Welcome to Water Under the Bridge and our new website
Welcome to the first issue of our new quarterly newsletter, designed to give you all of the latest information, details about P&DAA projects, and let you know what the team have been up to.
We've launched a brand new website to bring you even more info and make things easier to find.
It's faster and it works great on a phone. Two things on there are worth your time straight away. You can send us a catch report from any page, photos and all, and the best of them now sit at the top of the homepage. And if you see something wrong on the bank, there's a proper incident form that reaches the right people in minutes.
The fisheries report
A summer spent watching the oxygen
Dawn reading on the Nene: 5.86mg/l at 18.7C. Taken at 7.27am, when the river is at its lowest.
The Met Office has confirmed what everyone on the bank already knew. This was the hottest summer on record, and our feet have not touched the ground since.
Relentless heat meant relentless monitoring. Dissolved oxygen had to be checked daily, and other projects and river management tasks were put on hold to make that happen. Both P&DAA and its volunteers have gone above and beyond this summer to monitor and protect the River Nene and our waters. None more than Jon Means, our Head of Finance, whose daily oxygen readings gave us the information to make accurate, calculated decisions on fish welfare rather than guesses. Thanks again Jon.
With the heatwaves behind us we can pick up where we left off. Next week specialist contractors are at Ferry Meadows installing another 100 metres of chestnut paling, which will give small silvers refuge through the winter. The same contractors will be hinging and pinning several willows on the Alwalton backwater.
Olly Rodgers Head of Fisheries, P&DAA
Venue spotlight
Coronation Channel
The Coronation Channel: off the radar for years, and all the better for it.
A historic venue that's been off the radar for years. The channel surrounds Spalding with access points at regular intervals, and it holds some fantastic bream and tench along with carp and general coarse fishing. Included in general membership, available on day ticket, and night fishing is allowed, though a day ticket is needed for each day fished.
Twelve pounds of Elton barbel, back in the weed by midnight.
Jake Cunnington's 12lb barbel, in his own words:
"Fishing some glugged boilies resulted in very little this night, but a change to something I've never done before, 3 8mm robin reds on a long hair and a solid PVA bag stuffed full of matching 8mms seemed to be enough to tempt one of Elton's big girls right at the depth. A cracking bite, a cracking fight through all the weeds and a result worth sharing. A lovely long rest in the net saw this lady swimming off into the deep leaving one happy angler."
Jake Cunnington Elton Fishery, 3 August
Better angling
Returning fish in warm water
Late summer water carries less oxygen than at any other time, and a long fight takes more out of a fish than it can quickly repay. Fish balanced tackle so you can be firm rather than playing a fish to a standstill, keep it in the water while you sort the camera, wet hands, and give it as long as it needs in the net before release. A barbel especially: hold it upright facing the flow and let it kick off in its own time, even if that's several minutes. The photo can wait. The fish can't.
Recent catches
Three from our waters
Member catch
12lb 14oz BarbelRobbie Cunnington · Elton Fishery · 20 August
Member catch
10lb 2oz Chub and barbelMartin Barnatt · Elton Fishery · 22 August
Member catch
6lb 4oz TenchMartin Barnatt · River Welland · 4 August
£15 for adults, free for under-18s, valid to 31 December. Buy membership
Day tickets online
Pick your date and pay in a minute. Juniors fish free. Buy a day ticket
Seen something wrong?
Poaching, pollution or fish in distress: report it and it reaches the bailiff team in minutes. For pollution, ring the EA first on 0800 80 70 60. Report an incident
Bailiffs, every day
Over the last three months of records, every single day had at least one patrol logged across our waters.
Coming up
Town Welland matches, 2026/27
The Town Welland at Spalding, a match venue with proper history behind it.
Tickets will be available soon for our winter match series on the historic Town Welland at Spalding, running November through to March.
Dates, pegs and prices are still being finalised. Keep an eye on the website and our social channels for details.
From P&DAA
School Of Fish and Hydroscape
Thursday 24 September, 7pm
Cormorants: make this winter count
A free hour on the Hydroscape cormorant work: what to record from now, what the network has already built, and what the data can do for the water you fish. Since January it has taken 11,535 sightings and 65,389 birds from 7,250 reporters across all four UK countries.
The winter roosts start forming within weeks, and the early reports are the useful ones. Book a place and the link comes by email. Can't make the evening? Book anyway and they will send the recording.
