John Bailey: Our troubled rivers and the Whitehouse effect

Paul was a little doubtful about fronting it, but I’m hugely glad he did. It was, in my view, a magnificent job, that right amount of concern mixed with humour and insight.

There is a horror story out there and the program did reveal just how much animal and human waste, largely untreated, gets pumped into our rivers on pretty much a daily basis.

Walk around the former Debenham’s store in Norwich these days and you might think we are living in a third world country - this TV expose only reinforced that queasy feeling of impending implosion. You might even have watched my 'bit' - a short appearance that achieved pretty much nothing.

Paul Whitehouse, left, with Gone Fishing partner Bob Mortimer (Image: John Bailey)

I wanted to talk about other issues, notably canoeing and the carnage caused by Recreational Damage, as it is now referred to. Paul tried manfully to talk to me on that issue, but the director had other agendas. I accept that the thrust of the programs was waste and that the director didn’t want to dilute the narrative, but it strikes me increasingly how far the media will go to cover up uncomfortable truths. BBC take note. It is fine for the public to have access to our rivers at the right time, in the right place and providing people show the right respect and understanding of nature’s fragility. Sadly, at least 60pc of canoeists tick none of these 'right' boxes and the amount of RD is destructive to a degree that the media refuses to acknowledge. We need Paul’s second series to state the case.

But there is hope. Last week saw me up in Derbyshire at Haddon Hall, on the banks of the Wye and Derwent, two rivers on its lovely estate. I met up with the visionary river keeper there, Jan Hobot, a charming man who is pioneering some exemplary fishing.

On all important game rivers there is a move towards limiting or stopping the stocking of artificially-reared brown trout. This is generally sound ecological stuff, but it does mean on rivers like the Test, anglers catch small(ish) brown trout, grayling if they want, and not much else at all. At Haddon, Jan runs the rivers to be fish friendly to ALL wild species. I talked to two inspiring anglers who fish the fly up there for wild browns, wild rainbows, grayling AND chub and barbel too.

They don’t fish bait because on small, fragile rivers carnage would ensue, but both men obviously regard a summer barbel quest as highly as a mayfly trout bonanza. Brilliant. We are seeing the damaging barriers between game and coarse broken down. Brilliant too because we are seeing the merging of different disciplines and the development of brand new, exciting approaches. For too long, fishing has been mired in stultifying stereotypes, littered with social as well as piscatorial divisions and angling methods that are tedious and predictable.

If anything showed the importance of blue sky thinking it is a session on a Norfolk pit last Saturday. The weather was mild and on a gravel bar shoals of roach were topping, some of them seriously large. I did the obvious. I catapulted out pouch after pouch of maggots and fished a waggler over the top. I did not get a sniff of a bite. The fact is that there was an abundant hatch of very small black midges and the roach were completely fixated on them. Had I packed my fly rod and collection of tiny buzzers and dry flies, I might well have had a different outcome. But no. I had my usual, blinkered coarse hat on and couldn’t make the use of an opportunity when it smacked me in my stupid face.

Let’s talk heroes. I received a letter from Mrs Pat Walker, asking me to convey her congratulations to Paul W for his river programs. Pat is the widow of the legendary Dick Walker, by far and away the greatest angler of the modern times. Dick only died in the 80s but when I asked a dozen 30-something anglers, only one had 'sort of' (his words) heard the name. Heroes today come and go with the frequency of political scandals and the true greats are forgotten. Think the Haaland furore. Three goals against Burnley - wow. Who remembers another City player who scored six goals in 69 minutes away against Luton Town in 1961? The match was abandoned because of rain and in the replay, City lost 3-1. Denis Law was the double hat trick player and when it comes to strikers, surely he was the most heroic of all?