Tower and Town, July 2021 (view the full edition)Going Fishing
However, I was tempted to revise my rusty fly-casting skills when I came to teach at Marlborough. The two College lakes were created in the 1970's for the annual Summer School courses and stocked with rainbow trout: the adjacent stretch of the Kennet is harder to fish with overhanging bushes and gin-clear shallow water but with skill you can catch the native brown trout, and the scarcer and subtly marked grayling too. The lakes are no longer used by the Summer School: a recent spate of blue-green algae temporarily put a stop to the fishing altogether, but recovery is hopefully on the way. The Kennet valley, from Marlborough to Chilton Foliat and beyond, is rich in wildlife, and the trout fishing can be enjoyed on a number of private stretches. Riverside paths are closed to the general public, which has had a beneficial effect on wildlife. Scarce birds such as the grasshopper warbler, mandarin duck and kingfisher are present and there are reports of returning dragonflies, water voles and otters too. Ospreys pass through in the Spring. The river has suffered from a variety of threats in recent decades: with a volunteer team acting to improve and restore habitats. Action for the River Kennet (ARK) has done much to protect it. It campaigned successfully to reduce abstraction and export of water to Swindon and as a result Thames Water now provides an alternative water source during low flow conditions. Thanks to ARK the water quality has improved and phosphate and nitrate levels reduced. From Lower Denford to Kintbury there is fishing along the canal, as well as the river. I talked to a father and son who proudly showed me their pike catches on an iphone. Good to sense the passing on of the sport from generation to generation....! Robin Nelson |
On long, warm July days anglers will be on the banks of canals, rivers and lakes following the opening of the coarse fishing season in mid-June, while others have been casting their flies over the noses of trout on our precious chalk streams since April. Fishing is the nation's most popular participant sport and Wiltshire offers a varied selection of waters. Some of the best coarse fishing can be found on large lakes in the Cotswold Water Park, stocked with sizeable carp, tench, bream and pike. My career as a fisherman ended when a kingfisher perched on the tip of my rod one evening and I took up birdwatching instead.