Poor turnout?
I’ve been away at the weekend. My daughter Charlie and I went and saw R.E.M at Twickenham. When we got there I wanted to show her that the old man has still got it so we headed right down the front and managed to get four rows from the front in what I believe is called the mosh pit. We had a great view of the support bands and as I looked around it appeared that there wasn’t a whole lot of people around. Twickenham is a huge venue and it looked like the headliners wouldn’t be playing to a full house. Needless to say this wasn’t the case and when R.E.M took to the stage the atmosphere was unbelieveable! They really know how to put on a show and we had a great time!
I know this doesn’t have much to do with fishing but bear with me. We took the train from Wimbledon to Twickenham and we passed over the river Wandle. I’m sure many of you know about the Wandle but in case you don’t it runs for 9 miles from the Croydon area to Wandsworth where it joins the Thames. Until the end of the 19th century it was considered one of the finest chalkstreams but with London ever expanding the river was used more and more as a dumping ground. The last recorded trout was caught in 1936 and the river was considered a sewer in the 1960’s.
In 2000 the Jet Set club was formed and the cleanup operation began with monthly cleanups which has continued and has gradually started to bring the river back to life. The work they have done is amazing and fish are starting to come back and have been caught. They have also gone into local schools and shown pupils what they are doing and what is living in their local river. As I mentioned we passed over the river and it looked it really nice and fishy. Just one day I might get up and have a good close look….
Mark was busy looking after Joergen, Nick and Robin who were new to fly fishing. They learnt how to cast on Saturday and did some fishing on the lake and then headed off to the river on Sunday. A special mention to Graham a ,member of our team, who came down to help Mark all the way from Hertfordshire. You might think this was a selfless act of kindness, I did, until I found he was off fishing on Monday!
We’ve a busy one this week so should have lots of photos of smiling anglers!
Tags: Devon Fly Fishing Lessons, fly fishing devon, fly fishing school, Pete Tyjas, Scott Fly Fishing School, Trout Fishing
