Fishing lines: Survival of the fattest fish in town Print E-mail
Saturday, 19 July 2003
20th July 2003 Fish can't smile. (Except, that is, in my now famous book Catch More Shark, which features savage porbeagles, makos and great whites grinning away in possibly the worst drawings to appear in a book by anyone over five.)

Fish can't smile, but if they could, the trout in London's river Wandle would have good reason to beam. By rights, they shouldn't live there at all. Trout are fine monitors of pollution; if a water's polluted, they die. And few places have been more maltreated than this 11-mile Thames tributary.

This is a big week for the Wandle. On 26 July 1803, the Surrey Iron Railway started. Running from Wandsworth to Croydon, it was the world's first public railway. There were no trains, however. Horses pulled the wagons, which carried a variety of goods from the busiest area of London.

It was such an important area that more people commuted to the Wandle valley than lived there. In medieval times, Merton Abbey was bigger than West-minster or Canterbury, and kings were crowned there.

Good news for property developers, bad news for trout. Pollution from dozens of mills washed into the river. Among the worst offenders was William Morris (who actually produced a Wandle print). Much of his design work and manufacturing was done at Merton Abbey. Yet for a while, the trout (and other fish) survived Morris's mess, thanks to the little river's pace.

Despite increased pollution, people paid handsomely to fish there. The angling editor of The Field at the time, Francis Francis, grumbled: "Rents upon some parts of the Wandle almost amount to £1 a yard." But the fishing was good. Trout of 2lb-3lb were common in the first part of the 19th century, and Charles Hudson, after whom a special Wandle fly was named, caught 400 brace in just four months.

In the end, pollution won. Pretty well everything disappeared. In the 1950s, the Thames itself was so polluted that even eels couldn't live there. But some sterling work by the Environment Agency has improved things markedly.

Barbel to 13lb, 4lb perch, big roach, chub and dace are being caught there. A salmon was captured recently at Beddington sewage works, having negotiated six weirs and a culvert several hundred feet long. And trout are returning by the dozen - thanks to local schools.

Led by a tireless Wandle- lover called Alan Suttie, a charity called the Jetset Club encourages youngsters to appreciate the river. In one scheme, schools are given a special fish tank and a batch of trout eggs. They have to rear the trout to a size where they can survive. The fish are then put into the Wandle.

Nice idea, huh? Lovingly nurtured by youngsters on high-protein food, the trout are symbols of hope for inner-city rivers everywhere. (Unless, as a member of the newly formed Wandle Angling Club, I catch them first.) Sorry, kids.
 

Copyright © Countryside Alliance
Countryside Alliance, company number 5227778. The Countryside Alliance Foundation, company number 5669451, charity number 1121034.
Both are Companies Limited by Guarantee Registered in England and Wales. Both registered office: 367 Kennington Road, London SE11 4PT