The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

There a number on my local river tone, and it is very rare to see them anytime.

A couple of seasons back I was fishing one of my favourite trotting swims, it is a small swim only 30ft wide and a trot of around 20-25yds,

I was happily catching grayling, trout, dace, small chub a good dozen in a couple of hours, when an otter popped up in my swim, my first otter sighting on the tone, I am not sure who was more shocked!

To say the least within 10 mins of the disturbance the fish began to feed.

Today I can still fish that swim and catch, I also have never seen an otter since here or elsewhere on the tone.

I have fished since the early 1960s various rivers, ponds, lakes, canals and the like and never saw a single otter till some three years ago when I saw my first on the Kennet and since then I have seen several more both on the Kennet, Thames and on the Teme.

Maybe the quality of our rivers and waterways some of which in the 1960s were absolutely appalling in terms of cleanliness have improved sufficiently to sustain an increasing otter population. If so it must be a price worth paying. I recall in the mid 1960s fishing the Avon at Stratford - you couldn't float fish as the dirty white industrial foam could be 3 feet high and the full width of the river as it came over the weir hour after hour, day after day.

The sight of an otter some years ago in a gravel pit adjoining the Medway was the first one in Kent for many years. I had seen them in Northumberland in several rivers - no coarse fish just salmon/sea trout and trout in the rivers. Till, Aln, Coquet, if I remember. I suspect they ate kelts amongst other things and had probably been there for many many years. No or very few kelts down here! So easy food - carp in ponds amongst others.

The Tidal Thames were I started on the late 50's was heavily polluted with all sorts of effluent inc from sewerage works! Better but in some ways little has changed with Mogden and a fault at Heathrow causing complete wipe-outs of fish below Richmond in recent years.

Polluted waters - less now. More fish or otter food - possibly. Otters frightened of human activity - no! But surely they should be?