Birmingham Anglers Association

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

Hi Frank,
Great news that you bring to this Forum, well done on your perseverance!

Let us hope that our Association can help to contribute to this great initiative and help to shine a light on the Water Authorities and other Parties that may be guilty of neglecting their responsibilities for the Environment!

Keep on Fishing

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

We are getting involved in this and will be taking regular samples from various parts of the rivers in the Severn catchment.

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

Hi Frank - thanks for the info.
Do you have any links on the detail please?
Does the Severn 'catchment' include all its tributaries (such as the warks Avon)? If so, where's the initial source of the pollution?
What type of pollution are we seeing?
Has the pollution temporarily put the fish off feeding or caused something more permanent?
When you mention the discounted kit, I have no idea if we are talking about some £10 a pack indicator sticks or some £10k equipment?
Will the kit and results be recognised by any authorities and enable any legal action?
I note that your club has added some pegs by the lock (hoping for some good winter sport & bream). How have those pegs being getting on?
Does your club coordinate with the BAA to ensure that you are not double bank match booked?
Keep up the good work?

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

Hi Stew. I was aware that the BAA are getting involved with this initiative but it's not for me to announce. This is excellent news, we need large associations with clout to get involved.

Hi Mork. I'm sure that Glyn Marshall (Chairman of Worc. AA) will not mind me sharing his email address its;- hazewood12@sky.com
Clubs with their own water please get in touch.

To answer your other questions;-
(1)Discounted kit. Its £100 for sophisticated kit plus training to allow you to professionally measure water quality. Recognised? if you can get the EA to listen.
(2)Yes the Avon is part of the Severn Catchment area.
(3)Fladbury was heavily polluted with Phosphate from a retirement home a quarter of a mile upstream. Down stream a farm has been charged again by the EA for high levels of Nitrates.
High levels of Phosphate removes the Oxygen and the Fish at Fladbury moved downstream. A match at Fladbury on the last day of the season saw a few hardy Chub caught, no Dace, Roach or Perch.
(4)Pegs in the Lock Stream;- We have not been able to realize the potential yet, with Covid etc. These are winter pegs when the boat traffic has eased and I cant wait to have a go.
(5)Double Banked;- No there's no coordination. We have set match dates every season and we have to put up with double banking.
One thing that does pee us off is the night fishing on the BAA bank. they fill the stretch in with bait and keep chucking over throughout our matches.
Can't have it all.

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

I'll add a link at the bottom of this post, but if admin choose to remove it, that's fine. It should be easy enough to track down the article using a search engine:

"River pollution: Rescuer infected with sewage-linked parasite"

"A lifeboat volunteer said he spent days in hospital after contracting a parasitic infection linked to sewage after a river training exercise.
David Deveney suffered giardiasis after spending two hours in the River Severn, and said an investigation found an 80% chance it came from human sewage.
Sewage was spilt into Welsh rivers more than 95,000 times and for more than 791,000 hours last year, figures show".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61030312...

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

I believe there is huge support to sort out river pollution but to return to relatively clean rivers nationally is a huge task.
There's no doubt that the blame can be leveled squarely on the shoulders of the water companies making huge profits for their shareholders without taking due care. Without tougher legislation and regulation the water companies will continue to destroy our rivers, this has to change.

The Government and the Environmental Agency are culpable allowing this to happen.
Over time the EA has become complacent and now not fit for purpose. The EA need a complete overall to return to the nations environmental regulator.
Boris's "back of a fag packet recovery plan" will have some rivers back to a reasonable water quality by 2035, this is simply not good enough and does anyone really believe it?

Why not make the water companies clean up our rivers, they are causing the problem, they have the funds. It's about time that the government came down hard on these polluting companies and our nations environmental regulator. We must cease making the situation worse and began an expedient recovery plan with an environmental regulator that's fit for purpose.

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

One solution to the problem, Would be to nationalise the water companys and take them back into public ownership and stop paying millions of pounds in share holder dividends and instead spend the money on cleaning up our rivers.

Its never going to happen while Boris and his party gate chums remain in power.

The link below makes for interesting reading

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-61201372...

Re: Angling Trust "Water Quality Monitoring Network"

One solution to the problem, Would be to nationalise the water companys and take them back into public ownership and stop paying millions of pounds in share holder dividends and instead spend the money on cleaning up our rivers.

Its never going to happen while Boris and his party gate chums remain in power.

The link below makes for interesting reading

Good pollution,bad pollution?

This might be a long one,so,apologies in advance.
I watched a Graham Pullen(TA Fishing)video on YouTube yesterday,he was fishing the Wye near Hereford last year. He mentioned several times the large amount of slimy,brown algae completely coating the gravel river bed and the absence of streamer weed. Got me thinking....
I started fishing on the Warwickshire Avon at Barford in 1966,the river then was "dirty",great rafts and lumps of foam formed below the weirs and floated off downstream. Plant growth in the river was lush,the riverbed covered in "blanket weed",full of freshwater shrimps,hog lice,snails,dragonfly larvae,caddis fly larvae,etc. Fish food. The river was also full of fish,great shoals of Roach,Dace,Perch,millions of Gudgeon,Stickleback,Dace,Perch,Daddy Ruffe,Bream,Stone Loach,Bullhead,Chub. Through the 70's and 80's the river was "cleaned"up,the foam disappeared but the lush vegetation stayed along with the "blanket weed". Chub became the dominant species,with Barbel making an appearance. Roach and Dace still there in number along with Bream,Gudgeon still there in abundance along with the smaller species. In the 90's I drifted away from river fishing and fished lakes for Carp and Tench in the Summer,Pike in the colder weather. Until about 7 years ago.
I started fishing the Warwickshire Avon Again. The "blanket weed" had all gone,along with many small fish species,Chub and Barbel very abundant and very easy to catch. The river bed gravels clearly visible and not too dirty. Roll forward to the 2018/19 season,didn't fish much in the Summer as it was scorching hot and the river was low and gin clear. Still managed to catch 36 Barbel and 52 Chub in four sessions totaling 15 hours and 40 minutes from a private garden in Barford. The 2019/20 season was a bust,caught a few Barbel and Chub but they weren't there in big numbers,the gravels were very dirty. 2020/21 season was even worse,very few fish caught,so few I didn't bother trying during the 2021/22 season.The owners of the property reported seeing "hardly any Barbel and Chub flashing in the shallow water". The gravels are filthy.
Walked the Avon at Wasperton yesterday,everything in the water is coated in a filthy,brown,slimy algae,the water,very low and should be clear,but has an unhealthy,mucky brown tinge to it. It looks very uninviting,the Swans have brown stained necks. So...
Was the pollution of the 60's,70's and 80's good pollution because the fish thrived in huge numbers?
Are the now,allegedly,cleaner rivers actually being polluted with something very bad that has killed off the "blanket weed",thereby removing a massive food larder for the fish? What is the foul,brown algae that coats everything in the water?