pike, Jason Hill and Stewart Ridgway. January 2018 Fun for all - photo by Duncan Soar. 9 781788 084857 RRP £5.00 © Author John O’Brien. All rights reserved. Produced by STR Design & Print Limited www.str.uk.com An Angler’s Guide to the River Wandle Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................3 CATCH AND RELEASE – FISHING WITH CARE ...........................................4 GEOGRAPHY AND MAIN FEATURES ................................................................5 The headwaters ...................................................................................................................7 The main chalk stream .......................................................................................................7 The middle river .................................................................................................................8 The lower river ...................................................................................................................8 WHAT FISH ARE IN THE RIVER? .......................................................................9 A GUIDE TO FISHING THE RIVER ..................................................................10 THE HEADWATERS .................................................................................................12 Croydon ...........................................................................................................................12 Carshalton .......................................................................................................................12 Wilderness Island .............................................................................................................13 THE CHALK STREAM .............................................................................................14 Restmor Way ...................................................................................................................14 Hackbridge .......................................................................................................................14 Goat Bridge .....................................................................................................................15 An Angler’s Guide to the River Wandle 1 THE MIDDLE RIVER ...............................................................................................17 Poulter Park ......................................................................................................................17 Mill Green ........................................................................................................................17 Watermeads ......................................................................................................................17 Ravensbury Park ...............................................................................................................19 Morden Hall Park .............................................................................................................21 Deen City Farm ................................................................................................................23 Merton Abbey Mills .........................................................................................................23 Savacentre .........................................................................................................................25 Wandle Park .....................................................................................................................25 Wandle Meadow ...............................................................................................................27 Plough Lane .....................................................................................................................29 Garratt Park .....................................................................................................................29 Trewint Street ...................................................................................................................30 THE LOWER RIVER .................................................................................................31 Earlsfield ...........................................................................................................................31 King George’s Park ...........................................................................................................32 Garratt Lane .....................................................................................................................32 Ram Quarter ....................................................................................................................32 The Causeway ...................................................................................................................34 Bell Lane Creek ................................................................................................................34 The Spit ...........................................................................................................................36 FISH FOOD AND POLLUTION ..........................................................................37 Riverfly monitoring .........................................................................................................37 Pollution control advice from Theo ..................................................................................37 River clean-ups .................................................................................................................38 TACKLE TIPS ..............................................................................................................40 Fly fishing tips from Theo and Will ..................................................................................40 Bait fishing advice from Stew and Jason ...........................................................................43 Wandle roach tips ..........................................................................................................43 Wandle barbel tips .........................................................................................................43 Wandle chub tips ...........................................................................................................44 Spinning ...........................................................................................................................44 INVASIVE SPECIES ...................................................................................................45 USEFUL INFORMATION .......................................................................................45 Tackle shops .....................................................................................................................45 Websites ...........................................................................................................................45 Byelaws ............................................................................................................................46 ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ...........................................47 MAP ................................................................................................................................48 2 An Angler’s Guide to the River Wandle Introduction efore the industrial revolution the River Wandle had a reputation as one of the finest B trout rivers in England. Flowing North from the chalk downs of Surrey, it was a true chalk stream identical in nature to the Test or the Itchen. Its water filtered slowly through the chalk rocks, collected and cooled in the underground aquifers and flowed from springs at a fairly constant rate and temperature of 9-10 degrees throughout the year. The Industrial Revolution brought a dramatic change to the river. Its relatively steep gradient made it ideal to power mills. Each mill required some form of dam across the river to create a head of water to be used to turn one or more mill wheels. It is thought that there have been over 90 mills throughout time on the River Wandle. The mills brought with them an increasing discharge of industrial waste into the river. As this pollution increased, so the fish population started to die off. The last recorded brown trout was caught in 1936. The river became no more than an open sewer. Children were warned not to play in it and nobody bothered to fish it because there was nothing to be caught. As industry moved on, the water powered mills on the Wandle slowly started to close and the levels of pollution discharge decreased. Mother nature started her own slow process of recovery. But the river was still littered with weirs and impoundments and in the accumulated silt behind each of these was a deep layer of toxic material from the industrial discharges of the previous 150 years. In 1970 the river was electro-fished by Thames Water and the only species discovered along its length were three-spined sticklebacks! However, analysis of water samples revealed that the river was now sufficiently recovered to support a larger fish population. A restocking programme started introducing a variety of coarse fish into the river. They survived and grew. The river remains exposed to serious pollution threats
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