The LAA and the state of angling

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Alan Cooper

Guest
I have just posted a reply to Mark Frame re the LAA and Kings Weir on the Lea. However, I'd like to open up my observations more generally. I've recently returned to angling after a 30 year break (don't ask why - I enjoy it every bit as much as ever I did). I still have a 1962 LAA Handbook and recently rejoined the LAA as an individual member. My heart breaks to see the waters they have lost. Why have they lost so many? And who controls Pitmore Lock and its barbel on the Suffolk Stour nowadays? And where have all the anglers gone? The banks are bare and getting a swim is easy. Unless we (all of us) can get new blood into our sport quickly angling will wither and die - or be killed off by the antis.
 
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nick bennett

Guest
What you say is right. I am thirteen, and so may be that new blood, but as soon as I took up angling I became an object of ridicule among my classmates. Unless this attitude is destroyed, youngsters will not get into the sport, and as you said, the antis will win.
 
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Alan Cooper

Guest
Welcome to the band Nick and don't give it up like I did for all those years - what a waste! Sorry about your mates and their attitude. They don't what they are missing. Pity. I suppose I answered my own question to some extent when I noted the loss of the LAAs fisheries. This surely would not have happened if angling had attracted new blood for every natural loss. But I wonder that powerful 1960s clubs like the Lychnobites and others have seemingly just disappeared. Many of my local clubs have gone west. I notice no-one has answered my question re Pitmore Lock - does anyone know?
 
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keith miller

Guest
I believe that section of the Stour, below Daws Hall, is now a syndicate water.
 
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Alan Cooper

Guest
Thanks Keith - is any more known about Pitmore Lock? Who, what, where to contact? Do you know when the LAA lost it?
 
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keith miller

Guest
Alan, the Pitmore Lock section has not been under LAA control for a long time, I do not know how long.You will find that one of John Wilson's programmes from about 4 years ago was filmed there, I recognized the footbridge across the river.
Re.Essex barbel, they are in the Stour, but you have to find them!
Where are you located? I am in N.Essex
 
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Alan Cooper

Guest
Thanks again Keith. I tried to reply the other day but computer froze up - hope this works! I live in East Ham,London. I usually fish on Sundays but can't always get out. I used to fish the Stour many years ago around Lamarsh with either my club or mates. recently, I have fished Bures Lake and Great Henny (Billericay AS but yet another lost LAA water - although the LAA still has a stretch on the north bank. It'D be good to meet up for a day if poss - if you can lead me to good fishing I'll be even happier!
 
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keith miller

Guest
Interesting! You mention places I know well, and used to fish often, until lost by LAA. I have not bought an LAA ticket for two seasons. Stretches of the Stour at Bures are now shared by Colnes AC and Sudbury AC and I tend to fish these in the winter months.
 
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Pete Falloon

Guest
Hi

does anyone have information on the controlling clubs etc on the Lea donwstream of Welwyn?

any help much appreciated

Pete
 
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Alan Cooper

Guest
It might not be much help Pete but the LAA (which I do go on about - I must confess) have got stretches in Hertford town which are also day ticket.
 
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Pete Falloon

Guest
Alan

are the LAA bits any good for barbel, and where exactly are they?

cheers

Pete
 
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Pete Falloon

Guest
Oh sorry, is that Lea Anglers Consortium or the London Angling Assoc?
 
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Alan Cooper

Guest
It is the London Anglers Pete. I'm sorry to say that I have yet to visit this fishery since my return to angling. I last fished it in 1965 therabouts! Wonder upon wonders, the LAA still have it! It used to be (in my day) members only, but according to my LAA handbook, it is now Day Ticket. At the north end the section runs from Hertford East station on the opposite bank (east bank) to where you enter the fishery - there is a bridge across the river Lea and the stretch extends from the town flood gates up to the confluence of the river Beane. Alternatively, on the west bank from the Beane downstream to an area known as "Kings Meads." I don't know how much the day tickets are. Yes, the stretch always has contained barbel and some of these are good sized - possibly double figures(although I've never caught one!). Hope this helps. I've had to edit this as I got it all the wrong way round at first!
 
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Dennis John Brewin

Guest
Good afternoon everybody.I am a coarse angler from New Zealand.For those of you who do not know where N.Z. is,turn your atlases up side down. We also see the dawn first.I am English born and emigrated out here in 1962 with my parents.I have always coarsed fished and learned the same way most of us do,by tagging along with dad.We lived up until 1962 at Northolt,Middlesex,and both Dad and I were members of the London & Districts Angling Society,I think it was called.I still have a club pin with the initials(somewhere).My fathers name was Cecil Albert (Alec)and another member was a Fred Bradbury.Does anyboby still remember the club,or its recent history?
 
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Alan Cooper

Guest
Sorry Dennis - I'm an East Ender and the West (Middx) side of London might as well be on the moon! Could well be that someone out there has heard of this club. Fishing clubs have disappeared by the hundreds however.
 
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