THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Over the years, zander have come in for a lot of stick – some of it absolute rubbish, some of it
circumstantial, and some of it probably deserved. The local coarse fishing world down in that neck of
the woods was very clearly divided between those who couldn't get enough zander, and those couldn't
cull enough Zander.
Allegedly, they were supposedly going to wipe out all the smaller coarse fish species, ripping them to
pieces in merciless gang attacks, and just as worrying to the haters was the fact that regardless of culls,
they were most certainly going to spread.
Well they were right in terms of the spread concerns, but in hindsight, wrong with regard to the total
decimation of the smaller silver fish.
Looking at it from a fishery science perspective, if zander had wiped out all the other fish their food
source would be gone, and not even the most aggressive predators can afford to do that to their
supporting hosts.
So as in all situations in which a new alien predator comes onto the scene, after an initial explosion in
numbers at the expense of other species, a balance is eventually found, which is the position we find
ourselves in today.
What was unfortunate about this particular saga is that the coarse fish were already slipping into decline
anyway due to poor agricultural practises leading to nitrification through run-off, a practise the
Environment Agency was just getting on top of as I retired from visiting farmers in my own area to
ensure their spreading activities were properly monitored and controlled.
Now with the Fenland coarse fish back, and the zander having found a workable predator-prey balance,
with hindsight, the whole early zander controversy looks to have been something of an un-necessary
storm in a tea cup.
What I'd like to do next, if for no other reason than historical record, is detail the zander introduction
itself and the events leading up to it, and in that regard, I am in something of a privileged position.
A few years ago I met up with and recorded both an audio as well as a video interview with John
McAngus, John being the last surviving member of the Great Ouse River Board fisheries team
responsible for introducing the zander in the first place, though he was not a part of the team at the
actual time of the introduction itself, on what he describes as "that fateful day". The day when the zander
genie responsible for today's situation was let out of the bottle.
There had been previous attempts at zander introductions over the years, mainly to still waters, the most
successful of which had been a consignment of German fish introduced to Woburn Abbey Lake
sometime in the late nineteenth century.
Ironically, it was Woburn that provided the hundred or so six to nine inch zander netted in March 1963
by Cliff Cawkwell and others, the ninety seven survivors of which were introduced by Cliff to the Great
Ouse Relief Channel on the express orders of fishery officer Norman MacKenzie, about which Cliff
was told to say nothing to anyone.
Unlike today where there is complete accountability, fishery teams in the 1960's were autonomous, and
fishery officers very much a law unto themselves. Teams were run military fashion, so Cliff Cawkwell
did exactly what he was told, despite having strong personal reservations, and even complicity later in
trying to reverse what had been done.
Despite ordering that nothing be said regarding the introduction, Norman MacKenzie then popped up
on the radio the following day announcing to the world that an exciting new angling sport fish had been
released in to the Fens, believing it would be contained within the drainage system, all of which slipped
by fairly quietly with few if any eyebrows being raised at all.
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