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Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)
Guest
I hope Graham does not mind me posting a link to another site but this made me laugh.
The Coppermill Stream
The Coppermill Stream
" . . . but this made me laugh."
Me too!
Me too!
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Ged
Guest
Takes me back to my youth I was all of ten years old and fishing a free lodge where me and my brother were joined by another lad to battle with some scroats. Fortunately we won.
Good article and typical of some fishermen who never even acknowledge others that are fishing, especially kids or old folk.
Good article and typical of some fishermen who never even acknowledge others that are fishing, especially kids or old folk.
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Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)
Guest
There is something interesting stuff on that site whichI came across by chance the other day.FM and it are chalk and cheese hence I did not feel too bad posting a link to it.For some way out stuff check out the Letters From Arcadia blog link.
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A great read , fishing at it`s rawest , the things that you have to put up with when you are a kid .
Richard Farrow
Senior Member
It wasn't Christian who wrote the article was it? A good read, elements of my past came back to me when I read it.
Graham Whatmore
Senior Member
Interesting Nigel, what could have been a very good article was ruined firstly by the bad language and secondly (and most importantly)by the lack of editing such as Graham would have given it.
Why is it that people feel the need to use foul language when describing something in print, I find it an instant put-off personally and itdoes nothing to enhance the descriptive text.
Why is it that people feel the need to use foul language when describing something in print, I find it an instant put-off personally and itdoes nothing to enhance the descriptive text.
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Nigel Connor(ACA ,SAA)
Guest
If you read this chaps other stuff Graham you'll find the same ;a cross between Waterlog and William Burroughs.It does not much bother me to be honest butI appreciate your stance.
I see your point Graham, but if used 'in context' I think it has the effect of 'lessening' the language.
The Scarlet Maggot
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I find it very odd this link is still working; I have it on very good authority the author of this particular piece had expressed strict wishes to be removed permanently and completely from the purepiscator site and WP (work party), how very odd.
Anyway profanity; I think when one writes autobiographically in this day and age it’s unavoidable. It would look out of place in a “How to do” article I grant you, but not over Walthamstow in the 1980’s.
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Ray Daywalker Clarke
Well-known member
You wouldn't want to fish the stream now, you would be lucky to see a fish, let alone catch one. Had some great days there in the 80's and early 90's, but it's not the only river to suffer.
Ray Daywalker Clarke
Well-known member
The stream doese'nt flow as it did before, and as a result the fish seem to have just gone. You will still see the odd Carp or Chub, but the big bags of Roach, double figure Barbel and Big Chub are no longer there.
I have'nt seen one angler fish the stream in the last two seasons, thats not to say they don't, but you can have a pick of any swim you like, when before, you would be lucky to find a swim empty.
The lakes are fishing very well.
I have'nt seen one angler fish the stream in the last two seasons, thats not to say they don't, but you can have a pick of any swim you like, when before, you would be lucky to find a swim empty.
The lakes are fishing very well.
The Scarlet Maggot
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That’s a terrible shame..
I remember the race to first swims, a string of guys looking like pack ponies weaving in and out of morning traffic. The hallowed bridge swim, the holy fking grail, I remember making it one morning and actually feeling totally overwhelmed as guys would swagger up, weigh up my puny keepnet, and Freemans catalogue match rod, was as if I had no place in being there, and the few dace I managed to snare kind of proved it.
Just watching the fish there was inspiring though, especially as a youngster, It was almost aquarium like, I remember watching the perch hug the far bank from the pub car park, or some huge carp swimming in the off limits section, they seemed to reside there knowing it was safe, didn’t have the minerals for spot of poaching back then, there must have been a few that did…
I remember the race to first swims, a string of guys looking like pack ponies weaving in and out of morning traffic. The hallowed bridge swim, the holy fking grail, I remember making it one morning and actually feeling totally overwhelmed as guys would swagger up, weigh up my puny keepnet, and Freemans catalogue match rod, was as if I had no place in being there, and the few dace I managed to snare kind of proved it.
Just watching the fish there was inspiring though, especially as a youngster, It was almost aquarium like, I remember watching the perch hug the far bank from the pub car park, or some huge carp swimming in the off limits section, they seemed to reside there knowing it was safe, didn’t have the minerals for spot of poaching back then, there must have been a few that did…
tricoptero
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It also suffered greatly, as did many rivers, from cormorant predation. The first fish to go were the dace and roach followed by the smaller perch and chub. At the time the baillif told me that when he arrived in the mornings there would be up to 200 birds on the river, all diving and coming up with fish. Then the reduction of the flow finally sealed it's fate but it was thought that the bigger fish moved down river and into the Lea which accounted for the increase in catches of large carp and chub from the Tottenham and Lea Bridge Road sections. What happened to the barbel god only knows but I would suspect that they gradually died out or also moved down into the Lea.
The Coppermill was one of my favourite rivers and it's eventual decline into being no more than a fishless, canal like stretch of water makes me want to weep.
The Coppermill was one of my favourite rivers and it's eventual decline into being no more than a fishless, canal like stretch of water makes me want to weep.
theabsurdman
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New poster here, just resurrecting an old thread to agree with you.
The death (murder?) of the fabulous Coppermill stream was one of the worst things I've witnessed in a lifetime of angling.
And what's particularly tragic is that I used to talk to old boys who were fishing it circa 1990 and remembered it from long before I was born as not having changed significantly in the intervening years.
What really killed it was the switching off of the flow in 1999 which both destroyed its character and left the fish stocks wide-open to the huge cormorant population which even today, the reservoir website incredibly still trumpets as an asset (for birdwatching).
Incidentally, at about the same time the flow was also switched off to the New River in Haringey/ Winchmore Hill which likewise turned from being an urban haven for specimen roach and perch (albeit not strictly legal to fish) to yet another stagnant fishless canal.
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