The good of floods

 

Greetings!   Compared to the Britain of the last few months Noah had it easy – we’d laugh in the face of a mere 40 days and 40 nights of rain as long held records fall month after month.   For most of us wet weather is, at worst, a nuisance but for some industries such as construction, hospitality and agriculture it can have significant financial implications. However, Mother Nature is no fool – heavy rain and floods are vital to the survival of rivers and all that live in them.   To start with the most obvious, the purging nature of floods that clear the detritus left behind in dryer years, sometimes reopening channels long blocked or even puncturing new water courses through the landscape – aside from the interventions of man, this is why we have the landscape we have.

 

Designed to flood. Harnham Water Meadows, Salisbury, Wiltshire

 

The impact on those that live in rivers is not much researched in the UK but thanks to those countries with hydro dams, the Scandinavian countries in particular, we have a good idea of the benefits and detriments of flooding which, on the whole, fills the good column rather than the bad. Fish do well because the survival rate of the ova increases dramatically with the heavy water flows. The gravel beds are loosened by the flows allowing more eggs to become captured in the gravel and once safely lodged each egg gets more and better oxygenated water. More hatching eggs equal more fry and more fry equal more juvenile fish and so on. Expect to see a spike in wild trout of catchable size 2-3 years from now.   The fly population looks more endangered but actually insects are smarter than we give them credit for, adapting quickly as they sense the onset of the floods that force them to find safe habitat ahead of the worst of the rains. In fact, their lives to a certain extent get easier as the range of habitat is vastly increased as the water floods thousands of acres of water meadows and brings life to secondary streams, ditches and ponds. Mayflies and sedges do well out of floods, positively thriving.   For birds and animals, the picture is more mixed; clearly any wading birds and the ducks just love it, but for ground nesting birds, especially those who prefer a river valley, nest building is on hold for a for a few weeks longer. Otters just love it, end of story but these are hard times for water voles with flooded burrows and high mortality without the warmer, dryer weather of spring. But in general, for wildlife, who do not run their lives according to the Georgian calendar, this is all just the natural course of life to be endured until better times and weather arrives.   As to the fishing itself the truth is that this is all a lot more challenging for the fisher than the fish. Here is a strange thing about chalkstreams: you can walk them day after day in January, February and March untroubled by the sight of a single fish. It is as if they have all been stolen by some unseen hand until, quite suddenly, for no apparent reason the river is full of fish again and all is well. Eureka day has, no doubt thanks to the depth, speed and turbidity of the flow, arrived in early April this year, a few weeks later than scheduled. That, I think, will be the challenge this month as the fish wait out the floods for conditions to return to what they would regard as spring normal.      River Anton at Upper Clatford last week     No more (or just fewer) rants   The Boat Race proved a good publicity vehicle for all things that are bad about our rivers; I even had emails from the US and the antipodes. It is a sad, sad state of affairs that we have come to this when you think thirty years ago, we were celebrating the return of the Atlantic salmon to the river of our capital city.   You may have noticed that this Newsletter, and the two previous, have been absent of rants against the water companies, EA, Ofwat and their like. I have decided, in the words recently used by a Conservative MP, to step back from writing about pollution issues. However, in my case it is for all the best reasons.   I have been chuntering on, in one form or another, about the egregious behaviour of all the above for more than a decade, long before it became fashionable to do so. Indeed, I recall being pilloried by the fishing ‘establishment’ who leapt to the defence of the EA as if I was some sort of climate denier. Some still do, their pockets lined with grants and contracts from the EA, but for the most part the serial incompetence of the EA is an accepted fact.

 

So, I am scaling back on my pollution writings and will confine myself to local issues from now on and continue my campaign for the abolition of the hateful fishing licence. After 10 years of banging the drum, I feel I have done my bit and the water quality campaign has a momentum of its own to which I can contribute not much heft. I am confident that water will be a significant election topic, maybe not in the top five but definitely a top ten issue. The Tories in government are waking up to the issues but it will no doubt, if the polls are correct, fall to Labour, for good or ill, to chart the course of the next 20 years.   In the vein of localism, two quick bits of news. Our local paper reports a Southampton man caught coarse fishing without a licence, with salmon and trout in his keep net. He was prosecuted to the full extent of the law being fined, in his absence at magistrates’ court, £100. And the cost of a salmon licence? £90.40. Goodness know how many thousands of pounds it cost the EA, police and Court Service to bring this prosecution, all for a ‘profit’ of £9.60. Complete madness.   Finally, following the River Test river keepers protest there will be a similar gathering in Newbury, Berkshire at noon on Sunday to draw attention to the same issues on the Berkshire chalkstreams, the Kennet and Lambourn in particular. All are welcome. You will be pleased to hear that sampling of the Test a week after the protest showed no overpuming and clean water immediately below the Pipe of Doom. That is quite some victory if Southern Water keep things that way.

 

 

NEW Weekend breaks at Coombe Mill on River Avon   Coombe Mill and Kingfisher Lodge that had a sabbatical in 2021, is back to its very best as the extensive restoration work on this River Avon beat is now fully bedded in.   Previously restricted to one week stays, I am now offering 3 night weekends in the wonderful Kingfisher Lodge, with views over the river. Arrive at your leisure of Friday, fish as much as you like Saturday and Sunday, heading off on Monday after breakfast.   There is plenty of fishing for two people at any one time with the party welcome to swap around so everyone may fish. The lodge has two good double bedrooms that sleep four, plus a panoramic living room, kitchen and wrapround veranda.   More details here ….

 

 

River conditions update   So far, April has not been without its challenges – as you may have noticed we have delayed opening on some of our beats not so much due to the condition of the river but treacherous banks and difficult access.   However, other beats have opened as planned, Donnington Grove (Lambourn) and Kanara (Itchen) to name two and as I write this we are now in a drier spell, with the prospect of some rain-free days ahead so expect a return to more normal April conditions soon with more beats opening this weekend.   To check dates and open beats use this link or email us.     River Frome at Ilsington yesterday

 

 

Quiz   The normal random collection of questions inspired by the date, events or topics in the Newsletter. It is just for fun with answers at the bottom of the page.   1)     What do Magnolia, Flowering Peach and Redbud have in common?   2)     What is the meaning of the word antediluvian?   3)     What percentage of the world’s water is fresh? A) 2.5% B) 12.5% C) 25%

 

Have a good weekend.  Best wishes,

 

 

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Directorwww.fishingbreaks.co.uk

 

 

Quiz answers:   1)     All names of golf holes at Augusta National, home of The Masters. 2)     Of or belonging to the time before the biblical Flood 3)     2.5% with only one fifth of that available as fresh water to mankind, the rest locked deep underground, highly polluted or in glaciers.

The Great Thatched Wall of Wallop

 

Greetings!   It is one of those oddities of British planning law that I live and work in a historic mill most of which is over 600 years old, with a mention in the Domesday Book for parts of it, that is not a listed building but my thatched garden wall, certainly of lesser vintage but still very old, is a listed building.   Now, though a thatched garden wall is a thing of beauty and comment it is not without its issues, not least in the transitory nature of the thatch. After 25 years at Nether Wallop Mill we are now rethatching for the third time but this time it is The Big One, for which read expensive.   Straw thatch on walls has a life expectancy of about ten years, the routine rethatching involving stripping off the top layer and adding new. You can do this time after time for over a century but every time the thatch cap gets bigger, just a little bit thicker and larger, until it reaches a tipping, or rather collapsing point. Sadly, for my wallet that once-in-a-century moment of collapse has come under my watch.

 

Final trimming work-in-progress

 

I suppose the obvious question to ask is why thatch a wall? Well, around these parts, a chalk valley, chalk was a readily available building material that could be dug at no cost. Building a chalk wall is pretty simple, albeit time consuming and labour intensive. First create a foundation of flints to just above ground level. Next layer a foot thick mix to a consistency of stiff dough of crushed chalk, straw and water. With shuttering to hold it in place then tramp down the mix wearing shoes with iron plates attached. Leave for a week to dry (walls are best built in summer) and then add further layers until the required height is reached. It will take another year for the wall to be considered ‘cured’ at which point it will be coated with a chalk slurry.   Once built the wall has to be kept bone dry, hence the thatch cap. Without it, the wall will melt like a linear ice cream. However, for all its beauty I do wonder why some previous owner of The Mill went to all the time and expense of building our wall. It was hardly like the road was busy. Three or four hundred years ago, the traffic was at most a few passing horse and carts or docile sheep. Maybe it was a status thing? Millers were high up the pecking order in feudal times, so maybe in the absence of a Bentley or Gucci handbag this was the way to announce your wealth. I have read that chalk walls, that retain heat and provide shelter from frost, were useful for growing soft fruit so, as ours is south facing, maybe that is another clue.     Regardless of all that history, in the present, village thatchers Simon and Geoff Gates have been working on the wall for the past three weeks, starting with the old thatch which literally rolled off and then fell into the road in a rotten heap when the chicken wire was peeled off. This is because there is no subframe or wall fixing; the thatch cap is held in place by way of the shape and weight. First, a triangular stack of straw rolls are put on the top of the wall. Next straw eaves are bent over that stack to then by thatched over, held in place by hazel pegs and the decorative, but practical, hazel weave pattern, with each thatcher having his particular ‘signature’ style for this final flourish.   It will be good to have it done, and though we still have a few days to go it looks, I am sure you will agree, amazing. However my neighbour, who still has his to do is looking on with a certain amount of trepidation …….

 

 

Simon Gates with the final trim and his signature weave. Before and after below.

 

 

 

Ticked off   I seem to be something of a tick magnet. Every summer when the grass is high, however robust my trousers, I will have the dubious pleasure of removing, often multiple, engorged ticks. Now, like most people I worry about catching Lyme Disease and often wonder why I do not, or at least have not so far, it being fairly frequent in the river community. It transpires the Lyme virus is not endemic in ticks; they have first to catch it themselves.   There are around 20 species of tick in Britain but the one that mostly concerns us is the Common Tick Ixodes Ricinus which also goes by multiple names such Sheep Tick, Deer Tick or Castor Bean Tick. As fly fishers we will instantly recognise the life cycle of the tick of egg, larva, nymph, and adult. It is the nymphal stage when they are attracted to humans as they attach themselves to tall grass awaiting a body to brush pass to allow themselves to cling on to a warm blooded host be it human, animal or bird, blood being essential if they are to mutate into adults and for the adult female to produce eggs.     The chance of catching Lyme Disease, though worrying, is small with about 2,000 people a year in Britain infected. Most British ticks do not carry infection (1 in 5 at worst), which they themselves get by feeding on an infected wildlife host, usually a rodent, ingesting the Lyme bacteria which is passed on at the next blood feed.  However, even if you have the misfortune to be chosen as a host by a Lyme carrying tick all is not doom. It takes 36-48 hours for the transfer to take place, so if you remove the tick within 24 hours you will likely be fine.     Ticks are part of the spider family, their looks and confirmation being that of an arachnid albeit very small. I must admit I do not often spot them at that stage, my first sign usually being that of a burrowed head in my skin with the castor bean shaped, blood filled torso protruding. It is tempting Hollywood style, to burn  them off with a cigarette end or coat them with Vaseline. Don’t! The shock will simply make them regurgitate their saliva back into your bloodstream. Use a pair of fine tweezers flat to the skin, a tick removal tool or fine thread to remove your parasite.

 

 

Video of the Week   If you thought Wild Summon was a bit off the wall, take a look at the trailer for Black Samphire from Sky, “an environmental folk horror, featuring the voice of Stephen Fry - fuses rural myth and the real-life threat of the climate crisis to shine a light on the UK's growing water pollution problem.”   From what I can gather (frankly I am bit confused) we have a one minute trailer that gives us a preview of costal foragers who are struck down after eating pollution tainted samphire, which sets off a “subtle, unsettling tale of insidious creeping horror” based in the pernicious water industry.   Currently there is a one minute trailer, with a thirteen minute short film to follow and full-length feature film in the works. Watch the trailer here ….. .

 

 

 

Quiz   The normal random collection of questions inspired by the date, events or topics in the Newsletter. It is just for fun with answers at the bottom of the page.   1)     Easter is quite literally A Moveable Feast. Who wrote a book, published posthumously, of that name?   2)     What is an aquaphile?   3)     The earliest date on which Easter can fall is 22/March; the next occurrence will be 2285! What is the latest date on which Easter can fall?

 

Enjoy the long holiday weekend!  Best wishes,

 

 

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Directorwww.fishingbreaks.co.uk

 

 

Quiz answers:   1)     Ernest Hemingway, the memoir published in 1964 three years after his death. 2)     Someone who is an enthusiast of all things related to the water. 3)     It is 25/April; the next occurrence will be 2038.