ARTHUR’S ARCHIVES Inside fishing history

Angling historian Keith recalls the heyday of the Wide Welland, hunting ground for Ivan Marks and many other match greats

“The Wide Welland was the perfect venue for large contests”

THE WIDE Welland, as it’s known, was once one of the great match angling destinations.

From downstream of Deeping St James to Spalding the natural, flowing river was deepened and widened, mostly for irrigation purposes. With a road alongside for much of its length, it was the perfect venue for large contests.

Anglers flocked there for big-money bream matches throughout the summer when the river was full of water. Between the big shoals of bream there were plenty of roach so local information was essential, because where the bream were, the roach weren’t!

Some of the great names were regular winners on the water, Ivan Marks in particular, and matches such as the Tetley Gala (Tetley the brewers, not the tea makers) would see up to 1,150 anglers show up.

The first Ivan Marks Memorial match was held there in 2006, but by then the river was clear and weedy, a see-through shadow of its former glory days. A wonderful stone memorial to the great man is set on the bank near Crowland Bridge.

I fished that match but only caught a few roach – still a better result than my 1975 National debut there when four bream fell off thanks to a big weedbed growing out from the bank.

In winter the river would be run down, to prevent flooding, and I recall the great John Dean telling me how he’d go there and catch big bags of quality roach on the stick float.

Once the river reaches Spalding the wide water goes into the Coronation Channel and the main river returns to its natural size and flow. Those roach that John Dean caught now migrate to those narrow waters and provide superb sport throughout the colder months.

The Wide Welland is still there, bream shoals can be found by looking for areas of coloured water but, for many reasons, the glory days are long gone.