When Fishing In Thornaby.

Please take your litter home.

Thornaby on Tees has quite a long free fishing stretch that runs from the Barrage up through Teesdale estate and along the southern bank of the Tees to the mouth of the Leven. In the (Village area) we have an active Residents Association (Village Park Residents Assoc or VPRA for short). As part of our (area) we include a stretch of the Tees along the allotments, the Black Bobbies Field Nature Reserve, Horseshoe Bend and Basselton Woods Nature Reserves. The fishing in these areas varies from good to excellent depending on the conditions; there is a good head of fish all along this stretch. Moreover, this is where our problems start. Some anglers and not all of them are youngsters just throw their rubbish away for the next visitor to tidy up.

During a recent VPRA litter pick along the short Black Bobbies stretch, we filled six large bin bags. The rubbish varied from beer cans and plastic pop bottles to part opened sweetcorn tins and ground bait wrappers. Some folk had actually done half a job and put their rubbish into carrier bags but then tossed them into the bushes and reed beds. Others had just left it as they used it. God knows what their homes are like. I am sure most anglers like to find a nice litter free swim when they arrive at the river so all we ask is bag it up and take it home.

 On both stretches, we are trying to get a large mesh bin. However, we are concerned that this could attract the kids to set fire to them. If we can get the bins then all we ask is use them and we will empty them and dispose of the rubbish. This goes for old nylon and tackle as well. The nature reserves are home to all sorts of wildlife, various ducks, geese, swans, foxes, rabbits and recently deer. We have recently had to catch a swan to remove line that was entangled around its feet, good thing they are quite tame and used to humans along there. Do not be too surprised if you are fishing in our area to see people out wombling and chatting to anglers about the rubbish. We prefer the polite approach rather than get the council along to impose fines on everybody.