Can you explain why there are always anglers at Priddy Pool (the one everyone calls by that name, not the one that actually has that name located in Nine Barrows).
I believe they are catching Goldfish and are dedicated enough to clear weed from the pond so they can cast. The lead concentrations are too high for safe consumption, so it's purely about the catching.
It completely baffles me!
Golly, Duncan, how nice to find someone else who knows that the real "Priddy Pool" - all but completely silted up now - is by the side of Nine Barrows Lane! The one we all misname is, I believe, officially the "Waldegrave Pool".
Steve, the friend and subject of recent photos, will fish anywhere. He pays enormous sums for his rod on the Wylye (I am merely an impecunious guest - great system), but is not above a bit of free fishing on "Priddy Pool"! He was there only a few weeks ago, and caught more than 50 crucian carp (a small carp species in decline in Britain as a whole). The place seems to be packed with 'em, and given reasonable float fishing skill, are easy to catch. There are quite a few goldfish too, and also lovely-looking fish that are clearly hybrids between those and the crucians. I understand there a few bigger 'wild' carp or commons that rarely get landed, owing to their ability to 'break' the commonly used light tackle. Sometimes, small tench turn up - oh, and of course, the inevitable tiny rudd. The fish are generally stunted, but fun - the weed, as you indicate, becoming a problem in recent years.
I have been skating the pool every year it has been possible since I was a young man: in recent times, it has been possible to see the goldfish especially under the black ice beneath one's skates. I'm not sure I'll 'get on' this winter if it freezes - last January I didn't fall, but for the first time in my life, felt distinctly unsafe. In this my 70th year, I feel that 'discretion might be the better part of valour'!
By the way, the pool between the Waldegrave (oh, all right, "Priddy") and the caving centre (dunno whether it's got a name) holds pike, and a few years ago I saw an angler hook and lose one on deadbait there.
It would be very rare indeed for a coarse fish angler to retain and/or eat his fish; contamination not being an issue - for them it is exclusively about the catching (me included). I have only eaten perch, pike, and freshwater eels, each of which is delicious if treated the right way. I do eat trout occasionally, but like most who fish for 'em, give 'em away in their dozens! I have yet to taste grayling which I'm told makes good eating - after all, they are a coarse fish in name only. The adipose fin gives the 'game' away.
Pete
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