Canterbury - Cooks River

[Mike Sydney]

Took a break from work today to go and have a flick at a spot I’ve been meaning to fish for a while - behind the Canterbury Ice Skating rink. 

I used to take my kids to swimming lessons at the pool there which is currently being renovated. Behind the pool site is a rail bridge a bit further upriver from Canterbury Rd.

Arriving, the river was as beautiful and pristine as I remembered, and I was kicking myself for not bringing the esky. 

 

Keep out - shopping trolley storage

 

Will I catch a fish or airborne disease first?

Deciding to press on and fish this polluted hellhole I rigged up against the urging of several concerned passers by. A slim swim on a 1/16th hidden weight cast to the bridge pylons gave the expected result - big bream hanging around a filthy spot that never sees any fishing. 

First cast in behind this floating debris landed the first bream, a decent 30cm

 

“DON’T EAT IT!”, screams a horrified cyclist. 

The tide was running out very slowly so I cast upriver into the wastelands for my second bream a couple minutes later.

This bream rolled out at 38cm !! A great fish and put up a good fight on 6lb gear. A tricky lift up over the fence but I landed her eventually. No witnesses this time but a great happy snap and back she went into the soup. 

 

Good fishing at an ugly part of the river!

[Steve0]

The Cooks looks to be in similar condition to the mid 80s. If anything Clean Up Australia may have removed some of the structure (shopping trolleys; bikes, prams, etc), but the look of the water tells the important story.  One thing I never thought to do when living in the area was test the fishing.  I enjoyed the report. Well done catching a couple in your lunch break.  Did you feel clean when you went back to work?

 

 

 

[Mike Sydney]

@Steve0 Crossing Canterbury Rd is night and day for the river in terms of visible pollution and colour. Downstream it’s quite well maintained and seems very healthy, the riverbanks have been naturalised a lot - this place here is really the break point where the river becomes grotty. Brown water, tons of pollution and very little flow. On a low tide, the water stops about 1.5km further upstream and it’s all concrete canal from this point on. 

Downriver of here is the recently built wetlands at cup and saucer creek (a main stormwater exit for most of the nearby suburbs) and from those wetlands out to the river mouth it’s very pleasant. 

From this point of the river upstream though, it gets worse by the meter. The next major bridge upstream (Brighton Ave, Campsie) is basically a swamp. That being said it does serve other purposes as a nesting and feeding ground for Ibis and Heron.

After any heavy rain though, the stormwater drains upstream from Strathfield through belfield turn the river into a raging torrent, bringing all sorts of garbage back into the river. There’s litter traps near the racecourse which are a real eyesore but effective.

I love the Cooks River it truly is lovely but this bridge here I think is where the water naturally stagnates at the end of the tide. 
As it reaches Belfield it’s generally only filling a 20cm wide trench a few inches deep the base of the canal. Usually the water runs dry by the time you reach Punchbowl Rd. This leads me to believe that the rest of the river upstream is almost entirely local stormwater fed from Coxs Creek.

Interestingly I’ve seen eel frequently in the upper reaches, as close as 5 meters from the end of the water flow in those trenches of the canal. Seems they’ll keep going until they hit dry land!

 

 

[Mike Sydney]

42 minutes ago, Steve0 said:

when you went back to work?

 

BACK to work. I knew I forgot something 😂

Edited May 24 by Mike Sydney

[Little_Flatty]

Well done on a nice bream Mike.

You should explain to passers by that you don’t get the body that you have in your profile pic by eating fish from clean water!🤣

[Steve0]

1 hour ago, Mike Sydney said:

BACK to work. I knew I forgot something 😂

Thanks for the update. We lived in Campsie  in the 80s. Along the Cooks to the Canoe Club at Tempe was one of the better options for running in the area  (beats the road and concrete lined creeks). I was aware of some work being done on Wolli Creek, but not along the Cooks. It sounds like a great improvement, and a real shame people upstream apparently remain unconcerned about what they toss where it will find a path into our waterways.

[linewetter]

Great catches for the day!  Have to say I wouldn't have believed you if you told me fish lived in there... But hey, that's why you caught the biguns 😄  Love all the pictures as well, really makes the report that much more enjoyable.