Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Big trout from the New River!
I found this photo and story in an old history of what was once Trinity Grammar School in Wood Green. Can it really have been a trout?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks for reminding me of this, Colin. There's a newspaper article about it here.
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Permalink Reply by Colin Marr on
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Doh! I should have realised that HoL would have covered this already and I didn't search back to 2013 to find it. Thanks Hugh. Clearly, it was a trout and an interesting story too. https://harringayonline.com/photo/record-trout-caught-in-the-new-ri...
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Permalink Reply by Martin (Woodside) on
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My parents house in Winchmore Hill used to back on to the New River. During the period when fishing was prohibited and the banks patrolled it was teeming with fish, including pike. Water Board staff even used to raft along the river with some sort of fish stun-gun and net to reduce their numbers. Dangling a rod and line over the fence usually attracted an abundance of sticklebacks.
I never caught an old trout, but I certainly dated a few.
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Permalink Reply by Oli Langford on
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😂😂😂😂😂
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Permalink Reply by Richard Albert Watson on
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When I was a kid in the late 40s early 50s when the public were not allowed on the new river my brother and I used to climb over the Hedge Lane bridge on a Saturday and just pick a couple of perch out of the river by hand, there were so many swimming about. We cooked them for our Sunday breakfast. Later on in the 60s I worked for the New River company (oddly enough you had to sign the official secrets act to get the job) maintaining the banks and clearing the reeds in summer with a chain cutter. This was a device with flat blades linked together, put in the rriver and operated by 2 men, one on each side, walking along and using a sawing action to cut the reeds which then floated down to a grid where they were raked out. I remember coming back from lunch to do the raking out and there was 2ft pike basking against the grill. I had heard that they were considered a delicacy in the Jewish community and as our landlady was Jewish I decided to hook it out with the big wooden rake we used. To my everlasting shame I hooked it out on to the bank and killed it. When I presented it to the landlady after I got home from work she said "I don't eat fish. " I still feel bad to this day and I am 85.
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Thank you for sharing those stories, Richard. There are plenty of American crayfish these days, but as far as I’m aware there are no trout or pike.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew
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Just to add, I lived in Palmerston Crescent in the 1960s and climbed over the fence with my friend where the river goes under Bowes Road, I was about 9. We dangled our line in for just a few minutes before catching a pike which I think was between 2-3 pounds. Anyhow we took it home and my mother cooked it, and delicious it was too. My house directly backed on to the new river and I can certainly confirm it was patrolled by water board staff with their dogs
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On the subject of catching fish. I wonder if anyone remembers that around Guy Fawkes night in the early 50s you could buy a small but very powerful banger called a blue flash? We would explode them in the in the river and pick out the dead and stunned fish. Not a very sporting way to catch fish but no worse than the modern Whalers using explosive harpoons.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah
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I actually saw an American signal crayfish the other day! Not in the New River but in the Camley Street Natural Park on the Regent's Canal. I did see a very large fish in the New River near the West Reservoir once. It was a very brief sighting but I think it was a pike. It definitely wasn't a trout.
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