Pulborough Angling Society - Articles about Pulborough Angling Society

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Pulborough AS & Our Environment

Pulborough Angling Society actively encourages wildlife at it's fisheries, as part of the development works at Goose Green we installed a dedicated wildlife pond alongside the car park, since it's installation and now that it has had time to establish itself, all manner of native amphibians, insects and larvae have made the pond home.

As part of the ongoing management plan at Goose Green, we have and will continue to plant native plants & trees to encourage insects, birds and animals to the area, in fact during the development of the fishery many people commented on the number of trees that were cleared, what they were probably not aware of, is that for every tree removed, (and 90% of it was scrub willow), we planted at least four trees to replace it, one planting session saw over 500 saplings and whips being planted in less than a day and we are pleased to say that the vast majority of these trees survived and are now thriving.

Tree species planted included Birch, Oak, Beech, Alder, Crab Apple, Hazel, Ash, Hawthorn, Spindle, Cherry, Horse Chestnut & Sycamore, we also planted and scattered seed for literary hundreds if not thousands of insect attracting plants such as Foxgloves, Borage, Raged Robin, Cowslips, Primroses, Irises, Lilies, Reeds & Rushes, during the Spring, Summer & Autumn months the fishery is a riot of colour and it teems with wildlife throughout the year.

The wooded area area between the car park & Kingfisher pond is now maturing very nicely, with the larger tree species starting to grow tall and the under storey of Hazels and shrub plants thriving, this area alone has over the past three years been witness to the delight that is the Nightingale, who, along with many other birds have nested and raised their broods at Goose Green

We have recorded many different species of birds and animals at the fishery, the below list shows just what has been recorded in the past few years and excludes insects, of which which there are more resident species than we can count, some of the species of birds and animals witnessed at Goose Green are:


House Sparrow	Dunnock	Blue Tit	Great Tit	Long Tail Tit	Chaffinch
Robin	Tree Creeper	Nuthatch	Jay	Rook	Crow
Magpie	Jackdaw	Nightingale	Fieldfare	Pied Wagtail	Grey Wagtail
Black Bird	Kingfisher	Cuckoo	Turtle Dove	Bullfinch	Green Finch
Coal Tit	Heron	White Throat	Pheasant	Blackcap	Fly Catcher
Gr Woodpecker	G S Woodpecker	Swallow	House Martin	Swift	Wren
Goldcrest	Skylark	Buzzard	Sparrowhawk	Kestrel	Barn Owl
Hobby	Canada Geese	Teal	Mandarin Duck	Gt Crested Grebe	Mallard Duck
Moorhen	Chiffchaf	Greylag Goose	Mute Swan	Badger	Grass snake
Foxes	Roe Deer	Field Mice	Shrews & Voles	Rabbit's	Squirrel's
Stoat	Frogs	Toads	Dragonflies	Damselflies	Butterflies & Moths

Removing Hymalayan Balsam on the River Arun We have also established safe areas for nesting birds, these being the islands on the ponds and out of bounds areas, which has seen Geese, Duck's and Moorhen's utilising the heavily planted islands to raise their young, whilst many smaller birds such as Dunnock, Nightingales, Great & Blue Tits have set up home in one of the many areas around the fishery that have been deliberately left wild, these include our boundary with the wood yard and the wooded areas adjacent to the car park, we also decided not to clear the hedge alongside Peacocks Lane, electing to let this area grow wild with Bramble & Dog Rose to encourage small mammals & birds to utilise this habitat.

We don't of course limit ourselves to just looking after Goose Green, we spend a lot of time & effort working in conjunction with our landowners and/or at our landowners request at our other fisheries, be this removing Himalayan Balsam on the rivers, establishing reed & weed beds, building and repairing sluice gates and dams through to heavy tree removal work, at some fisheries we are very much limited as to what we can do due to legal restrictions such as SSSI's and of course the wishes of our landowners.

If you would like to become more involved in helping to look after our fisheries and our environment, then we hold a number of working parties on both our rivers and stillwaters throughout the year, the dates for which are advertised on our website, Facebook page and on the notice board at Goose Green.

A View From The River Bank

Looking back over the years the Arun doesn’t seem to have changed very much the only difference being, with the exception of Barbel fishing, it is not as appreciated. There was a time when the likes of Richard Walker, Peter Stone and Fred J Taylor would have travelled down to fish the Arun for its large Roach and track its shoals of Bream. The truth is those Bream and Roach are still there for the catching, with the addition of large Carp (to over 30lb) and Barbel (to 12lb) and yes, all from our stretches!

The Bream fishing is of a very good standard with fish to 8lb and bags of 50lb not uncommon. Two of our members caught 54 Bream in one session with the largest weighing 6lb 12oz and the smallest 4lb with 2 bonus Tench of 6lb! This catch is not an everyday occurrence but it can be done. By the way, for those of you who have only caught lake Bream, river Bream are a different kettle of fish fighting wise.

We have many different stretches and types of swims at Pulborough Angling Society so it’s not all feeder fishing. A good days fishing can be had trotting a stick float or fishing a waggler for Roach Dace and Chub and a 2lb perch is not uncommon, to my knowledge a 3lb 2oz fish has been caught in the last couple of years to the trusty lob worm. If you catch the Arun right and you do your homework on the tides, swims etc. YOU too could have a red letter day in the most beautiful surroundings.

For those members who have not tried the Arun, Pulborough Angling Society has some super stretches, all of which are tidal and best fished on the down tide in my experience. To work out high tide add 3 hours to the Littlehampton time for Greatham, 3 ½ hours for Washingham and 4 hours for Pulborough approx. If you decide to fish the Arun let us know how you get on.

Tight lines.

A Bailiff

	This page contains articles and contributions from our members and the angling press, if you have any observations, funny stories or just want to reminisce about your past angling exploits or wish to submit an article on any aspect of coarse fishing, please email it to us for inclusion.