John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
October 15th 2009
Electro Fishing at Kingfishers
Last week, the Environment Agency had a boat out on our stretch of river conducting one of its periodic surveys on fish populations. I was lucky enough to see the team in action. One of the guys I actually taught many years ago at Sprowston High School - Nick Beardmore. He was always a great kid and he's matured into a fantastic bloke...and quite pike obsessed. The group was headed up by Helen Beardsley and John Clarke whilst Rupert Bucknell was helping Nick do the real work!
A good few things impressed me. First of all, I have to say, the quiet efficiency of the team and their clockwork precision. They'd obviously done the job before and they do it expertly. The way that they treated fish was a revelation. It must be very stressful for a big chub to be stunned but every fish I saw captured went back with a real slap of an angry tail.
But I was also impressed with how many fish the team caught. I'll be totally truthful. I'd walked this stretch of river twice over the previous four days. The river had been low and crystal clear and I hadn't seen a thing. It was, therefore, a surprise when Nick and the guys took half a dozen big chub, a very good pike and a very decent perch out of a piece of water I felt was virtually barren.
It was also interesting that virtually all the fish appeared to be taken from very close in to the margins, often under the marginal raft itself. Perhaps this is always how it has been. Perhaps the added pressure of increased predation is making fish increasingly spooky these days. 
Whatever, I'm happy to report that the chub in the Kingfisher stretch were big and in brassily good condition. They might lead a harried life these days but they're obviously finding time to keep their spirits and weight up. So you see, a piece of river may well look dead and buried, but this is not always the case. They can easily be fished there in quantity and quality that anglers don't even guess at.
Incidentally, Helen is heading up an on-going research project into the status of roach in the Wensum. I'm hoping hugely to have a meet with her as soon as possible because roach, of course, are the species closest to the hearts of many of us.
My, how things have changed! John Wilson, Steve Harper and all us old timers will remember the hostile behaviour of Anglia Water in the bad old days. The more that went wrong with our river, the less they wanted to know. Approachability was hardly the name of their game, I can tell you. We all grumble about government and bureaucracy but in some areas, things are considerably improved.