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| Feeding fish - Look in the bottom left hand corner, you can just see the fish! |
South of the road, the river runs under the car parks of Halfords and Wickes retail sheds, where it emerges and passes under the railway through one of the arches of the viaduct. In recent years a suspended pathway has been added to allow pedestrian access under the railway and into the area beyond. A few hundred yards further on, the river is joined by The Pool River and the River Ravensbourne crosses back under the railway on its way to Bromley and eventually Keston.
This area of wasteland was once just that, an area of land behind the houses defined by the river on one side and the railway on the other. In recent years it has been opened up as a park and cycle route running south from Catford to lower Sydenham. Much of this is thanks to the old gasworks site having been decontaminated and landscaped as part of a planning permission deal, when it was developed into a retail super-store and retail park.
Most of the park follows the course of The Pool River on its way to Lower Sydenham. At the the confluence of the rivers there is a footbridge over The Pool where the park opens up out of the heavily overgrown section
into a more open stretch of path. To the right there are several well trodden access points to the river, where there is a well defined path that runs for several hundred yards giving good access to the river. It is along this path that Sue and I have fished in the past. Well, that is me fishing and Sue watching, as she does not have (or want) a licence. She has no desire to catch the anything, but is happy to just help carry the gear and feed the fish.
There is lots of wildlife to be found here, and especially birds. Herons, egrets, and even the rare appearance of a kingfisher can be seen moping up the smaller fish. The river has recovered well after a serious toxic spillage, that killed the entire stock of fish and other wildlife, in 2009.
Now we are seeing much larger fish than we have seen for years. Over the past few weeks we have seen several small shoals of chublet and perch, along with other small silvers such as roach and dace. It is the larger chublets that interest us. Some of these fish are now over a foot long. Okay, I know that is not very big in the great scheme of things, but here in our little shallow river, that is big.
Yesterday we found a section of the river, just below a shallow weir, where the fish had congregated and we could see them with the naked eye. The smaller ones were holding station just where the water runs off the concrete and even venturing over the concrete in what can only be a couple of inches of water at the most. As we stood and watched them, we noticed a couple of much larger fish skulking around a clump of weed. These fish were very gently moving around looking for scraps of food caught in the gentle current. They would only move at any speed if they were spooked by our shadow or silhouette against the sky. We stood back at the top of the bank and watched for a good while as they just cruised around.
In the margins were hundreds, if not thousands, of fry basking in the warm shallow water. These would scatter if spooked and then reform fairly quickly, if the disturbance ceased. As we were watching, something dropped off a tree, into the river, and the fish immediately went to investigate. We had no food with us so we could not see if they were feeding. In the past, small pieces of bread have not interested these larger fish and more often than not, the bread going in has spooked them.
Today it has been raining all morning, not torrential, but enough to make everything wet and disturb the surface of the water. We had decided to go back to the weir and see if the fish would take any loose feed. Armed with a pot of maggots and a few slices of bread, we braved the rain and had a go at feeding the fish. Maggots seemed to do the trick. A few showers of a dozen or so maggots got them interested.
As we continued to feed the fish, more and more joined in. We used up the hand-full of maggots we had with us and then decided to give the bread another go. This time, although not as enthusiastic as they were for the maggots, they were taking it. Although the fish were a way out, as we fed them, they would come in close and take the bait we had dropped in the margin.
Tomorrow, time and weather permitting, we are going to try and catch one of these bigger fish. Tactics will involve an elasticated tele-pole and a dibber float on light line and a smallish hook baited with one maggot. We will let you know how we get on.
Ralph.
There is lots of wildlife to be found here, and especially birds. Herons, egrets, and even the rare appearance of a kingfisher can be seen moping up the smaller fish. The river has recovered well after a serious toxic spillage, that killed the entire stock of fish and other wildlife, in 2009.
Now we are seeing much larger fish than we have seen for years. Over the past few weeks we have seen several small shoals of chublet and perch, along with other small silvers such as roach and dace. It is the larger chublets that interest us. Some of these fish are now over a foot long. Okay, I know that is not very big in the great scheme of things, but here in our little shallow river, that is big.
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| Big fish! |
In the margins were hundreds, if not thousands, of fry basking in the warm shallow water. These would scatter if spooked and then reform fairly quickly, if the disturbance ceased. As we were watching, something dropped off a tree, into the river, and the fish immediately went to investigate. We had no food with us so we could not see if they were feeding. In the past, small pieces of bread have not interested these larger fish and more often than not, the bread going in has spooked them.
Today it has been raining all morning, not torrential, but enough to make everything wet and disturb the surface of the water. We had decided to go back to the weir and see if the fish would take any loose feed. Armed with a pot of maggots and a few slices of bread, we braved the rain and had a go at feeding the fish. Maggots seemed to do the trick. A few showers of a dozen or so maggots got them interested.
As we continued to feed the fish, more and more joined in. We used up the hand-full of maggots we had with us and then decided to give the bread another go. This time, although not as enthusiastic as they were for the maggots, they were taking it. Although the fish were a way out, as we fed them, they would come in close and take the bait we had dropped in the margin.
Tomorrow, time and weather permitting, we are going to try and catch one of these bigger fish. Tactics will involve an elasticated tele-pole and a dibber float on light line and a smallish hook baited with one maggot. We will let you know how we get on.
Ralph.
