A bitter pill to swallow.

[Derek Gibson]

To be made aware of the decline of a favourite water that has held special memories for a number of years.
One such water was a small drain in Lincolnshire that had produced some mighty Perch for my small band of friends and me. We never hammered the water, choosing to what we referred to as ''Farming'' it by paying irregular visits.

Looking through the photo's was remarkable, and brought back vivid memories of magnificent Stripies and the band of four buddies, ''now sadly down to two of us''.

I know all waters are cyclical, but it still hurts.

Many on here must have experienced a similar scenario, would you like to share

 

[Jelster]

As a kid a few of us fished a small pond just off of a public footpath between farmers fields. Surrounded by trees, full of reeds and lilly's, it had some of the best Rudd & Crucians around at the time. We would often go there during school holidays, and it was there I caught my first ever Carp, and a huge Eel (well it was huge when I was 14!).

Alas, the Farmer developed the land, filling in the pond, and all the fish were lost, as was a lovely little pool. Houses on it now.

 

[thecrow]

Most of the small ponds around this area have been filled in as well as where I also caught my first double figure Carp, perhaps the loss of these is partly to blame for kids not coming into angling.

 

[steve2]

Too many of the small ponds I fished are now long gone, built on or filled in. Unfortunately for some people like one of neighbours they come back after heavy rain and flood his garden with a foot of water.

The most depressing thing is that the smaller streams that we fished and swam in as kids are now over abstracted overgrown ditches that only flow after heavy winter rain. They still hold a few fish but few now bother fish them.
Some of my long-standing PB’s came from these streams. They did regularly produced Chub over 5lbs, Dace to a pound, Roach over 2lbs, Perch to 4lbs.

Don't go back and try to relive those days you will be greatly disappointed they are sometimes better left as memories.

 

[john step]

The bitter pill of the Witham pollution. The bitter pill of the Upper Ancholme silting and virtually unfishable due to weed growth both in the river and growing out from the banks. I read somewhere it was no. 8 in the country on the list of badly polluted rivers with nicatotides (wrong spelling??) that kills invertebrates.

On the plus side I had a walk around a lake where I grew up in Dagenham last year. It used to be called The Chase but now seems to have been renamed Bardag.
Instead of a bare litter strewn gravel pit there is now a landscaped and planted up lake which appears quite picturesque.