The Rye Dyke Angling Club, Environment Agency and Wycombe District Council have all joined forces to help provide so much needed habitat creation on the Rye Dyke in High Wycombe.
The Rye Dyke, a popular stillwater fishing venue in the middle of High Wycombe, has long provided angling opportunities for local residents and in the past has offered some high quality angling. Recently, however fish stocks have suffered due to a loss of the once abundant aquatic vegetation and cormorant predation.
The Rye Dyke has always been characterised by gin clear water and luxuriant stands of the aquatic plant Mare’s tail (Hippus vulgaris) which provided superb cover from predators and somewhere to spawn for the resident fish population.Unfortunately an ‘over enthusiastic’ weed cut a number of years ago left the lake somewhat barren with little cover and when a number of cormorants started to visit the lake the fish numbers began to decline.
The Mare’s tail is beginning to make a welcome return, however the recolonisation is proving to be a slow process and there are still large areas of the dyke that are totally devoid of cover. To help provide some extra cover a number of floating reed islands have been installed which will help promote aquatic plant growth but will also double up as cormorant refuges.
Tom Sherwood, Fisheries Officer for the Environment Agency said:
“The new floating reed islands have been positioned in conjunction with the angling platforms we constructed several years ago in an area where there is no cover. Whilst aquatic plants are visible growing on the surface there is a cage structure underneath that allows small and medium size fish to escape from the cormorants.”
As the Mare’s tail carries on its recovery and with the new habitat creation it is hoped fish populations will begin to recover too. To aid this recovery the EA are also looking to
undertake some stocking. A first batch of fish have recently been introduced with approximately 1000 roach and rudd going into the Dyke from a pond near Banbury.
Further stockings are planned for later in the year with fish from the EA’s fish farm at Calverton.
Editor’s Note: I grew up close to the Rye Dyke and it holds very special memories for me as it was the first stillwater I ever fished, having learned the basics on the River Thames. The ‘Dyke’ was where I learned to fish hemp and tares and where, subsequently, I caught my first ever pound plus roach. It was also the venue where I caught my first ever stillwater chub, which at 4lb 8oz won me an Angling Times ‘Top Ten’ Badge back in 1970ish. It was where I learned to catch (by hand), and to fish, crayfish baits – the River Wye which flows into the Rye Dyke was full of native crays back in the day and the resident chub couldn’t get enough of them.
I also remember seeing the occasional HUGE (probably to upper doubles) carp drifting past in the gin clear water but I never could catch one; the closest I came was when I struck too soon at one which tried to suck in the freelined half a cheese sandwich I was presenting…
There was also a lovely blonde girl called ‘VAT’ Debbie who I persuaded to join me for a walk along the Dyke after we met in the open air swimming baths alongside – but that is another story for another day…
