Obscene is the only way I could describe what I saw the other day when I revisited a part of the Thames that I haven’t been on for some time. I was doing a bit of spinning, moving further downstream along what is know as the ‘free stretch’ in Marlow. The land is owned by Wycombe District Council at the top end (above the bypass bridge) and the Environment Agency below that to the extent of the field behind you. There’s even a Thames Conservancy plaque at the end of the free stretch to mark the end and this land passed over to Thames Water then the NRA and later the EA.
The pictures show the scene by one of the swims at the downstream end, a popular swim by all accounts. In the second picture showing less litter, this is the swim from where I caught my first Thames chub back in 1982, my first season after moving down here. Then it was a beach, quite open and sandy, the NRA later planted it up with reeds and backed that with the willow you see here. It’s not supposed to be a swim any longer.
When we have discussions on the forums of this site as to whether a certain method is bad and will get angling banned, or whether it will be keepnets, barbed hooks, or death rigs, lack of unhooking mats, and so on, then forget it. The public doesn’t have the patience to understand the weight of the arguments, they don’t have any technical knowledge of the elements you are talking about. But this, litter, this they do understand. It’s self evident, it’s unsightly and it upsets them to see it. And who causes this? Not Joe-public, not the hikers, not the cyclists, and not the rowers or boat owners. The evidence of who causes it is plain to see in the photograph and is incontrovertible. IT’S ANGLERS. |
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