Carping about the Poles

I've just had a call from Mark Anderson, or "Zimbo" as he sometimes calls himself. He was walking the banks of the River Wandle not far from Croydon the other day and found brown trout spawning on a stretch above the site of the pollution incident in the autumn.

"What a phenomenal sight. There were five cocks and three hens," he says.

This is good news after the river has suffered such a tough time. The Wandle is just one of those rivers wrecked by pollution and neglect in the industrial revolution, that are coming back to health. The Tyne today can justly claim to be England's finest salmon river, while in West Yorkshire, rivers such as the Calder and the Holme are reporting growing stocks of trout and grayling in their upper reaches.

One of my fishing friends, Drew Short, had 15 grayling in a morning on the Holme just outside the centre of Huddersfield the other day.I'm itching to get at the grayling but work is keeping me tied to the office just now. I mentioned it to someone in the Orvis shop in Stockbridge just before Christmas. "So you're a fair weather fisherman then," he said and promptly lost his sale.

I love cold weather. If the snow keeps coming down as it is at the moment, I'll be reaching for the sledge instead of the fishing rod and heading for Box Hill at Dorking. But I have digressed.

Mark is seeking to promote a more enlightened code of fishing among Eastern Europeans who have been attracting censure in the British press for eating some of their catch. The removal of two fish a day is within the law if you have a coarse fishing licence. It's just that coarse anglers generally don't kill the fish they catch.

Carp anglers, in fact, get quite emotional about their biggest fish and give them names. So it can be rather aggrieving to find that "Scaly Sally", your favourite lake carp, has provided a feast for Polish plumbers.

Mark will have his work cut out but he's the right man for the job. He brings a common sense approach to river management. I have written before about his argument that the role of the Pike, as a leading predator, is important in maintaining healthy fish populations. You won't convince river keepers on the Test but they, after all, have created a cossetted environment for a single species. More farm than wild river? It's debatable given the amount of stocking that takes place.

If you ever want to learn the secrets of hunting Pike on the fly, Mark is your man. You can find him here at xstreamflyfishing.com, or use the link in the right-hand column.