THE picture of a fisherman with an unusual net published in last week's Review has raised considerable interest – and we've even identified the grand old man.
We've also managed to get the full story of the shad-netters of Symonds Yat from a man who held one of the last licences to fish there with a cleaching net.
Maurice White of Primrose Hill, Lydney, held a licence from 1955 to 1984, when he found canoeing interests were growing in volume making it too hard to fish properly.
"I still own a cleaching net which I knitted myself. It is used for catching Shad (Mayfish), which they call Twaite on the Severn, from mid-April to the end of June, and the only place to net them was in the rapids at Symonds Yat," said Maurice.
"We used to build a crib, or dam, at the top of the rapids by putting in large rocks from the bank jutting out into the water about six feet, creating a calm area behind the obstruction.
"The Shad would swim up the side of the rapids and when they came to the crib they would rest in the slack water before moving on upriver to spawn.
"It would vary but I would catch 20 or 30 in a couple of hours and I would distribute them to the older Foresters. They took the roes to eat out of the fish, which were very bony, and the larger female fish, up to three pounds or so, would be cooked in vinegar to get rid of the bones."
Environment Agency riverkeeper George Woodward, himself a former gillie on a salmon fishery at Lydbrook, took pictures of Maurice with his net when a colleague said he had never heard of the implement.
He was also able to tell us that a copy of our picture had been on the wall of the Royal Hotel at Symonds Yat for some time – and he knew a relative of the fisherman, Mrs Edie Williams, who lives at Coppet Hill above the river.
"It's a picture of my husband's grandfather, Henry Williams," Mrs Williams told the Review.
The last word comes from the Environment Agency. "Nobody would be allowed to fish with a net like that now," said an official.