7:00am Saturday 4th September 2010
By Ian Mason
Families in Putney were licking their lips in anticipation of a free fish supper when thousands of flounders appeared in the Thames, 39 years ago.
Bucket-loads of the fish, sometimes known as “dabs”, were caught off the foreshore - some even being taken by hand - after the freak shoal appeared in the river on June 22, 1973.
And it was not just Putney which was treated to free food, as residents in Battersea reported an abundance of mackerel swimming happily in the Thames.
One excited fisherman at Battersea wharf told the Wandsworth Guardian that he had landed a 10lb golden carp during the unusual aquatic event.
The acting piermaster at Putney, William Silvester, proudly exhibited a pan full of fish, which he had scooped from the river with a ladle.
He said: “Some have been appearing in the Thames for a week or two, but suddenly they were here in thousands.
“They seemed dazed as if they were intoxicated, and looked like pieces of glass skimming across the water.
“Many headed straight for shore and even the children could pick them up by hand. People were coming to the water edge and taking them in bowls or any other channels they could find.
The fish were very large.
Mr Silvester added: “The reason for this is a mystery. Flounders are usually found near sandbanks, and it is possible this shoal was chased upstream by dolphins or maybe it was a freak situation caused by the heavy rain after such a spell of dry weather.
“Anyhow, there was plenty of fish for everybody.”
The acting piermaster’s eight-year-old grandson, Nicholas Madory, in Putney on a trip away from his home Rockford, Illinois, when the flounders appeared. He was said to be about to travel home to America with “a fine fisherman’s story”.
Veteran waterman, Harry Phelps, said: “Although I’ve known the Thames for so long and can remember when fish were here before the pollution set in, I have never seen such fine fish in such quantities.
“Now we are wondering if they will return.”
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