Why the EA cannot read the room

 

Greetings, I read with some interest the recent publicity around Paul Powlesland a self-styled activist barrister and environmentalist who was threatened with prosecution by the Environment Agency (EA), in a typical instance of quango overreach and bullying, for unauthorised river clearance work on a dilapidated part of Alders Brook, a tributary of the River Roding in the suburbs of northeast London. The background is that Powlesland, who lives in a houseboat on the Roding, organised a group of forty volunteers and hired a digger to clear the Brook over a ten day period that had become clogged with decades of detritus, urban rubbish and fallen trees. A few days after the work was complete, Powlesland received a letter from the EA accusing him of “unauthorised flood risk activity”.

Paul Powlesland

The use of this catch-all phrase is straight out of the EA Stalinist-style playbook. It is scary when they wave the big stick for apparently minor or well-meaning actions which might result in up to two years in jail and a massive fine. Believe me I know: over the years I have had my rights read to me and could probably fill a book with threatening missives from the EA, or their shadowy puppet masters, Natural England. It always plays out the same way. Many letters will be exchanged, though typically your timely replies will be left unanswered for weeks or months by the prosecuting body. Threats will be escalated and new fronts of misdoing opened up as the original offence loses its lustre. Eventually, when it becomes clear the only crime to have been committed exists in the mind of bureaucratic officialdom, a final ‘warning’ letter will be issued and everyone will move on. It is hard to know the exact circumstances of what happened at Alders Brook. To be fair to the EA, using a digger is pretty hardcore and I would certainly never advise anyone to do so without consultation. Likewise, the activist Powlesland seems to be no stranger to run-ins with the authorities but he makes some very good points. Not least that had the required permit been sought it would have taken over a year and, such is the complicated nature of this process, require the involvement of a consultant and mounds of paperwork- the cost of which would be more than the restoration itself. The sad fact is that this case, and the similar ones I have experienced, encapsulates all that is bad about the EA and Natural England who cannot read the room. Here we have two regulatory bodies, tasked with protecting the countryside and rivers, with a combined annual budget of £2 billion, who are clearly failing to do their job on a national scale. So, instead of looking inward to address their manifest failings, they go to petty bureaucratic war with their natural allies.

Wake. Fish. Sleep .... in The Chilterns Over the past few years our collection of fishing cottages has slowly grown, ranging from the most southerly in France to the most northerly in Yorkshire. Aside from the importance of both the quality of the accommodation and the fishing, one of my essential requirements is that both be in the same ownership and on the same estate, farm or homestead. Essentially, I want you to be able to roll out of bed, slip on your shoes, grab a coffee from the kitchen, grab your rod from the porch and amble, however bleary eyed, to the river. Now I have to admit at two thirds of a mile the walk from Toweridge Farmhouse to the Buckinghamshire Wye is not short but you can at least be a duke for the morning as you walk down the hill through the magnificent West Wycombe Park Estate, the lake and river slowly revealing themselves as you approach. Music Temple

This particular River Wye, fed from The Chilterns, is the most pellucid chalkstream I know which also feeds the trout lake- featuring the amazing Music Temple. This is ideal for a leisurely picnic and you will get to the island in the wooden row boat that you may use to fish the lake as well. Toweridge Farmhouse is available for three night stays with fishing for one or two Rods April-September. Dogs are welcome. Details here .... Toweridge Farmhouse

Podcast of the Week One of the fun things about publishing a new book is that, after a year chained to your desk writing, editing and generally honing the darn thing, you get out there to meet the readers and often reconnect with people you worked with on previous books. One such was Fergus Collins who I first met ten years ago when he was editor of the Countryfile Magazine, who kindly ran a piece about me and the just published The Otters’ Tale. Since then, the media landscape has changed with magazines not quite the marketing force they were. Today, the podcast is king so Fergus, now editor and host of the BBC Countryfile Magazine The Plodcast came to The Mill last month to see for himself the many parts featured in Tales from The Mill.

The Plodcast. Episode 358. Hear tales from the mill on a beautiful Hampshire chalkstream with Simon Cooper

I always find being interviewed for radio more rewarding than for TV. You are forced to fill in the gaps that the listener cannot see; it is mind stretching in a good way and with a good interviewer and listener in Fergus, an enjoyable way to relive your own book. Aside from my attempt to encourage him to smell an otter spraint (you can determine the sex by doing so) we had a fun morning which he has honed down to a very listenable 53 minutes. You may listen to it here or via your usual podcast source by searching Countryfile Plodcast Simon with Fergus Collins at The Mill

Video of the Week If the heat has kept you confined to home, here is a short video filmed by Damon Valentine and the guys from Farlow’s last summer at The Parsonage on the River Test. Enjoy!

Watch it here .....

Speaking of Farlows/Sportfish - July marks the Sportfish Rivers Month, a campaign to shine a spotlight on the importance of improving the health of our rivers. In support of this we are hosting our very own conservation day at Bullington Manor on the Dever today.. hosted by our Head River Keeper, Si Fields. Look out for the updates next time!

Quiz A short selection of questions based on the topics in this newsletter, the date today or something topical. 1)      Which three national leaders attended the Potsdam Conference on this day in 1945? 2)      Who was No.1 in the UK singles charts with Out of Time on the day in 1966 when England won the World Cup? A) Chris Farlowe B) The Beatles  C) The Kinks D) The Rolling Stones 3)      The word "podcast" is a blend of what two words? It is just for fun and the answers are below.

Have a good weekend. Best wishes,

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

Quiz answers: 1)      Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill 2)      Chris Farlowe  3)      "iPod" and "broadcast". It was coined in 2004 by journalist Ben Hammersley in an article for The Guardian to describe the emerging trend of distributing downloadable audio shows over the internet.

Butterfly rescue

 

Greetings, Most evenings I have to clear the hatch that controls the outflow to the lake which acts as both a barrier to trout making a bid for freedom and maintains the height of the water. However, during the day there will be a build-up of grass, weed and general surface detritus that gradually blocks the grille and, if not regularly cleared, will cause flooding and an escape route for the aforementioned trout. A few nights ago, as I lifted the grille, caught in the blanket of surface debris was what I assumed was an outstretched butterfly corpse. But as it got closer it twitched. So, for no other reason than it seemed the right thing to do, I deployed my bamboo pole which I use for moving along the debris, using it to scoop up the Painted Lady before it tumbled over the edge of the weir and off into the almost certainly fatal faster current of the river. Almost as soon as I had laid it on the grass the butterfly started to move its wings, raising them together to a typical butterfly apex. But I could see the underside of the wings were covered in claggy, brown algae as was the clubbed antenna that protruded from the head; I say antenna because it has lost the other one which perhaps explains why it crashed into the lake by way of an attack or previous injury.

A Painted Lady

For a while not much happened so, assuming a bit of a breeze might help it dry off, and maybe provide a launch pad, I lifted the butterfly onto a fishing seat. Taking a closer look, it seemed that not only were the wings covered in algae but also the antenna effectively rendering it blind, deaf and without the ability to smell or sense wind direction. I tried a blade of grass to wipe away the algae but that was useless. However, I did spot a downy pigeon feather which did the job, the butterfly soon flexing his or her wings in appreciation of my care, before starting to move confidently along the seat. I did wait for a while to see it take off as I had other things to do. When I returned half an hour later the butterfly had flown the seat. Or at least I hope so. It is, of course, always possible that a bird ate it, but I am rather hoping that my rescue act was not in vain.

Meet us at Trout ‘n About this Sunday I am not sure how exactly many years Trout ‘n About has been going but it is at least fifteen in which time it has grown from a cluster of stalls along one side of Stockbridge High Street to quite the operation which now, for the third year, sees the High Street closed to traffic this Sunday, 2 August from 10am-4pm. It is a very special, and busy day, for all the business owners in Stockbridge who will be joined by a 100 plus stalls of local traders showcasing the very best of regional food, produce and crafts, attracting thousands of visitors. Trout ‘n’ About is a free-to-attend event, run entirely by local volunteers, although there is a small charge for parking to raise money for local good causes.  Lucy & Minnie with the Fishing Breaks beat map for the stand

Come and see us on the Fishing Breaks stand to say hello, enter our free draw and there will also be games for kids with prizes! We are close to Robjents, Orvis and the river. More details can be found on the official Trout ‘n About website. The Drowned World JG Ballard’s The Drowned World has been sitting in the drawer of my bedside table for longer than I care to recall but in the midst of the heatwave I felt its time had come, for it tells of a future (present?!) in which solar radiation has melted the polar ice caps and transformed London into a flooded tropical lagoon. We meet the central character biologist Robert Kerans holed up in an air conditioned suite in The Ritz, only venturing out morning and evening (sound familiar) as the temperature can daily reach 150F. The extent of London’s plight is bought home to the reader by the fact that Kerans starts his daily research forays around the capital by untying his boat moored on the sixth floor balcony of his apartment.  J G Ballard The book, published in 1962, long before global warning or climate change were a thing, is not so much about the apocalyptic state of the planet, or indeed how it became such, but rather about the collapse of social order and the impact of living in an ever receding world on the psyche of the remaining inhabitants. Reading the book I was struck by two things. Firstly, Ballard is a tough read insomuch as he barely wastes a word. Sometimes his heat narrative and my heat laden situation conspired to make me skim over a paragraph or two. Big mistake. You soon lose the plot; rereading required. The second is that if The Drowned World, published in the same year as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring were warning calls, they did a pretty bad job.

That was the month that was July I know it takes a certain amount of determination to head out fishing in this weather but truthfully, when I look through the catch returns for July, the results and comments are perhaps surprisingly upbeat. But that is where chalkstreams trump all other rivers. It is not the rain that fell yesterday or tomorrow that counts but rather that which falls in the critical four months of November to February. I know time blurs the memory, plus the brownness all around makes us forget that we had a super wet winter that ran to almost the last day of March. I have read a great deal of nonsense about water temperatures in the past few weeks with clubs and associations suspending fishing for no other reason than ….. well, they can. The simple fact is that fish in rivers, aside from a few isolated cases, fare perfectly fine despite the weather adapting to the conditions by feeding early and late whilst keeping out of the worst of the sun. Wise anglers do the same! Anyway, August beckons with a selection of “Small and Deadly!” from our vice master Nigel Nunn on the way to the July feedback winner Paul Tindall who fished Kanara on the River Itchen.

CBG #18: Crackle Back Gnat. Everybody needs a gnat! And this is a favourite of mine for both trout, grayling and coarse.

OQL #20: Olive Quill Loop. A loop cdc fly with a a rough/buggy quilled body that gets inhaled by trout the world over.

OM #20: Olive Midge. Don’t be fooled by this scruffy little fly… it’s been described as an “absolute weapon!”.

IDSM #20: Ids Midge. Originally tied for Iceland, this shaggy black fly with a bright white wing post is now fished all over the world.

PS Just as an aside as we reach what will probably be a record dry July it is worth looking back to a hot but also wet June where rainfall was one third higher than average. So, on the back of that and the wet winter, southern England reservoirs are mostly fuller than they were this time last year and groundwater levels normal.

Not another hosepipe ban I think most seem to agree hosepipe bans are largely performative and if water companies issue them in the hope of looking good they are greatly mistaken; it is just another nail in the coffin of what is the public contempt of these essential utility providers. As I have frequently said, the problem with water in Britain is not that we do not have enough of it (6 inches of our annual 32 inches of rain is all that is required to meet water need) but it is mostly in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, it is not a hard fix. A national grid of water, additional reservoirs and a few strategic desalination plants would do the trick. So, why do we not have anything other than a couple of new reservoirs in the pipeline?  The fact is that for the past two decades the fight against ‘climate change’ as directed by government on businesses, quangos and institutions has been about addressing the causes of climate change measured against nebulous metrics rather than mitigating the effects on people. Typically you will see institutions such as the much reviled but still incredibly influential Environment Agency more interested in burnishing their net zero credentials (carbon neutral HQ anyone?) rather than getting clean, safe and plentiful water where and when it is needed.

Quiz A short selection of questions based on the topics in this newsletter, the date today or something topical. 1)     Operation Banner comes to an end as the longest-running British Army operation ever on this day in 2007. In which country? 2)     How many resident species of butterfly are there in the UK? A) 58  B) 158  C) 258 3)     Did J G Ballard win the Booker Prize once, twice or not at all? It is just for fun and the answers are below.

Have a good weekend. Best wishes,

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

Quiz answers: 1)     Northern Ireland 2)     58 plus two regular migrants – the Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow 3)     He never won it and was only once shortlisted with Empire of the Sun in1984

Summer on the Test

 

Greetings! I was in a hurry the other day heading out the door to catch a plane with nothing to read. Scanning my bookshelf, my eye was caught by John Waller Hills’ A Summer on the Test- a book I must have read at least thirty years ago. What better I thought to while away the hours at 35,000ft than being transported back to the chalkstreams of the first two decades of the 20th century. Hills’ book is often cited as one of the best fly fishing books of all time which is how I recalled it. This time around, maybe less so. I did, in truth, rather tire of his repetitious days where he endlessly recounts the weather, the hatch, choices from his fly box and his braggadocio of fish caught. Aside from that, it is still a gem that distills the essence of fly fishing on the chalkstreams reminding me, and hopefully other readers, that however much things change they still remain the same. If the Hills of 1926 was standing at your shoulder in 2026 the conversation, observation and fishing would be largely unchanging.

John Waller Hills 1867-1938. Soldier. Politician. Writer. Fly fisher

Of that I was reminded, though perhaps not in a good way, by the Introduction to the 1946 edition by Sir Joseph Ball who writes, “…. I am afraid that the abstraction of its [River Test] pure water has increased and is still increasing …..”. If only he knew what awfulness lay ahead. The metropolitan new town of Basingstoke, that stands at the head of the catchment for both the Test and Itchen, was still a gleam in the eye of the county planners, its pre-war population of 13,000 set to swell to 197,000 today. As Ball penned his introduction the county of Hampshire had 1.1m inhabitants. Today, 80 years on that is close to having doubled, at 1.95m. And precisely how many reservoirs have been built in the county since then? Precisely, none. As I say, however much things change they still remain the same. On a more cheerful line I enjoyed Hills’ dissection of the evening rise and his graduations of its foibles in one of the longer chapters of the book. He posits that there are three styles of evening rise. The first, what he calls the casual rise, starts between seven and eight and lasts until shortly before sunset. The second, the small fly rise, starts after the last edge of the sun has sunk below the horizon and ends when it is too dark to see your fly on the water. The third, the sedge rise, opens and runs for something under half an hour. As to the flies recommended, he is very much a spinner man during a casual rise, and he is a fanatic of the Orange Quill. For the small fly (size 16 or smaller) rise duns, spinners or occasionally nymphs. The sedge rise falls into two parts: until it gets dark nothing bigger than size 16 and then larger versions for the quarter to half hour after dark at which point you should fish no further as it is fruitless. Hills is nothing if not emphatic in his opinions which include his belief that a bag of two fish should be considered a successful evening rise. Anyway, I had quite forgotten his evening rise stratagems so I am going to test them out in the coming few weeks and generally, though I am not going to read A Summer on the Test again cover to cover it is certainly worth dipping into on a chapter by chapter basis e.g. High Summer or Harvest Moon, if you are seeking inspiration or new tactics for an upcoming day on the river. Orange Quill

Ash dieback dying back As our head river keeper Si Fields will tell you, we spend a lot of time dealing with dead or dying ash trees which have a habit of self-felling at the most inconvenient times and in the most inconvenient places. I guess it is no surprise as since ash dieback, a fatal fungal disease that was first identified in 2012, tens of millions have died. Originally it was estimated that 80% of our 150 million ash trees would succumb but more recently this estimate has been downgraded because, thanks to a genetic variation, more trees will survive than anticipated which rather answers a question that has long bothered me about ash dieback: why do some survive and others not? Nether Wallop ash tree that was once five trees

Around The Mill we have plenty of healthy specimens of, I reckon, 30-50 years of age plus another closer to 75 years which I have been nursing for at least 15 years as infected limbs are gradually sawn off. Today it still survives, more of a hat stand than a tree, but each spring raggedly shoots are the cause to celebrate another winter survival and herald its continued primary purpose as a woodpecker paradise. We also have, in the field by the office, one of the most magnificent ash trees I know of anywhere. 150? 200? 250? Nobody quite knows how many years old it might be and village legend has it that the tree was formed by the lashing together of five smaller trees into one by the constraint of cast iron rings.  It seems that, one way or another, the ash tree, one of our only thirty or so native trees, will eventually beat the dieback. Currently it is not possible to buy saplings for replanting but Mother Nature is doing her bit; healthy young ash trees are thrusting skywards where dead trees fall.

That was the month that was June As the 1980’s hit went, June was Feeling Hot Hot Hot ….. and then some more. It was hot at work. It was hot at home. It was hot outside. It was hot by the river. There really was no escape unless you happen to live in one of the 10% of UK homes that have air conditioning. Despite all that June was a wet month. At the time of writing the data for the final week on the month is yet to come in but we are on track to be one third up on the rainfall for a normal June. The weather Gods work in mysterious ways. At this point, in summarising June I am going to have a bit of a rant (I know you have missed them …) because there were some hysterical and utterly misguided suspensions of river fishing issued by fishing clubs and official bodies who really should know better. The way they went on, you would think that a few days of hot weather had turned our rivers into bubbling infernos carpeted with flotillas of dead fish. Now it is true that armed with a thermometer and the desire to create alarm you can always find hot pockets in a river and that lakes truly do suffer, but chalkstreams?

Nigel Nunn's July quartet Dry Fly Soft Hackle | Small & Scruffy Loop Fowey Cahill Caddis | Deer Hair Emerger

Yes, it was horribly hot in the midday sun. Fish skulk in the depths. Insects cling to shaded vegetation. The river surface shines back at you like a lifeless mercury bath. But the truth is insects have to fly to perpetuate the species. Fish have to eat to live. Nature does not stop for a heatwave. It simply cannot afford to. It adapts to survive because it does not have the luxury of a five day forecast.  Like many things in life the secret of successful fishing in a heatwave is timing. Pick your moment and use it well. Do not flog the water or your body in the heat of the day. Fish early. Fish late. Or fish a combination of the two. And I can promise you those that did caught plenty of fish who rose to a well-presented fly and were safely returned to rise another day. Clearly those fish had not read the health and safety memo from the well-meaning idiots. And to wrap up June, I am pleased to announce that Roger Scotts, who fished Middleton Estate early in the month, will soon be the proud recipient of Nigel Nunn’s July selection.

Quiz A short selection of questions based on the topics in this newsletter, the date today or something topical. 1) Who did Sweden's Björn Borg beat on this day in 1976 on his way to five straight Wimbledon Men's tennis titles? 2) How many days does a UK heatwave have to last for the Met Office to classify it as such? 3) Which British motor company still manufactures sports cars with frames made from ash? It is just for fun and the answers are below.

Have a good weekend. PS August is Special Offer month! To receive advance notice of the deals and offers sign up for the alert emails.  Best wishes,

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

Quiz answers: 1) Ilie Năstase 2) 3 days 3) The Morgan Motor Company of Great Britain