Life of a Chalkstream: Net closing in on the water companies.

Greetings!

You may have heard by now of the Supreme Court judgment on Tuesday that handed down a judgment which may have a significant impact on pollution to our waterways.

In a nutshell, the Court has ruled that the operators of the historic waterway the Manchester Ship Canal can bring a private law claim against the local water utility, United Utilities, over unauthorised discharges of sewage. This ruling overturns that of the lower courts that no such claim could be bought because of the provisions of the 1991 Water Industry Act, which privatised the sector, precluded such claims. Many experts believe this could open the floodgates (sic) to many thousands of claims for damage caused by what we all know as the disingenuously termed ‘over pumping’ until now a cost and risk free alternative to doing what we actually pay water companies to do, namely treat the sewage we expect them to treat.

The Manchester Ship Canal.

An unlikely saviour of the chalkstreams and river everywhere?

As you read this the Conservative government will no doubt be a fast fading memory but, though they were hopeless in allowing the water regulators, the Environment Agency and the government departments to be captured and enfeebled by the water companies they did at least enact legislation that will allow us, the recipients of sewage largesse, to monitor and measure all the s**t coming our way. Hence the ability of people like the Manchester Ship Canal to bring the case; which a decade ago it would have been near impossible to prove and probably nobody would have cared anyway.

It seems pretty clear on my examination of the Labour Party manifesto, that we cannot expect much progress in the short to medium term on water barring a few headline grabbing gimmicks on ownership rules and executive bonuses. The real answer, a hefty hike in water bills to finance reservoirs, massive sewage infrastructure spend and a national grid of water, will be as toxic to Labour as the sewage we are forced to swallow.

So, as with so much these days it will fall to small groups who fight important test cases to open the door to lawyer-led enforcement of the law, backing the water companies into positions where they have to spend their way out of trouble or be taken to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing the hand of an unwilling government.

New British eel record

Always good to see anything angling related hit the main news pages and the capture of a record European eel was no exception, caught by serial eel hunter Steve Ricketts from a lake in Kent two weeks ago.

Weighing in at 11lb 3oz it bested the 1978 Hampshire record by one ounce, being 47 inches long and 12 inches in girth. Its age was estimated at something over 40 years which makes sense as everything I have ever read on Anguilla anguilla suggest they grow at a rate of an inch a year, with the oldest verified age for an eel being 88 years. However, this fish does not beat the European rod and reel record which stands at 15lb 7oz caught from a reservoir in the Czech Republic in 1987 though the ‘any method’ record of 18lb 3oz from the Cuckmere River in Sussex in the 1820’s still stands.

Steve Ricketts with his record eel

The reports are coy about the exact location and the method is not mentioned but having taken a look at the National Anguilla Club (N.A.C) web site (yes, there is a band of brothers dedicated to specimen eel fishing) Steve Ricketts numerous entries in the Top 50 Eels suggests a lip hooked worm seems to be his favoured method.

The eel was released back into the lake so perhaps it will soon begin its apparently much delayed one year journey back to the place of its birth, the Sargasso Sea, where having depleted its bodily reserves (silver eels do not feed in saltwater) it will mate then die.

'Exceptional' River Avon fishing for sale

I had a feedback report in the week that reads, “I fished the Avon at Wilsford at the end of May and had quite a few including an 8lb+ brownie. A pal also fished the next two days and had 19 including one 9lb plus….”.

Sadly, this is not, for the moment at least, a Fishing Breaks beat unless someone reading this has £13m to spare. It is not, as local rumour has it, Sting’s house which is in the locality but a property guy who has owned Wilsford Manor for some years. As well as a seven bedroom house that agents Savills describe as ‘magnificent’, it has six secondary dwellings (the sort of buildings normal people would be happy to call home) and 53 acres with 1,178 yards of ‘exceptional’ fishing on the River Avon, plus the right to fish one Rod over another mile. There is a state of the art fishing hut with satellite TV, electricity and water as well as a further hut with lavatory and changing facilities.

More details here …..

Wilsford Manor

That was the month that was June

I know it is against my nature but I will take a dry June as a win when we received something less than half the usual rainfall for the month. But what you really, really want to know was how was the Mayfly?

The conclusions, such is the ethereal nature of the hatch, can never be truly empirical but my sense is that this was a better than average year. As ever, there were the highs and lows. Days when little happened or if a lot did the fish chose to studiously ignore both the naturals and the human tied varieties. There were fewer than normal huge hatches but it was definitely a longer and steadier hatch, with what I would classify as a ‘mayfly day’ way into June.

However, when that hot weather hit in the second half of June the hammer came down. Last week was truly brutal. It has bought us all down from that Ephemera high with something of a jolt.

But to look forward I have a selection of July specials from vice master Nigel Nunn on the way to John Batty from Edinburgh who, having fished Kanara, was first out the hat from the June fishing reports.

Kris Kent 1966-2024

Sad, sad news to bring you of the death of Kris Kent. Many of you will have known Kris as he wore many hats in the fly fishing world, including a happy three years with us here at Fishing Breaks where he worked in the office, helped out on the river and guided.

Of Danish descent, hence the K of Kris, like many of us fly fishing marked the second professional phase in his life having previously worked in management and training for the dairy industry. Morphing into his passion via a stint as secretary of The Grayling Society, a volunteer with the Wild Trout Trust Kris arrived in Stockbridge working in the Orvis store where I first met him.

He soon joined us as a part time guide and added considerable heft (he was a big 6’4”) when we needed help at weed cut times. When a full time position opened up, he was a natural choice, with the added bonus of being a resident of Nether Wallop. Kris was always measured, calm and unflappable, capabilities that were much needed as we navigated the worst of the pandemic together so it came as something of a bolt out of the blue when he handed in his notice on Boxing Day two years ago.

However, it was for all the best of reasons as he had a love in his life beyond fishing, moving to Telford to live with his new family and take the perfect job for him at the Angling Trust. He left for all the best of reasons and with all our very best of wishes, keeping in touch ever since without falling out despite my sometimes robust opinions of the Angling Trust.

Kris died by his own hand aged 58 years on 21 June. We miss you, Kris.

Ian Hay 1946-2024

Ian Hay’s cherubic smile launched thousands of fishing careers, not least my own, his Hampshire shop The Rod Box a pivotal part of the fly fishing explosion of the 1970’s.

Born into an Army family Ian’s early years were spent in Malta but returning to live in Twyford beside the River Itchen, the hours spent in the river at Berry Bridge were to ignite his lifetime love of the chalkstreams. When his contemporaries left for university Ian chose an altogether different route taking an apprenticeship with reel makers Milward’s in London.

Returning again to Hampshire, with his father Colonel ‘Scrappy’ Hay they bought Chalkley’s Tackle Shop in The Square in Winchester in 1965 that they reopened the following year in Lower Brook Street as The Rod Box moving a few years later to a larger and more modern store on St Georges Street known by all, due to it being an all glass box, as the glass bowl.

This move neatly coincided with the huge growth in the popularity of fly fishing, with literally hundreds of stillwaters opening in the space of just a few years, with iconic venues such as Avington pushing the boundaries of innovation especially with the size trout, styles of fly fishing and innovations in both tackle and flies.

A lifetime away from the snooty stores of Farlow’s’ and Hardy’s in London’s clubland, The Rod Box was the place to go where the rack of fly rods was both a thing of great beauty and temptation. I still have today my first fly rod, an 8.5ft five weight fibreglass Rod Box own brand, with an Intrepid reel, that Ian sold me in 1972. As well as the shop, Ian and Scrappy were at the forefront of opening up the chalkstreams to allcomers, creating a chalkstream letting agency. In the 1990’s The Rod Box moved to Kings Worthy on the outskirts of Winchester until Ian retired in 2010, the store eventually moving to Sutton Scotney under the care of Ian’s long-time associate Richard Webb who runs it today.

For Ian his heart was always with the Itchen, his favourite beats upstream of Winchester around Chilland but he was both a keen salmon fisher with annual trips to the Spey and enjoyed his shooting, which took the place of the Mini car racing of his younger years.

Ian died on the 19 May aged 78 years after a short illness, a quirky coincidence of a date it being the date Scrappy always held to be the prime day for River Itchen mayfly. Ian leaves his wife Erica, and three sons Christien, Jolion and Simeon.

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) Who graduated from the Canadian spying school on this day in 1942?

2) The Prime Minister's official residence is 10 Downing Street, and the Chancellor's official residence is Number 11. Who is at No. 12?

3) The home of Wimbledon tennis embraces two sports. What is the other?