I've just got in from attending a highly productive and enjoyable meeting of the MAA Fishing Council at which we discussed a whole raft of issues concerned with the future management of the fishery.  The decisions taken will benefit both fish and other wildlife on the river as well as the quality of fishing that members can expect next season.  Some of us then went up to the hatchery site to look at the work completed to date.

The further good news this week is that the water conditions on the Tarn continue to improve with reduced temperature and pH and a sharp increase in ORP (oxygen capacity).  This has resulted in a significant clearing of the water and increased catches during last week.  We agreed today to put barley bales in over winter to help the healing process along and mitigate any problems next summer so members experience of the Tarn in the new season should be better.

As I mentioned yesterday I attended a mink control course on Wednesday.  This was a fascinating afternoon arranged by FWAG, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group.  We looked at ways of controlling the numbers of these predators with the aim of protecting surviving colonies of water vole which suffer greatly when mink are present.  It was a chance to learn in detail how to use the Game Conservancy mink raft as a prime tool in detecting the presence of mink and then targeting specific presence rather than placing live catch traps and hoping for the best.  We will never eradicate these aliens but can at least hope to keep their numbers in check and minimise the damage they do to our native wildlife.

It's fingers crossed this week as I should hear on Thursday whether we have been fortunate enough to get the grant funding we seek for the habitat and fencing work at Nanny Carr (Cam Beck).  So more on this next week.  Everything is in place to go if we get the money with work planned to start on site in early November.

The salmon are still coming up in good numbers and the rain we had last night has caused a reasonable spate this morning which is now falling off.  Conditions should be good this afternoon and again tomorrow unless we get a lot more rain over night.

I plan to extend this blog in future by introducing a members only area with access controlled by password.  This area will contain information private to club members and I will send out details of how to access the area in due course.

I got a notification from ebay last week about a copy of Anglers' Evenings, the bound and published papers that were presented by members at the early meetings of the club.  This was eventually knocked down at over £30, rather more than I was willing to bid so there is still keen interest in these volumes amongst anglers and book collectors.  A pity I missed this one as it's the edition that contains the account of the early keepers at Horton .

I was recently sent a paper which outlines plans to try to eradicate another alien pest from the river.  The EA are proposing a programme of action next year to try to remove existing colonies of American red signal crayfish from the Ribble and its tributaries.  This work will be vital if we are ever to return our native crayfish to these waters.  Do remember that if you catch a signal crayfish you are obliged by law to dispose of it humanely and not return it to the water since it is illegal to return a non native species to any waterway without permission.

All in all a very good week that brings us almost to the end of the 2006 season.  I will try to write up a retrospective and some personal reflections next Sunday when the season finally closes.

Time to dig out the vice and start dressing the killer bugs for 2007.

Ian