How low is your river?

theartist · Nov 17, 2017

Given the reports of low water around various parts of the country thought i'd sound off a bit, make a bit of noise, hello water companies! How's the rivers faring where you are?

Here's the once mighty River Gade as of last week, top weir at Cassiobury Park

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binka · Nov 17, 2017

Strangely enough the Trent is holding up pretty well and is currently fractionally above summer levels but I'm baffled as to why, given the lack of prolonged rain

I want a flood and a good, under the rod tip, barbel session!

peter crabtree · Nov 17, 2017

Can't believe that weir Rob, especially as it runs off the canal?

In better days.....

mikench · Nov 17, 2017

binka said:
Strangely enough the Trent is holding up pretty well and is currently fractionally above summer levels but I'm baffled as to why, given the lack of prolonged rain

I want a flood and a good, under the rod tip, barbel session!

So do I ; the latter not the former

xenon · Nov 17, 2017

thames around Shepperton and Sunbury is about normal level, but flow is pretty sluggish-not fishing great at the moment (but that might be just me)

103841 · Nov 17, 2017

The graph below says it all really and it's been this way for well over a year. Not only is it low but narrowing by the day as the bankside vegetation takes hold, not so much a river, more a brook on certain stretches.

A piece on the local news last night highlighted the severe lack of rain water here in the SouthEast showing Bewl reservoir two thirds below the level it should be. Predictions of water rationing with drought conditions expected unless we have a very wet winter.

peterjg · Nov 17, 2017

I was really saddened to see those before and after pictures of the river Gade in Cassiobury Park. I first fished there over 40 years ago and there used to be good flow with lots of roach, dace and chub, even a few carp. I can remember catching chub on minnows there.

I also used to fish the Gade at Croxley Moor, about 6 years ago I went back for a look and it was only half the width it used to be, I was really shocked.

They say, never go back, well 40+ years ago I was a member of Uxbridge Rovers AS and they had a truly superb bit of the river Colne at Denham called the middle meadow, I could hardly recognise it, hardly any flow and so low, tragic!

I realise that we have had very little rain so the rivers are down but over abstraction must be stopped.

It doesn't matter which party, I believe that virtually all politicians are either incompetent or corrupt. The water companies should be nationalised, water is more important than just a source of profit. Abstraction needs to be drastically reduced and reservoirs built. Is it true that most of the water companies are owned by foreign companies?

I moved away in 2013 to Hampshire. I fish the river Kennet a lot now, the river level is OK but the flow rate is down a bit.

theartist · Nov 17, 2017

Don't get me wrong guys the Gade hasn't dried up...yet and the picture shown is one of three/four channels but it should carry water like in PC's pic and not be walked across by yummy mummy's in trainers that's for sure, it is/was the main channel.

I did manage a good catch of chub that day more by local knowledge, good fortune or divine intervention, delete as appropriate but would be nice to fish in more than a foot of slow trickle, and this was after some rainfall, naively thinking it would be up a touch

mg:

Talked to a Tring Angler on the canal today who say's that the canal is being lowered as there's not enough water, probably as the feeder river the Bulbourne is suffering too.

Lost rivers of London? Think the Lost rivers of Herts, Essex and East Anglia would be a tale for our grandchildren or even children perhaps, the way things are going. Hope the rest of the country is doing better and hope that there's a good bit of rain soon.

Alan Tyler · Nov 17, 2017

I used to think the "Lea Conservancy" was the biggest band of negligent brigands going, but whomsoever's in charge of the Colne system makes them look almost honest and competent. How very sad.

john step · Nov 17, 2017

I have just seen this post. To say shocked is an understatement. That used to be a fastish trotting stretch full of chub.

steve2 · Nov 17, 2017

Looking at the EA river level chart for my local River Roding it appears to show over a foot deep although just how they arrive at this I don’t know when I last looked it was only inches deep. This is a place were we use to swim when we were kids. There are many places now where you won’t even get your ankles wet.

peterjg · Nov 18, 2017

Does the EA actually do anything to stop the over abstraction of our rivers and do they have a long term corrective plan. Silly question - they are a government agency - they do as they are told .....

steve2 · Nov 18, 2017

Rivers will continue to get lower down to the simple fact that a growing population as to get water from somewhere. What we need is more reservoirs to store floodwater instead of looking for ways to get rid of it as fast as possible.
Water abstraction licensees given to farmers need to be looked at and they should be made to build storage reservoirs and not pump direct from rivers no matter what the river level.
Water companies could be banned from taking water direct from the ground and only take it from the river at some point further down stream. This would also help fight pollution as no one wants to drink polluted water although in some case we are already drinking it.
Put a ban on the ridiculous bottled water industry their millions of gallons of water most be coming from somewhere. This would also help solve the plastic waste problems.

thecrow · Nov 18, 2017

peterjg said:
Does the EA actually do anything to stop the over abstraction of our rivers and do they have a long term corrective plan. Silly question - they are a government agency - they do as they are told .....

I am sure I have read somewhere that to revoke an abstraction licence costs them money in the form of compensation, money that they can use elsewhere cutting bankside trees down, maybe that's why they do nothing?

tonya · Nov 18, 2017

Yet we are building loads of houses without considering water saving measures.

binka · Nov 18, 2017

tonya said:
Yet we are building loads of houses without considering water saving measures.

And many on flood plains, it's not hard to see the irony in that

108831 · Nov 19, 2017

For years on the Thames water isn't allowed over many weirs,so as to allow lock operation,rivers in the home counties are very low and unless we get rain to top the water tables up there is a real danger of some places drying up.

How low is your river?

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