Early morning in the park.....peace & quiet..!!

          After going through the pretence of consultation Tower Hamlets have stopped all angling in the East Ends Victoria Park,  without a shadow of a doubt so that the park can look good for the cameras come the 2012 Olympic Games... The fish, some of which were carp of forty plus years old and of a very old and special strain, have been sold in order to pay for the storage of said fish during the restoration of Victoria Park and these old fish will not be returned or replaced, this is despite Tower Hamlets clearly stating that the fish will be returned and then that new fish will be stocked instead..!!

Fishing on the West Lake until now had taken place for many years, carp fished way back to the sixties and general angling many decades before this. The angling for most of the lakes history was free to local residents and many a youngster including myself spent many many hours enjoying the atmosphere of the place, enjoying the social scene, learning to fish and keeping out of the troubles that a youngster can so easily be dragged in to while growing up in the East End of London.

          Where does the blame lie? that's a matter of opinion but I can say that the angling there on the whole was very peaceful and very quiet and actually quite difficult and it was certainly very difficult to catch the larger and older carp that lived in the lake, all in all it was very enjoyable angling for such a busy park lake.... Around 2004/5 the lake suffered a fish kill caused by the fountain being off during the hot summer, locals did their best to save all the fish they could with the local fire brigade coming to the aid of the fish by pumping many gallons of water into the lake which in return restored vital oxygen, saving many fish so all was not lost as enough of the original fish remained, with just a little consultation and work the West Lake angling could have been vastly improved..

The decline of the angling had been coming for a while mainly due to the boroughs  mismanagement of the angling and the park in general, stacks of  litter was left in the park by the parks visitors including some by the odd irresponsible angler.  Barbecues were dumped on the grass by the parks visitors and these were often surrounded by empty beer cans and lefovers,  all  manner of discarded rubbish were becoming a common sight and this included people throwing their packaging into the lake after they had bought food from the cafe, drunks and druggies partying all over the park were becoming a pretty common sight too. This had gone on for years and with Tower Hamlets seeming to no longer employ the old park keepers so people were left to do as they please, and they did, all the blame for litter and decline of Victoria Park should land squarely on the shoulders of Tower Hamlets, though I blame the decline of the general quality of angling itself on the stocking of poor quality mirror carp in 2005...Though this was "in my opinion as a long time carp angler" a mistake maybe but the stocking I know would have been done with the best intentions.

To address a couple of other supposed issues; "Poor behaviour" - something that anglers were accused of by Tower Hamlets and something I'd never witnessed despite my years of fishing there. "Poor condition of the fish", see the pictures below for the truth, of course some of the fish were in poor health due to being moved from their environment and due to their great age but overall they were of an pure old strain of great quality, they successfully spawned each year and new fish were always coming through so the old would have eventually been replaced by some of the fantastic home grown fish that were coming through... I might add that as it turns out the the new generation fish coming through, a cross of new/originals were looking rather good, so again some good may have eventually come from the 2005 stocking should they be able to make their way past the predators.

“Boating on the West Lake”, this will be anglings replacement, who will benefit? Not the locals who used to fish the lake that’s for sure as many of them won’t be able to afford to hire the boats just like those that can't afford to attend the festivals that now take place in the park, the Olympic visitors of will course benefit  and LBTH who will of course prefer these to be seen on camera rather than or alongside local anglers, they will also bring in a tidy sum for LBTH which is of course always a priority. I fished the lake many a time when rowing boats were last seen on the lake and it worked just fine, on many occasions we would ask the boaters to row through our swims and stir the lake bottom while they were at it, this would often improve the angling no end. Tower Hamlets have NO excuse for stopping the fishing on the West Lake and while still on the matter of the boats, this can’t be left to the East Lake only?

          Victoria Park Angling Alliance tried their best to consult with Tower Hamlets and save the parks angling,  I warned them at one point of how I felt things would go and sadly I was proven right, that Tower Hamlets would go through the pretence of listening to the VPAA and the local anglers and then would whatever the hell they wanted to anyway, that's exactly what has happened. 

I learned of the VPAA and of what they were trying to do very late on in the process but I did try to help and get some answers for myself, I sent many an email to the Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman who by all accounts had overall control of the situation and yes you guessed it, I received not one single reply..!! I wasn't rude in any way but I did ask questions and was totally and completely ignored, I also tweeted some questions to the Mayors Twitter account and yes you guessed it again, I was ignored and it appears I was quickly blocked...clearly our mayor, despite being paid for by us, the Tower Hamlets residents, has decided that he is above answering to the local community...

          Why do I care and why does it matter?? what's it got to do with me? - I've lived my whole life in Bethnal Green and Bow, I began fishing in the park at the age of five and am now forty errr something and right up until Tower Hamlets stopped the fishing I continued on occasion to return to my roots and fished the West Lake, along the way I had many a great time and made many friends and of course caught learnt to fish from scratch on the place....That park was always a major part of my life as I grew up, the fishing, the wildlife, friends, everything and it's angers me beyond belief that young local anglers will not experience what I was lucky enough to in their local park

My first every carp way back in the blistering hot summer of 76

Late 70's with the old boys - very sociable times and always the group of girls sitting in the shed..

And now with a beautiful old West Lake common,  some thirty plus years on...!!

          The angling on Victoria Parks West Lake is a big loss to the local community, something that Tower Hamlets and it's Mayor care little about and certainly less than the money spinning visitors they want to attract...yes the park looks pretty right now but a great tradition has been lost to the kids of living close to the park, they'll not be forgiven by those of us that have spent their lives here and stayed loyal to the area.. I felt the same angler when they destroyed the open air swimming pool which they deemed not worthy of being saved, some of the millions that have just been spent on making the place look nice for the 2012 cameras could have been spent on that too, lets hope the next mayor and his minions care more about "all" sections of the local community and about it's history and traditions, most important of all giving the local kids something to enjoy that they can afford....but of course as is now standard practice with Tower Hamlets, if it moves or even if it doesn't, slap a charge on it and if they can't earn from it, ban it..!!

Many thanks to the VPAA for trying their best to save the parks angling for future generations..

Be lucky wherever you choose to angle in the future..!!