Riverside Angling Club

Dear Members..

Following my last bulletin regarding the weed problem, I have been in contact with the EA who have in turn been in communication with the riparian owners who are legally responsible for the maintaining the river and its banks. The EA has advised them of what needs doing and how it should be done. Hopefully next spring the weed problems will be tackled and the fishing/habitat will improve. It is important for the club that we work with the EA, local residents and the owners so that river remains healthy.

Andy Walden (Hon Sec)

With November passing quickly and very little rain to fill the rivers, the seasons are very confused. I don't think I have ever seen the river so low at this time of year, and with plants still growing its a complete contrast to last year when we were frozen up with snow on the ground.

On the last bulletin I talked about the weed problems and on going efforts to sort this out, at this time I have nothing to add and am waiting for a decision on who is actually responsible. As soon as there are any developments I will let you know.

Thanks to Dan for doing a splendid job with the website, I hope members will find it interesting and add to it. It is for you and will only progress and grow with input from you. There must be plenty of fishing tales and perhaps some photo’s too, don’t be shy, send them into Dan so they can go on the site.

As another year closes can I remind members that renewals are due on 1st Jan 2012, the fees are the same as last year and are shown on our website. All cheques made payable to Riverside Angling Club and sent to me. Can I request that members include a stamped address envelope this makes it easier for me to send out the new permits.

I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy new Year.

Andy Walden (Hon Sec)

PART 1: RIVERSIDE ANGLING CLUB 2011 BY TERRY THOMAS, HON CHAIRMAN.

When l started my apprenticeship, as a toolmaker at EKCO in 1956, the factory next to the river Avon in Malmesbury, little did l know that in 2011 l would be still helping to look after the fishing club, at Cowbridge, after all those years.

It all began when l made friends with Stan Woodman, a ministry, mechanical inspector, on site at the factory who was a very keen fisherman and Hon Secretary of the angling club at that time, which was part of the Ekco Sports and Social Club. The club had various activities at that time and fishing was one of them.

Stan had a certain way of involving the fishing club members in all the various tasks, litter picking, weed cutting, etc. he would say, see you on Sunday 10am, and you would be there.

Being a keen member of the fishing club myself Stan and l used to talk a lot about the River Avon, what was in it, what fish he would like to see in the river, Barbel for instance, and over the next few years l learned quite a lot from him, little did l know he was grooming me to take over from him when he retired, he did not tell me this until much later when he did leave Ekco.

Stan was a very clever man and he also had the ability to look forward and l remember him telling me his thoughts regarding climate change and the effects acid rain might have on the river system, all this in 1960 and now showing he was not far wrong, l can only hope l took on board some of his ideas and thoughts during that time and subsequently, over the past 45years as Secretary, put them into practice.

I took over from Stan as Secretary in 1967 and continued through until 2010 when Andy Walden took over from me, l asked Andy to take over because l knew him as a good friend a very keen fisherman and someone l knew would bring fresh ideas to a thriving club, our new website is a good example, to keep my close association with the club as you will see by the above l am now Hon. Club Chairman.

The company changed hands many times during my working years on the Ekco site, First of all Ekco was taken over in 1960 by Pye Ltd. and in 1969 it changed to Pye T.M.C. Ltd., T.M.C. stood for telephone manufacturing company, producing telephone exchange equipment, at about this time many research and development personnel were relocated to Malmesbury. l was trained as a toolmaker and as each different company took over there always seemed to be a vacancy for me in one of their engineering departments, l finished up in the model making department for T.M.C. l often wondered if l was useful to them or they missed me on their radar because l stayed on the Ekco site until 1986 a total of 29years 10 months, l then left and joined Bohan Engineering at Calne making special purpose machinery for the printed circuit industry until l retired in 2006.

When l left the site in 1986 AT&T, An American company took over, l still had close contact with personnel on site so l spoke to their social club and they asked me to continue to look after the fishing, after some time AT&T decided to form another company on site which was called Lucent Technologies l again worked with their social club and managed to persuade them to let me continue running the angling club, due to the economic situation they then decided to move from Malmesbury and sell their site to Mintons, a development company, they then moved their H.Q. to Swindon, it made a little bit awkward because l then had to travel to Swindon to check the books etc. while the negotiations for the sale were taking place, it was during this time that l met Maureen Driver site asset manager for Mintons and with her great help managed to retain the fishing rights, so once again the fishing cub was safe, it was then decided to rename the club and the Riverside Angling Club it was formed in 2005.

Although most of the site was sold for housing development Mintons still own parts of the site, Cedar House on the left as you come into the main entrance is one example.

There have been many interesting happenings over the years, first of all l ought to mention a pollution which happened in 1969. On the Ekco site at that time was an electro plating shop, many types of plating took place including Nickel, Gold, Silver, etc. the articles to be plated were mounted on copper wire and suspended in vats containing various chemicals and then had an electrical charge put through them which then transfered the Gold, Silver, or whatever, to the immersed item, the plating shop was right next to the river and when the vats had been used many times they had to refilled with a fresh mixture, the exhausted solution was then pumped into a large retaining tank and treated with various other chemicals to render the mixture harmless, it was then discharged into the river, you could see it was an accident waiting to happen, and it did, someone forgot to treat the mixture and it was discharged into the river, the first time l realized something was wrong when l looked in the river at lunchtime that day and saw thousands of fry on the surface just above the old hatches, the river had turned silver, l thought it was lack of oxygen due to low flow at first, l then spoke to my boss Joe McColl and explained the situation to him and we decided to inform the river authority and ask them to look into the problem, when they came they soon came to the conclusion that a pollution had taken place and a cocktail of chemicals, including cyanide had entered the river, the biggest problem with this type of pollution is that it is not only fish that are killed all other river life that come into contact with the pollutant are also destroyed, Crayfish, Water Boatman, Mayfly Nymphs being just a few.

A few months prior to this happening Stan Woodman and myself had heard about a Trout stream near Reading where the local angling club were going to electro fish their river to remove coarse fish including Barbel, knowing Barbel were very sought after we both agreed it would be a good idea to help with the electro fishing and in return, with the help of the river authority, bring some Barbel back to Malmesbury, it was a successful operation and we brought back about thirty fish to 8lb, unfortunately most if not all were killed in the pollution. After this it was always in my mind to introduce Barbel once more to our river, more later on this matter.

It took many years for the river to fully recover, restocking the river with Trout, Grayling, perch, Roach we managed to gradually bring the river back to its former glory, there is a photo l took of some of the fish killed in the pollution laid out by our old angling hut, it is attached to this article, you will see Barbel to about 8lb, Roach to 2lb 8oz, Perch to 1lb 10oz and Pike to nearly 20lb we were all close to tears at the site of these dead fish.

In 1970 A friend of mine, Mike Amey, who worked for the then Bristol Avon River Authority, was trying to breed Barbel, and as l said before Stan and myself were very keen to introduce this breed into the Avon at Malmesbury, so we were very keen to see how his results were going, we were pleased to see a short while later his picture in the paper as he was the fist person to successfully rear Barbel, artificially, see attached photo. Because of the difficulty in buying Barbel it was a long time before l was able to fulfill the dream of stocking our river with these fish, l was able to obtain some surplus from Calverton Fish Farm, l got to know the employees who worked there and they kept me informed as to when some might be available, the first Barbel became available in 1997 and l bought 400 fish 12 to 15 cm. the second batch was bought in 2000, 550 fish 15 to 18 cm. so my promise to Stan Woodman was realized.

One or two Barbel are still caught on our water but most have moved downstream on to the Somerford stretch but l still have the satisfaction of knowing that the prime fish caught there started life at Cowbridge on our waters.

Terry Thomas

More to follow!

As members will be aware the river from the weir down the stretch by the new houses and through the mill pond has seen a prolific growth of weeds this year. In some areas this growth has made fishing impossible. The club has been in contact with the EA with a view to sorting this out. On the 29th September Terry and myself met representatives form the EA and showed them the problems, concentrating primarily on the areas mentioned. They agree with our findings on the state of the river. The issue is not straight forward for many reasons mainly as to who is responsible for dealing with the problem. The club neither has the full resources or equipment to tackle this alone and in some areas this may involve dredging. Spraying can be done but is subject to many conditions and will involve careful planning. The EA is not responsible for flood matters and only fund river improvements where habitat and other improvements are met. This is something that is being looked into and the club is examining how we can get some funding through the EA to do this. At present we are on a list where improvement schemes are considered. This is of course subject to financial constraints and meeting strict criteria. The club would have to fund/assist with any improvements in a sort of joint partnership. The challenge for a club as small as ours is not going to be easy, but I feel that it is very worthwhile.

I have been contacted by residents living close to the river who are also very concerned about the state it is in. They have been advised to contact the EA and complain. This will hopefully assist the club and show the impact the river has not just on us members but on the local environment. The residents are aware of the clubs position and how limited it is. To give you some idea of the extent of the problem myself and another member Martin Ward spent over 4 hours this summer in the main mill pond trying to clear the weeds, we pulled out a mass of weeds. At the end we looked over what we had done and could see little improvement. This convinced me that only a proper approach co-ordinated with other organisations will address this problem. I hope members will support the club in trying to sort this out as it it to the benefit of us all. I accept that the weed problem will take some time to deal with. Hopefully when it is under control a program can be set up to prevent this happening again.

On a positive note the back stretch that was cleared last year has been flowing freely and looks in a much healthier state.

Andy Walden (Hon Sec)

Please find below photographs showing the excessive weed growth in the mill stream.