Fish in city’s heart

Nov 6 2007 by Karen Wilson, The Journal

THINK about places to fish in Newcastle and your first thought is probably the Tyne. But there’s actually a three-acre fishing lake just round the corner from the RVI.

The lake in Leazes Park is a coarse fishing lake which is home to carp, tench, bream, roach, rudd, crucians and perch. The lake is popular with pleasure, match and carp anglers and it is open 24 hours all year round.

The lake was the scene of a major rescue operation a few years ago during the £4.9m restoration of Leazes Park – which was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Newcastle City Council. It had to be drained to carry out improvements but before work began the lake was dredged by a net to remove every fish.

The fish were then moved by lorry in an oxygenated tank to their temporary home – the lake at Exhibition Park – which volunteers at the Anglers’ Association had cleaned up ready for its new tenants.

A small area of water was retained for the ducks!

Almost £600,000 was spent on improving the lake and over 8,000 tonnes of silt were removed, half of which was used to enrich soil in the park. The lake edges were restored using granite cobbles (a job that was left unfinished by the Victorians) and decking was installed to make access safer generally. In addition, new fishing platforms were designed to be accessible by disabled people.

After the job was finished, the fish were brought back to enjoy their new home.

There are lots of other watery experiences to enjoy around Newcastle. There are lakes in Exhibition Park, Paddy Freeman’s Park and Benwell Nature Park.

At the Big Waters and Havannah Nature Reserves there are ponds formed by mining subsidence. There are also burns running through Sugley Dene and Walbottle and Throckley Dene. The Ouseburn runs through Jesmond Dene and you can follow its course through the Ouseburn Valley.

The council works hard with its partners and community groups to keep all of its water features looking good. Litter is a problem and damages wildlife as well as looking unsightly. So use a bin.

To find out more about parks and nature reserves in Newcastle, visit the website www.newcastle.gov.uk.