Seasonal greetings to all members of the Harrow Angling Society, may you catch your wish in the new year. That however, is where the niceties end. You will have already have noticed that your magazine is a bit thin! Maybe this reflects your tally for the season, but this need not limit mirror your literary talent. Some of you out there obviously believe that to be the case. I think you have all given up the ghost, packed up your rods, and your quill, or are incapable of rational thought! There after this tirade you have your chance to redeem yourselves, or in fact two. The first is write to your damn editor, and this suggestion includes your officers and committee members. The second chance involves coming to the Christmas members meeting, where we hope to have an interesting guest speaker, it will be held on: Wednesday 2nd December 1992, Ruislip Manor Sports & Social Club
Pike Match
Don't forget the two remaining pike matches; Harefield No1 - 29th November and, Harefield No2 on Sunday 20th December, meet at 7.00am for a 7.30 start. Meet in the car park for No1 and the workings car park for No2.
Harefield No2
The problems we had at Harefield No2 with the death of many fish will become part of the evidence of a much larger trial to be held in Isleworth Crown Court, beginning on 4th January 1993. It is estimated by the police that the trial will last for around three months. This shows the magnitude of a case that involves many other clubs besides the HAS. There are around thirty counts including; fraud, theft, forgery, perverting the course of justice, deception and various customs and VAT charges. Several members of the club have been subpoenaed to give evidence on behalf of the prosecution.
Langley Park
Meetings have been held with Bucks County Council and a tender for the renewal of the lease is about to be made along with other various suggestions to help in the running of the water and its surroundings.
Rowley Farm
The litigation continues to resolve the two issues of pollution that occurred there. Our counsel has made suggestions to the other party to settle the case, who are considering.
Vince Sutton Editor
A Friends of the Earth Booklet entitled 'River Pollution a Sleuth's Guide' encourages all to get active and join the fight against pollution. Apparently green wellies and jam jars are not necessary, as other are doing the leg work on our behalf. The trick is to get the information already collected.
The difficulty with pollution is identifying it as often it is not obvious.
Step 1
Get to know your river, how the fishing is (should be easy for you), and assess the qualities of the water, weeds, birds, insects, frogs, sediment etc.
River Class
The river class classifications are available from the NRA and are as follows:
Step 2 - Identifying Potential Polluters
There are two types of pollution sources:
The Law
The NRA are the water police, we are covered by the Thames region. They are located in Reading, tel 0734 535000.
The water resources act states: 'a person contravenes this section if he causes or knowingly permits any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter or any solid waste to enter any controlled waters'.
Sounds good, but, there is a get out. It is called a 'consent' a legal document issued by the NRA which allows people to pollute. The consent may restrain volumes and concentrations of pollutants. Prosecutions follow if there are breaches of these orders.
Public Register
This is the document where all the information collected by the experts and analysts is kept. It also contains any 'consents' issued. You have the right to consult this register either personally or by letter. It is free, but you will be charged for any photocopies.
What you can do to help
Report all pollution to the NRA and on HAS waters to your fishery manager. You can buy a copy of the FOE guide, and most of all stay vigilant!
Vince Sutton
Some eight years ago now, a close friend of mine, Micky Grice, he who has a liking for Carp, Best Bitter and young women, had a job clearing out his bosses' pond. When he finished he had about 30 sets of lilies to dispose of, ah ha thought I, these would come in useful in No2.
So that week I loaded the car with 30 sets of foul smelling root foliage and muck, and drove to No2 and borrowed a boat. With the aid of a long stick, rowed around the margins of No2 looking for shallow areas to plant the lilies. As the sun got higher, so did their roots of the plants, nevertheless I persevered. Eight sets went in the margins along dews farm, ten sets along the peat bank and six by the canal bank pylon. The rest were planted by the viaduct car park, on what was considered a suitable shallow area.
Today you can see them thriving. Two of them near the car park, and one at dews farm lane. The shallow area in the car park seemed very good indeed. It was not until this season that I found out why only one set of pads took to its new home, therein lies another story. During the winter of 1990 some kind soul dumped a Cortina estate in the lake just off the viaduct car park. All the authorities were contacted for their thoughts on the matter; Police, Council etc., and they all came to the same conclusion. Yes there were some cars in the lake, and they are yours, we don't want them. The council offered us a small amount towards the cost of removing them.
On the first working party of 1992 close season we set about trying to do just that. Alan Hague borrowed a breakdown truck to try to tow them out. We estimated there were three cars. Ray Kilham borrowed a wet suit (bright yellow), this made him look like Ed the duck or Ollie Beak. I borrowed a land rover from my ever reliable brother who managed to leave two millilitres of petrol in it. Ray scrounged a lift from the rescue boat and tied some rope around the first car. While we attached the other end to the sixteen-ton breakdown truck made for towing articulated lorries. Five hours later we had moved the car about 20 feet, right into the middle of the swim. In doing so buggered up the best swim off the car park. The motto was clear, 'if at first you don't succeed, give up', or in our case get someone else to do it.
This help came from a company called B+C Ltd, via one of our member's Ray (Grizzly) Andrews. My thanks to him for organising the whole thing while I was on holiday.
They arrived on Sunday 15th August with their equipment. This consisted of a Mercedes Lorry with a nine-foot reach crane nicknamed Nelly the elephant. Along with a two-ton outrigger with a 23-foot crane, LT 35 van, a transit with lift and trailer and a land rover. They even laid on some food for the assembled audience. This consisted of among others Trevor Griffiths who retrieved his tackle from the cars, and ate most of the food. He also got in the way of the cameraman.
The three cars turned out to be eight. The first Cortina estate was hooked on to two other cars, which is why we only managed to shift it twenty feet on the working party. The other two were Morris 1300s. There was a Triumph Herald, a Austin A40, a Triumph GT6 sports car, along with a 30 year old Vauxhall Victor. The roof fell off the Herald, and out fell an eel around four pounds.
A diving club helped on this venture and they refused any payment, all they wanted was a donation to the RNLI. The whole event was filmed by three video cameras. The tapes will be edited to make a three-hour film, available to members later this year, proceeds to the fish fund.
Out of the eight cars in the lake only seven were removed, one remains, creating a nice shallow area where eight years ago I planted some lilies.
All those involved deserve a thank you from me and the Committee. All of whom gave up their leisure time free of charge. B+C Ltd only charged us for the equipment, their labour was free of charge. Many thanks to Roy Andrews for the organisation, the others include the grafters and the divers; Alan Curry, Ron Away, Bales for the food, Sharron, Michelle. The diving club; Alan Heller, Nick and Tony Bailey, and the brake down team of Steve, Dave, Will and Brian.
Steve Jenner