Devastation on the Upper Ouse

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Mick
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Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Mick »

Buckingham & District AA have released information that the Upper Ouse has been devastated by pollution. I am sure that many will have heard of Dick Walkers famous stretch ''above Bedford'', well from what I can ascertain it is no more. Several stretches have been affected namely Leckhampstead bridge up and downstream, The Twins and Moreton Mill. As the BDAA says, this will take years to overcome what has happened and quite frankly, I can't see it coming back in my lifetime. The Claydon Brook has not been affected, which is something. I consider myself fortunate to have had some cracking chub and perch from ''Walkers'' and I feel very sad that, in my opinion, it will never be the same again. Good memories though and no-one can pollute them.

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Snape
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Snape »

:rant: :Angry: :Cursing: :hairpull:

Words fail me...
“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers,” Herbert Hoover.
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º>

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LuckyLuca
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by LuckyLuca »

Terrible news. Only minutes away from home as well.
Hopefully the culprits will be found, but that's small consolation for the damage caused!
I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete.

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Olly
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

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Jeremy Croxall
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Jeremy Croxall »

Sickening, how can this sort of thing happen with all the environmental controls regulations and licencing requirements now in place to safeguard against pollution of our waterways and eco systems. This must be an industrial pollutant of some kind and therefore it shouldn't be too difficult to establish the perpetrator and when identified I hope they make them pay dearly. Can you imagine your favourite or local stretch of water rendered unfishable overnight by some act of neglect or incompetence? Worse still, it could take years and years to recover localised damage and will impact on the water course many miles down stream too. A tragic event indeed.
"Oh for want of rod and line I'd fish this stream serene, sublime".

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Vole
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Vole »

“Indications this morning are that the pollution is continuing to move downstream,” a spokesman added.
Well, I'm inexpressibly relieved that Those in Authority have managed to work that out.
Fills one with faith and hope, don't it?

My thoughts and hopes are with the Ouse anglers and their fish - and the entire ecosystem that supports them. There are going to be some very clean, very hungry otters around soon, and that won't help...
"Write drunk, edit sober" - Hemingway.
Hemingway didn't have to worry about accidentally hitting "submit" before he edited.

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Mick
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Mick »

You are quite right about the hungry otters Vole, but I don't think we need to worry too much about them when we have bas***ds who destroy our waterways and the whole ecology therein without a second thought. It makes me so angry that this could happen anywhere, at any time, but even more so to think I will probably never fish the upper Ouse again. Such a great loss for the angling club as well and my thoughts are with Buckingham & District Angling Association who ran most of the affected areas. I'll wager that Tony Miles is probably seething as he fishes the Eternal River.

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Stathamender
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Stathamender »

Appalling. I've just finished writing a piece reminiscing about my childhood angling and the influence Richard Walker had on it. In it I recalled how many of the rivers in the area I lived in (NE Lancashire) looked exactly like that in the 50s and 60s as textile and paper mills used to flush out their tanks directly into them. Have we learnt nothing? A marker of how far we've come and how far we've still to go.
Iain

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I suspect it could be “love”, despite its drawbacks in the rhyming department.
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Loop Erimder
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Loop Erimder »

Oh dear Lord what a shame.... Julian arranged a tff outing on walker' s stretch a while back such a beautiful stretch too.... I always wanted to go back there
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish

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Julian
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Re: Devastation on the Upper Ouse

Post by Julian »

Loop Erimder wrote: Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:58 pm Oh dear Lord what a shame.... Julian arranged a tff outing on walker' s stretch a while back such a beautiful stretch too.... I always wanted to go back there
Yes, it was a lovely looking stretch, but even when we had the TFF visit there was very few signs of fish. With six of us ( I think?) fishing all day, trying many methods, baits and swims, only two (decent sized)chub were caught. No other fish at all. It had already suffered heavily from a long while ago initially mink and then cormorants, and in the past decade or so by otters and huge numbers of signal crayfish.
It may have been recovering in recent years but this pollution is the final nail in the coffin for the upper Ouse in Buckinghamshire. A sad demise of a section of river once holding 8lb chub, 3 lb roach and 5 lb perch.
There is no peace on earth like the peace of fishing in the early mornings

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