Firstly, a very happy New Year to you all and it won't be long now before lines are first wetted in the 2007 season here on the Ribble.  It's been surprisingly dry this past fortnight, almost unprecedented for Yorkshire in December.  But, the lack of sun and any drying wind has meant that the ground is still pretty sodden so the heavy rain of the past 48 hours has quickly brought the river into spate.  Everywhere is alive with the sound of running water, even my front porch.  Yet another job for when the weather warms up a bit.

It's been a great week for unexpected visits and new contacts.  It was really good to see two members of the MAA Council who dropped by for a chat.  The next Council meeting should be a lively and productive one and a great chance to set out our plans for the new season.

Yesterday brought yet another of those contacts out of the blue prompted by this blog and our presence on the world wide web.  I had an email from Raif Killips who is editor of an on-line magazine for fly fishers called Fly Fishers' Republic.  This provides anglers with a resource and guide to conservation and restoration work around the world and is an absorbing read.  Find it at www.flyfishersrepublic.com.  Raif has close links with our friends at the Wild Trout Trust and has very kindly offered to publish an article about our conservation projects in the magazine.  This is something we will discuss at the next Council meeting, but it does offer a very good way of publicising the efforts that the MAA are making to be good stewards of the Ribble, its fish and the fishery.

I am becoming increasingly convinced that remote cameras at the Tarn and the hatchery are possible at a reasonable cost.  It would be fascinating to be able to see how these sites are used by wildlife when humans are absent and what impact this use has on the fishery.  I suspect that, like most wildlife monitoring, one will inevitably get hours of absolutely sod all punctuated by short bursts of the unexpected.  Still, it would be fun to find out and possibly quite informative.

Next posting will be late next Sunday as I'm off to miss a few more clay's.

Happy New Year

Ian

You can tell that it's the season of goodwill when someone unexpectedly offers gifts out of the blue.  Father Christmas arrived early for the Manchester Angler's in the guise of the Wild Trout Trust.  I got an email from the WTT projects officer asking if we had any habitat projects in planning that they might support.  I duly replied with details of the work we have planned for Cam Beck and on Wednesday last week got a further email offering to pay for all the tools and equipment we might need plus a further substantial sum to assist with the cost of training for our habitat survey and professional advice on constructing the flood gate at Nanny Carr.  A brilliant start to the festive season and warmest thanks to the Trust and their generous sponsors. 

It's now turned cold and dry after a dismally wet autumn.  Much fog last week and I thought that a wander up to Dale Mire (known locally as Drain Mires) to see if the trout were spawning was long over due.  No trout, but a few other species were noted.  The tally for the morning was:

    Duck - 4
    Swans - 2
    Golden eye - 6
    Snipe - 1
    Sheep - Lots and complaining bitterly about the fog
    Cormorants - 2 (2 too many)
    People - None (perfect)

So, pretty quiet and a really uplifting wander in conditions where the landscape was bathed in a soft white glow.  A photographers dream.

An email arrived yesterday that might interest some.  The Farming and Wildlife Advisory group have arranged a training day on the subject of Managing Watercourses for Wild Trout.  This will take place on 24 May next year presented by Simon Johnson of the Wild Trout Trust in conjunction with the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust and will be held at Bolton Abbey on the Wharfe.  I will post up further details when I get them, but in the past these FWAG events have proved immensely informative and worthwhile and as they are free they are great value for money.

Finally, a slight departure from the fishing slant but did you see a programme on Channel 4 on Thursday about a 16th Century banquet? This was held at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire on the river Wye and featured a short clip on fly fishing for trout using equipment and techniques current at the time.  No trout were caught but it was interesting to see just how little things have changed in some respects over the past 400 years.  Also interesting was the fact that Haddon is the fishery managed by Warren Slaney who first got me hooked on wild trout habitat restoration and who has been so influential in shaping the way in which the MAA plans to manage its waters in future.

Merry Christmas and I hope that Santa brings all those indispensable fishing gizmo's that will make such a difference to your catches next season.

Ian

Well, another week closer to the new season and Christmas is almost upon us.  What a week!  I think the river must get lonely if I don't visit it regularly as on Thursday it made a valiant attempt to visit me at home.  Those of you who know Newhouses will realise the effort involved here for whilst we are only about 200 yards from the water we are at least 15 feet above normal water levels.  Most of the meadow below the house was under water and its population of soggy sheep spent a worried night penned onto the high ground at the north of their field.  It all went down pretty quickly but it's the highest I have ever seen the river in winter.

The river has been too high these past few days to make trout redd spotting a practical activity, but it's clear and bright today and the forecast for the week is much more of the same so a trip up to Dale Mire is in order for tomorrow.

I had a very full and helpful reply from Danny Hughes at Lancaster University about remote water monitoring.  It may just be feasible to run a remote camera from home to monitor predators at the Tarn and this may have application for the Hatchery when it's up and running.  More on this when I have time to explore costs and practicality in more detail.

Members will wish to know that the next MAA newsletter will be out early in the New Year.  This will include arrangements for the AGM as well as updates on all current activities as well as stocking plans for the new season.  The AGM will be at Kearsley again, but ideas are welcome for an alternative venue in future years with less background noise.

I thought I would try out the new eye clay pigeon shooting yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to be able to see even fast, low clays that were totally invisible before.  So, it's off the Conistone shooting ground with the Pen y Ghent Gun Club after Christmas for more practise and some lessons.  Then, hopefully, I can give up membership of the clay pigeon preservation trust.

I will try to get one more posting in before Christmas but in the meantime have a festive Christmas and prosperous and troutfull New Year.

Ian

Thanks for your comments Will.  The Sparsholt course runs twice a year and the next one is on 27 - 28 January 2007 so that may already be full.  The one after that is likely to be next November.  Best of luck.

By the way, we had a phenomenal amount of rain last night and the river is now in monumental spate and well over the banks at New Inn.  I fear for the trout redds which won't stand the buffeting that this water is giving them.  Still, it's relatively early in the spawning season so hopefully not too much lasting damage will be done.  Its clear and bright now so I will take a wander up to Dale Mire later on (work permitting) and see how the redds are up there.

Ian.

As a child, my mother frequently warned me always to be careful what I wished for as there was always a chance I would get my wish.  I should have remembered these maternal warnings when wishing for rain last summer as that wish seems to have been met with a vengeance this autumn.  This past week has been miserable with barely a dry hour.  Often the wet has been accompanied by fierce winds and most of the local sheep have adopted a permanent expression of sheer damp gloom.

This week coming promises to be little better so I'm taking no bets on a white Christmas.

On a more positive note today's Telegraph carries a review of a new book by Charles Rangeley - Wilson  who I have mentioned before.  This is an expansion of his recent TV series on fishing and despite a rather lukewarm review by Tom Fort promises to be an absorbing read as Charles is renowned for his ability to convey the sheer enjoyment of angling through his excellent prose.  What Tom questions is not the quality of the writing or the interest to be garnered from each page by why there's a need to go to such far flung places as the Amazon or Bhutan to pursue fish inconclusively when much better sport can be had in Hampshire or Dorset (a southerner, clearly).  Still, "The Reluctant Angler" is something to add last minute to the Christmas list.

I came across an article published in the  New Scientist back in October about the Ribble.  It seems that a grid of smart river sensors that monitor water depth and flow and can predict impending flooding are being installed on the river in the Dales.  It reports that network could give locals and government decision makers earlier warning of rising trouble.  Two of thirteen sensor nodes have so far been installed  along a kilometre stretch of the river locally and the rest of the network should be in place by the end of this year.

The final network will contain three kinds of sensor node.  Eleven will measure pressure from below the waterline in order to determine depth.  The other two will monitor the speed of river flow - one using ultrasound underwater, and the other using web cams to track objects and ripples moving along the surface.  Each node is smaller than a human fist  and powered by batteries and solar panels.  Each is also accompanied by a computer unit about the size of a packet of chewing gum, which contains a processor about as powerful as those found in a modern mobile phone.

The sensors communicate with each other and a base station through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas and will be monitored by Lancaster University.

It doesn't take much imagination to think how useful this network could be to local anglers.  The sensors will give us information about the water level and flow in real time and from this we can deduce the ideal conditions to fish.  The web cams may also record the passing of fish and enable us to monitor the movement of salmon and sea trout up river on their spawning runs.  I shall try to find out more.

It's now time to don the wetsuit and go and check the livestock.  See you next week for a Christmas special.

Ian

A late update on the above info about river monitoring.  The installation is at Cow Bridge near Long Preston and you can actually see a video clip of the river here taken by the web-cam on 26 November if you go to this link http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/hughesdr/projects/river.wmv . It opens in windows media player.  Now, if only we could do that!

Ian

It's been a quiet week here in the valley.  Much less rain than of late up to today and the ground was starting to dry nicely.  That's all changed with a pretty fierce storm ripping through Horton as I write this and the hills are once again waterlogged.

I did the monthly check on water quality during the week and it's nice to report that both the Tarn and river are showing the sort of conditions that one would expect at this late season.  All, that is, except the oxygen readings which still give a negative reading all the way up the river and in the Tarn.  Odd.

It's not often that you get someone offering to give you money but that's pretty much what happened this week when i got an email from the Wild Trout Trust asking if we had any conservation projects underway that would benefit from their assistance.  They can offer both practical help and financial support and  I have replied setting out our plans for taking forward the actions that the WTT recommended in the report that they prepared for us last year and have just heard that they are keen to learn more.  I'll keep you posted on this.

Our native brown trout should be spawning very soon if it's not too warm so I plan to walk the becks this week to monitor activity on the breeding front.  In the past the key spawning date on the upper Ribble was 12 December so it will interesting to see if the rise in global temperature and this mild autumn has had any impact.

I wrote to thank the team at Sparsholt College for providing such a worthwhile course on Fisheries management that I attended last month.  I had a very nice reply from the unit leader who will be in York over the new year.  If our free time coincides we plan to meet here so that I can show him round the fishery.  Yet another source of really useful advice.

Time to brave the elements and check on livestock so more next week.

Ian

    Cancel the order for gills and webbed feet!  At long last its stopped raining.  I can't remember the last time it remained dry for 24 hours.  It seems like weeks since we had a really dry spell and the clay soil up here at Horton is absolutely sodden.  Mind you, that's probably nothing new as the word Horton means "mucky farm" in Angelo Saxon.  My runner ducks have been busy re-enacting the battle of the Somme and turning the bottom garden into a pretty good representation of a battlefield after sustained shell fire.

It's been a mixed week on the fishery.  I had a really productive chat on Tuesday with our local police Sargent about security for members fishing at Horton.  Sargent Thornthwaite seemed genuinely interested in my concerns about possible future threats to members from sabs and has gone away to talk to Neil Handy about drawing up a 10 point list of advice that can be sent to members.  He asked a lot of questions about the history of the club  and I think that we can expect a much more proactive police presence at Horton in future.  This is being driven by his new Inspector who regards effective policing as being about feet on the ground not bums on car seats.

Thursday brought an email that left me wondering if teachers inhabit the same planet as the rest of us mere mortals.  As you will recall we have spent the best part of 12 months pulling together a habitat improvement project for Cam Beck which depended on Craven College students doing the work as part of their land management course.  This project was due to start on 8 November but, despite promises and commitments, It's proved less than easy to pin Craven College to a firm start date.  Back in late October the College informed me that they were having difficulties finding a tutor and might not be able to do the work until March.  My response was curt as such delay would lose the grant funding we have received to cover the cost of materials.  All seemed back on course with the involvement of two tutors with fencing experience, but Thursday's email informed me that the College were now pleased to tell me that they could start work on 21 February.  Ye God's!  Still it's slightly better than March and at least gives me some time to get the trees in before the end of March.  A quick email to the Millennium Trust to check whether they will hold open the grant until then and we are back in business.  What really annoys me is the fact that people who are supposed to be guiding these young people towards a self reliant and responsible future life seem to be quite happy to treat commitments as infinitely flexible.  No wonder we are producing a generation of youngsters who regard their own self interest as paramount.  Or am I becoming a grumpy old man?

Friday brought the Craven Herald which contains a notice issued by the Environment Agency that will be of interest to all who fish the Ribble.  The EA have made an order under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 that will:
    provide that the number of licenses to be allocated in any one year for fishing for salmon  and migratory trout with nets in the Ribble Estuary shall be limited to two;

    provide for the issue of additional licenses if this number is insufficient to satisfy the applications of all those who held such a license in the preceding year;

    provide that not more than one license shall be issued to each person in respect of the area described as the Ribble estuary;

In addition the Agency have made a new by-law that will:
    restrict the number of salmon that may be caught and killed when fishing with rod and line on the river Ribble to two per season.

The EA are now inviting objections to the order to be sent to DEFRA prior to the Secretary of State confirming both the order and by-law.

I make no comment, but would be interested in members' observations on the new by-law.

More next week

Ian

    In my experience it's rare that things keenly anticipated always live up to expectations, but this past weekend has confounded that experience.  As I said last week, I was down at Sparsholt College in Hampshire over the weekend on a fishery management course and have returned abuzz with ideas and enthusiasm.  Oh dear!  Sparsholt is a massive agricultural college with an internationally renowned aquaculture faculty that works in partnership with all the leading bodies in the UK involved with fish and fishing.

I'll give you just a taster of what we did over the two days but I would encourage anyone who is serious about their fishing be it game or course angling to go on this course as the benefits far outweigh the very reasonable cost of £170.

We assembled as a pretty mixed bunch of 23 students with a diverse range of interests ranging from game fishers to quite a few who are in the process of buying lakes in France to establish commercial carp fisheries.  This mix proved one of the real benefits of the course as we learnt to appreciate the concerns and issues of the subjects we studied from a pretty wide perspective.  We kicked off looking at how a fish ticks via a practical autopsy on a reluctant volunteer rainbow trout.  This was a great intro to the rest of the course as by gaining a good understanding of fish anatomy and how it works we got a valuable in-site into how fish react to their environment and the actions we take as managers to control that environment.

We then moved on to consider exactly that subject with the head of the fisheries unit taking us through fish ecology and how we should ensure that our management practises are based on sound ecological principles.  After a short lunch we went to see the new fish house which is truly impressive and provides a facility for studying all aspects of fish breeding and management.  Here we learnt about the science of fish feeding and the need to consider the right stocking density for each species.  As an example we looked at a tank of cat fish living at a high density per cubic meter of water which we were told often prompted some questions about over crowding on public open days at the centre.  The truth is that below a given density these strange creatures turn cannibalistic and eat each other.  we then had a tour of the new 2 acre lake and hatchery which for me sparked a lot of thoughts about our own Tarn and plans for the hatchery site.

In the afternoon we had a practical review of fishery maintenance and improvement and I came away from this with a sense of reassurance that our own plans are sound and well founded on current good practise principles.  We ended the day by considering some of the practical issues associated with fishery maintenance such as weed and silt control (not a major problem on the Ribble) and water quality.

Day two introduced us to some methods of stock assessment and management and it was a real eye opener for me to appreciate just how valuable some course stock can be with a 40lb carp valued at around £5k.  No wonder carp fishermen start to sweat when they see cormorants.  We wound up on a real high note with an excellent practical demonstration of how to assess fish health.  This session saw us back in the laboratory for a guided tour of a carp sushi looking for parasites and other clinical evidence of disease.  I now feel I have the confidence to do a few autopsies next season and whilst I am unlikely to know exactly what I am looking at I should have a fair idea when what I'm seeing is wrong.

So, two specific benefits of the weekend.  A brilliant  idea for deterring cormorants which is cheap, easy to construct , unobtrusive and above all effective and also a good working understanding of fish biology and what to look for when things go wrong.  But, overall I came away with a sense of reassurance that I know more than I thought I did about practical fishery management  and a renewed confidence to apply some of my knowledge to the benefit of the fishery and its members.

I know this is a pretty long posting but bear with me just a little longer for two more issues.  I am due to see the local police this evening at a parish meeting and will raise the question of member safety that I talked about back in August.  I will post up the advice I get on the secure area of this blog so if you are a member of the MAA and want to access this area then please email me with your preferred password (about 6 letters) so that I can set up access for you. You will get a confirming email when access is enabled.

Finally, back to normal next week with a return to regular postings on a Sunday.

Ian

    I'm sorry for the protracted silence from Horton, but the gremlins have been busy again.  As regular readers of this column will know we have a fairly unusual broadband Internet service up here.  Due to the rather cruel and interesting geography of upper Ribblesdale the 70 or so households in the valley which enjoy the benefits of fast Internet access get it via a wireless network.  This necessitates having a small stick aerial on the roof and on Thursday of last week the engineers called to upgrade the equipment installed at my house.  I am now the proud possessor of a small grey box mounted on a pole attached to my chimney which beams a signal received from the station to the rest of Newhouses.  This worked wonderfully on Friday, but by Saturday morning it was dead.  we had some dreadful weather on Friday night and when the engineers came back to find the fault on Tuesday they discovered that a supposedly weathertight box was full of water.  I now have a new one which I'm assured is Horton proof.  We will see.

Sticking with more personal stuff for the moment, I am also the proud possessor of a new right eye.  Not the whole eye but the lens.   Last Monday I had the cataract removed and the difference is staggering.  I had no idea just how bright and vibrant colours are and can see better than I have done for the past 50 years.  The left eye will be done just after Christmas so I should be able to see a floating fly next season.

Did anyone see that fascinating TV programme 'The Accidental Angler' fronted by Charles Rangeley Wilson that went out over the weekend?  Charles is one of the founders of the Wild Trout Trust and writes extensively about game fishing all over the world.  This episode in his new series was about his pursuit of the legendary mahseer, the strongest fresh water fish in the world which can grow up to 120 lb.   Next Sunday he's after brown trout in Bhutan so it will be interesting to contrast this with their cousins in the Ribble.

I was at Grassington last Wednesday to attend a meeting called by the Environment Agency to discuss the problem of American red signal crayfish in Long Preston beck.  This is the only population of these alien crayfish in the Ribble catchment and their presence threatens not only our native crayfish but the future of all fish stocks in the river.  We went through all the options to decide what should be done about this threat and reached a unanimous conclusion that the signals must be removed.  This will not be easy but has to be addressed if we are to protect the Ribble ecosystem.  More on this in due course.

I'm off to Winchester on Friday to attend a fisheries management course at Sparsholt College over the weekend.  This will be a great chance to learn more about the practise and skills of river keeping and exchange ideas with fisheries managers from other waters.  So expect a round up when I get back and no blog this coming Sunday.

Finally a word of warning on rod licenses.  There have been a couple of letters in the Telegraph recently about the difficulty of obtaining rod licenses via the EA website.  One correspondent who bought his license on-line back in March is still waiting to receive it despite the season now having closed.  The EA's excuse?  They were inundated with requests at the start of the season.  Something that one might think that they could have predicted.  The moral is buy your license from your friendly local Post Office or better still use the one at Horton and help keep this vital village institution going.

Next update will be posted next Tuesday on my return from Sparsholt.

Ian

    When the English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web back at the end of the last century as a means of enabling universities to share data he can scarcely have imagined how far his idea would develop.  Access to the web is now probably the single most important force driving sales of home computers.  We can communicate to an audience almost instantly and far beyond the scope of the phone.  This blog is an example.  We can access information in such volume and detail that it would take several lifetimes to read and absorb it all.  Just try typing "brown trout" into a search engine and see what you get!  And it enables us to buy (and sell) stuff without the hassle of traipsing round the shops.

The last benefit has been uppermost in my mind this week for two reasons and connects this geeky stuff to life on the fishery.  Firstly I have been able to source all the materials, tools and equipment we need for our fencing project from a firm in Burnley found as a result of an Internet search.  OK, I could have done this using yellow pages if I had the edition that covers the whole of the north of England but the advantage of the web is that I can view this firms product list, select the items I want, see pictures of what it looks like and compare prices with other companies.  All in the space of a few minutes.  A simple email, phone call or fax and the job is done.

Secondly,  What about eBay?  for those of you who haven't yet ventured into this electronic auction house I would encourage you to do so.  I was sceptical until I bought my first items back in May.  It's simple to use, pretty safe and you can get a bargain.  Just right for that vital bit of kit you can't do without next season.  This week I had two successes.  Two books that will provide many hours of absorbing reading when the weather turns nasty.  The first cost me just £3.18 (cover price £17) and is by Mike Weaver.  It's titled The pursuit of wild trout and describes Mikes experiences fishing for wild brownies in unspoilt rivers in the UK and Ireland.  The second is a book I have had my eye out for for some time.  This was an absolute bargain at 99p (cover price (£15) and is the life of Mick Lunn the third generation of his family to work as Keeper on the Houghton waters of the River Test.  It's a book full of passion about dry fly fishing on what is probably the most exclusive and famous trout water in the world.

So, what of life here at Horton this week?  Mr Sod has been in action again on two fronts.  The weather has been glorious since the season closed with good clear water of a sustained high volume.  Just right for spawning salmon.  A pity we did not get more of this a few weeks ago.  A last minute glitch on the fencing project front where Craven College are having tutor problems that may delay the start of work a bit.  I will know more tomorrow but everything else is in place with the supplier standing by to receive and deliver an order for materials as and when I an satisfied that we can start.  Who said that project management was easy?

I was in reflective mood last week but clearly not reflective enough as the one event of this season gone that I forgot to mention was the VHS incident that caused so much hardship for fish farms and our own stocking plans.  Things are still slowly returning to normal and a brief conversation with our usual supplier for the Tarn has confirmed that he is out of quarantine and ready to deliver again next season.  I also forgot to mention Alan Toppings bench that now provides such a convenient place by the Tay Bridge to sit and eat lunch or just sit and reflect (or just sit).  I think it blends well with it's surroundings and is a lasting memorial to such a fine fisherman who was so passionate about the Ribble.

I am off to a meeting at Grassington on Thursday about the problem of signal crayfish in the Ribble catchment.  This has been organised by the EA who want to try to eradicate the growing population of these little alien pests from Long Preston Beck.  If they get down into the main river then we can kiss good by to any hope of returning our native species to the upper Ribble.  I have a couple of good recipes for crayfish. Waste not want not as my mother says.

All being well the barley straw should go into the Tarn  this week.  We decided to try placing solid bales this time so it will be interesting to see how effective this method is compared to the sausages with their larger surface area.  If it works then it will save a lot of work and mess in future years.

See you next week.

Ian

    Fantastic news reached me by email on Thursday.  Our application to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust for grant funding of the habitat work at Cam Beck has been approved.  We can now move quickly to begin work on the ground in early November and I will report progress weekly through this blog.  This is a great opportunity for the club to show what it can do to be a more proactive steward of the fishery.  We will learn much and no doubt make a few mistakes along the way but, hopefully, these will be few.  The area for those who don't know it well, is a lovely peaceful spot which will really benefit from some protection and care.  I have updated the MAA website and will upload the new page on this project later today.

What a foul day we had yesterday.  It rained all day with a stiff north westerly wind blowing a large volume of water into every nook and cranny.  The river is running high and coloured this morning but should clear quickly as we have a lovely bright, sunny start with just a wisp of cloud here and there.  Just right for a final fling before the season closes on Tuesday.

I promised a bit of a retrospective in this posting since we are within a couple of days of the season's end.  Looking back to March I really do wonder where the time has gone but much has been achieved on the fishery this season despite some pretty grim conditions through the summer.  It all started quite badly with a wet and bitterly cold spring which inflicted great hardship on the lambing ewes and resulted in a high mortality of both indoor and outdoor born lambs.  This also had an impact on fishing as conditions were far from ideal early on.

Then it all changed in May and we switched quite suddenly to hot, dry and windless conditions that, by the end of July, had brought a drought to the river which made fishing practically impossible.  Fish were lethargic and remained mostly hidden in the deep pools.  Regular walks along the bank failed to show any signs of life at all and I began to wonder if the river would recover once the rains eventually came.  Another learning experience for me because as soon as the weather broke at the beginning of August back came the fish in good numbers.  The river seemed full of young native trout all about a half to three quarters of a pound in weight, fighting fit and seemingly none the worse for their confinement in small pools that reached bath water temperatures during July.

It all goes to show just how resilient wildlife can be provided that adverse conditions don't persist for too long.

The settled weather gave Phil Sutcliffe good conditions to start work on Neil Handy's plans for the old MAA hatchery and work moved on apace to refurbish three of the old tanks to provide a crayfish refuge and large stew pond for breeding native trout.  Work here continues with the installation of the off line spawning channels which will encourage both brown and sea trout to build redds in ideal conditions for a good fry survival.

The Tarn suffered towards the back end because the high temperatures and low rainfall provided ideal conditions for algae and weed growth.  Conditions are returning to normal now and will be helped along with a judicious application of barley straw later this week.  Wildlife on the Tarn suffered some early setbacks.  The swans who have lived here for years always struggle to bring a full brood of cygnets to maturity but this year was a disaster for them as they lost all seven hatchlings within weeks of leaving the nest.  I know not what takes them but suspect Mr fox is to blame.  Next year I plan to make a few night time visits to the Tarn to see if I can pin down the culprit.

The season has ended on a high note with plenty of water since August bringing a good crop of salmon up to Horton and beyond.  It will be interesting to see what sort of redd count we get this winter.  My guess is that it will be significantly greater than last year with it's dry back end.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that salmon fishing has been rewarding this autumn which in some way will help to compensate for the dearth of good fishing during the spring and summer.

What makes this job so absorbing is the fact that you are constantly learning something new. It doesn't matter how many books you read about the practise and art of river keeping nothing can beat practical experience and observation.  All rivers are different and each river differs in conditions over quite short lengths.  Every year brings its own challenges, surprises, delights and despairs and you realise quite quickly that a lifetime is too short to learn all there is to know about the way the river and its wild life work.  All you can hope to do is grasp the basics that enable you to make a positive contribution to the life of this fantastic river.

So, we enter the closed season with a sense of relief that conditions on the fishery seem to have suffered no lasting damage and an eager of anticipation about our ambitious plans for Cam Beck.  There is much to look forward to and a lot to do before lines are cast again next March.

See you next week.

Ian

    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

    What a strange week it's been not sitting down each morning to write words of wisdom.  I know that I said the next posting would be tomorrow but I thought that a reminder to regular readers would not go amiss.

There is much to tell and possibly even more by tomorrow since there is an MAA Council meeting here at Horton tomorrow morning. 

 Look out for items on the fencing and habitat conservation project,  Mink trapping and water vole protection, more salmon pics from Stainforth, the books that got away and American signal crayfish eradication.

So log on tomorrow afternoon for the latest from the fishery and the activities of its keeper and Council.

All the best

Ian

    First the good news.  Alan Green who took those stunning shots of salmon leaping at Stainforth Foss has emailed me with permission to post them up on this blog so I will do so later this morning.  They really are worth a look. 

It's not a bad morning here again.  A little more cloud than of late but still warm and very pleasant.  The water level in the river has dropped considerably now, but we are due some rain later in the week that should produce a return to some good conditions before the end of the season. 

I'm off to school over the next few weeks.  On Thursday when I get back from London I'm on a mink course run by FWAG the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group.  This is over at York and will give hands on experience of using the Game Conservancy mink raft to control this predator.  Next month I'm off to Winchester to Sparsholt College for a weekend course in fisheries management.  This will give some practical experience of stock management and conservation work which will be invaluable since most of my learning to date has been from books and the internet.  I'll tell you how I get on.

I am determined to get up to Low Birkwith today to do a detailed survey of the line of the proposed new fence.  It's essential that we can begin quickly if we get the funding from the Trust from whom at the moment there is dead silence.

Look out for the pictures later today and the next posting next Sunday after the Council meeting in the Crown.

Ian

    What a cracking day we had yesterday.  The weather lived up to all early expectations and gave us a warm day with wall to wall sunshine.  A bit too bright for good fishing which was a bit of a disappointment for those members who decided to arrive at Horton early for the supper and go after a salmon on the river.  Still, the supper seemed to be a great success with at least 40 of us sitting down to a real trencherman's meal of pie and peas followed by one of the best apple pies I have tasted for some time.  Sandra did us proud and thanks are due to her and the team at the Crown for making the evening such an enjoyable one.  It was good to see so many farmers there all enjoying a crack and this time a good few brought their wives and girlfriends as did a lot of members so the mixed company added to the really great atmosphere.

This event now seems to be going from strength to strength after a bit of a relapse a few years ago.  Long may it continue.

I got an email yesterday from Andrew Rushforth whose wife runs the Horton Post Office giving a link to some photographs that his friend had taken of salmon leaping the Foss.  These are the best pictures of leaping salmon I have ever seen and were eagerly passed around when I showed them at the supper last night.  I have asked permission to post these up on this blog so watch out over the next couple of days for some really stunning pictures of autumn salmon.

I promise faithfully to stop banging on about DEFRA, honest, but I can't let the latest report of the impact of their budget cuts go by without comment.  The Telegraph reports a statement by David Milliband the Environment Secretary in which he expresses his "regret" about the cuts which have left Natural England with a ban on any conservation project costing over £5,000.  It seems that some £12.9m has been cut from the conservation and wildlife budget for this year as a consequence of DEFRA's £200m black hole which was caused by it's incompetent administration of the Single Farm Payment scheme.  You don't get much in the way of conservation work for £5k as I know too well from costing the limited amount of fencing and habitat work we are trying to do at Nanny Carr's so this is hardly the well funded flying start that the new Agency deserves and is a reflection of the low priority this government places on wildlife and countryside issues.

Ah well, there is better news in the Craven Herald which reports that the Environment Agency is to crack down on illegal crayfish trappers operating in the Dales.  Traps don't discriminate between American signal and native white clawed crayfish and it's illegal to trap any crayfish without a licence.  These are rarely granted for waters known to contain native species.  Even better news is that Tarmac are to create a crayfish refuge at Threshfied Quarry if they get the go ahead to continue extracting at Swinden Quarry.  It will be interesting to see how they get on and how their efforts compare to Neil Handy's new facility at the old Horton hatchery.  I'll try to keep tabs on this one.

Finally the president (Geoff Bains) reports that he got a fine salmon in unpromising conditions a couple of days ago at the Pipe Pool.  They really have been coming up fit and in some numbers this year so fingers crossed for a good spawning and plenty of smolts in the future.

That's probably quite enough for this morning .  I'll post an update tomorrow then switch to a posting at least every Sunday during the close season.

Ian

    It's a wonderful misty autumn morning under a cloudless blue sky with a bit of a chilly nip after the rather muggy temperatures of the past few days.  The river looks in fine form this morning, with a good strong flow and just a light peaty tinge reminiscent of a good scotch malt. 

The news brings one of those items that sets the mind churning.  On the one hand there might be a grain of sense in it but on the other it seems bonkers.  Scientists are now increasingly concerned about the impact on the atmosphere of all these farm animals busily munching, belching and passing wind.  Methane is the problem here with each cow producing 500ltr of the stuff every day.  Our friends at DEFRA are apparently working on the problem so we will clearly be inundated soon with another rain forest of patronising advice about the correct diet for your ruminant written by some cretin in London with a Janet and John guide to animals on the farm.  I have given my goats a stern warning and half a packet of Rennies each .  What intrigues me though is what about all those ruminants wandering the plains of Africa and the sea of caribou in Canada?  Surely there is an almost limitless supply of free energy going begging out there.  All we need is some means to bottle it.

It will be good to see so many members and friends again at the supper tonight.  It looks as though there will be over 40 of us present so it should be cosy in the dining room at the Crown.

Still no news on the grant application so I will try ringing the YDMT later today.  Time is running out if we are to start work in early November and there is still a lot to organise once the money is available.

See some of you later.

Ian

    I'm a bit late with this posting this morning as There was a fair bit of email correspondence to catch up with since we were out until late yesterday. 

It's heartening to realise that some of the things that one does for pleasure are of interest to others and spark a curiosity that was previously absent.  About a year ago I wrote an article for the Parish Newsletter about the habits of migrating salmon.  Now, on my perambulations around the village, I am regularly stopped by locals and asked when the salmon will be in the river and where's the best place to see them.  We had quite a session about this yesterday lunchtime in the Post Office.  It seems that Andrew whose wife owns the shop had been down to the Foss in the morning to try to get some pictures of salar leaping the falls.  Nothing doing. As he said it was so early they were probably still in bed. 

However, a friend of his had been to Stainforth the day before and got some classic shots of some really decent fish.  He is going to email to me the link to the website where these pictures are stored so I will post up the link when I get it.

My recent rants about DEFRA seem to have struck a chord with some and I had an email from Malcolm Byram yesterday attaching a press release from the office of his MEP which makes clear that a few senior politicians are becoming concerned about the impact on environmental management of DEFRA's increasingly desperate attempts to balance their books. What we need is a coordinated effort on this one with either a single body or leading political figure spearheading the challenge to the cuts. 

I was late in last night because we spent a fascinating evening at the October meeting of the Horton Local History Group watching a selection of films from the Yorkshire Film Archive.  Some of these were of the Dales in the middle of the last century but the Archive has nothing of Horton itself.  If any reader knows of the existence of local film material or anyone who was in the habit of filming activities in Horton we would love to know.

Finally, It's not a bad morning here with high cloud, little wind and an unseasonable warmth.  We had a lot of rain yesterday so the river is now in good form again.  Just right for salmon watching on the Foss.

Ian

    Well, I have chased YDMT for a decision on our grant application and now await a response.  Having downloaded the application form for "BreathingSpace" the Lottery fund for habitat improvement I am struck by the sheer bureaucracy of the application process.  The scheme seems geared more towards creating an illusion of equality and political correctness than doing anything worthwhile to protect and enhance habitat or promote species diversification. Still if we can tick the right boxes it's probably worth a shot for tree planting schemes but the sites will need to be very carefully selected, adjacent to existing public access and have the wholehearted backing of the landowner.  There are one or two spots along the lower river that might fit the criteria.

It's a really strange start to the morning.  There was a very strong southerly wind in the night which is now abating a little, but it's very warm, humid and overcast with some pretty threatening cloud down in the valley.  The forecast is for rain later with dryer conditions tomorrow.  So water levels should rise a bit later.

Friday's Hot Pot supper should be well attended.  I had two further phone calls last night from farmers who intend to come so there should be about 40 of us packed into the dining room of the Crown.

I intend to scale down these postings from Saturday and post up a weekly diary on Sunday's from 15 October.  The plan is to return to a daily update after the MAA AGM in March in time for the new season (the MAA's 129th).

Ian

    On the news this morning is a further example of DEFRA's incompetence leading to a potentially disastrous impact on our heritage and environment.  The swinging cuts that they have had to impose on the organisations that they sponsor as a result of their rural payments fiasco has led to a crisis at British Waterways who look after our canal system.  A budget cut of 15% will almost certainly lead to job losses which I have no doubt will impact tangentially if not directly on the thousands of course fishermen who line the canal banks every weekend.  The canal infrastructure is fragile and requires constant maintenance to keep it functioning.  Any cutback in its day to day care will undo years of investment (much of it from volunteer groups) that has brought the system out of terminal decline.  I am not hopeful that Natural England will get off to the nurtured start that it so badly needs if it is to continue the sterling efforts of English Nature.

The best way to describe conditions here this morning is "Autumnal".  It's grey, cold, damp and we have a strong and blustery south easterly blowing the leaves off the trees.  Not an ideal day for the river bank.

I will try to find out today how the grant application is progressing and search out alternative sources just in case YDMT can't stump up the necessary cash.  One possibility is the £4m that the Lottery have set aside for establishing wildlife refuges and which is being promoted by the BBC..  It's worth exploring, perhaps to improve the habitat within the existing fenced reaches of the river.

Ian

    It's a grey and blustery start to the new week here in the valley with the threat of rain.  The forecast is for better conditions this afternoon and a little rain over night has kept the river at a reasonable flow. 

I'm hopeful that we will hear this week whether the application for grant funds to do the habitat work at Nanny Carr's has been successful.  I have spent a few hours playing with prices for materials and equipment and have managed to pull together a budget that will allow us to do all the work we wanted as well as some judicious tree planting and bank protection within the sum bid for. 

On Saturday I was looking at the revetment work that the YDNPA have done along side their footpath above Cragg Hill and this looks like a useful form to follow at Cam Beck.  It consists of a number of wooden stakes driven into the river bed and interlaced with stout branches.  This natural looking barrier is then back filled with material to create a firm but flexible buffer against erosion that will naturalise still further over time.  It's more gentle on the eye than traditional boulder rip rap and will enable bank-side vegetation to grow right up to the water's edge.  There is also the added advantage that the materials needed can be got from trees around the area and there is no need for heavy equipment on site so it's wholly within the scope of our volunteer workforce.

Fingers crossed for a successful outcome to the bid.  Otherwise we will have to look for other funding sources and these are becoming scarce thanks to the massive budget cut imposed on DEFRA.  Ministers bang on about "joined up government" but most of them struggle with joined up writing.  It's the politics of the mad house to reduce funding for environmental projects at the same time as you bring about the biggest shake up in environmental management in decades.  Natural England, the new body that came into being on 1 October has a massive job to do to convince us that it's not a back door way of emasculating the rather effective former English Nature who, to their credit, were often a thorn in the side of government planners.

Time will tell and whilst the names and structures may have changed, by and large the people have not.  They will need our support and encouragement.

Ian

    I had a thoroughly enjoyable and really educational afternoon yesterday.  The river was in near perfect condition with a good flow and just a light peaty tinge to the water.  The wind blustered a bit but frequently dropped to give quite long still spells.  So Alan Maden took me to look for salmon  between Row End and Cragg Hill.  To begin with it was quiet with nothing moving in the more popular lies but down in the run just above Parkers Wood Alan struck a 7 lb hen fish that took with such vigour it seemed at first to be twice as big.  This was a superb fish showing very little colour and can't have been in the river over long. 

There is something uniquely satisfying about being by a river when it's flowing at its optimum.  The sound of the water on the riffles and falls seems to be pitch perfect and gives one a sense of well being and an appreciation of nature in perfect balance.  All in all a very good afternoon with one important lesson, I must get my casting sorted for next season so lessons are the priority for the winter.

As we fished down the water dropped appreciably and, since we had no rain last evening and the weather is still, bright and fairly warm today, it will continue to drop off.  The best of conditions have now gone for the time being but it's still worth a visit today.


Ian

    Wildlife can be truly amazing.  What is particularly special is the ability of a species to do the seemingly impossible because of the special way that it has adapted to a particular life cycle and the environmental conditions that influence that life cycle.  I went down to the Foss late yesterday afternoon, more because I was passing than in hope of seeing many salmon as the water was still in full spate.  Yet as I stood up on the bank looking at the water thundering down the falls there they were, fighting up the lower fall with grim determination, salmon about every two minutes.  There were a mix of sizes so it wasn't all the same fish.  Some small enough to be sea trout (were they?) but some I would guess to be at least 16 to 18 pounds.  All seemed light and uncoloured recent arrivals in the river brought up on the floods of the past few days.

And, you don't have to take my word for it.  This time I got a couple of pictures.  This was far from easy in the conditions especially with a digital camera so the results will win no photography prizes.  But, they are the first shots of leaping salmon I have managed to get despite numerous attempts in the past.  The better shot shows one of the larger fish. Scale is difficult to judge but this must be all of 16 pounds. I have posted them up in the wildlife folder.

The river is still in spate this morning after some rain late yesterday, but the weather looks to be a bit more settled today despite a pretty strong south westerly wind.

Yesterday I mentioned the road closure on 16 & 17 October.  By coincidence I had a letter from the contractors in yesterday's post.  This tells me that the road to the Tarn will be closed on both days between 8.30 am and 3.30 pm weather permitting so a full days fishing will still be possible provided that you arrive before 8.30 and don't need to leave until after 3.30.

Ian

    I think the best description for conditions here yesterday is "chicken weather" (foul).  It rained all day and finished with a grandstand flourish comprising rain in stair rods and a hefty gale.  By 8pm the river was in full spate and had flooded the bottom of Newhouses Lane to a depth of 2 feet or so.  Its dropped back a bit this morning and the forecast is for blustery showers, but the water is still heavily coloured and bank full.  No doubt by later today and certainly tomorrow we should have very good salmon water.

The spate gave everyone attending the parish meeting about the Slaughterhouse site development a timely reminder of the power of Brants Ghyll  after only a day of heavy rain.  There is strong local opposition to the plans and the YDNPA will get quite a few letters of objection to this exercise in blatant greed.

 Members planning to fish at the Tarn next week should be aware that Newhouses Lane will be closed to all traffic on 16 & 17 October.  This is to enable NYCC Highways to resurface the road at Harber and through Newhouses.  You may be able to get up to the Tarn before 8.30 but may well not be able to return until after works stops around 5pm.  By all means ring me for an update early next week but I am in London on 17 & 18 October.

Ian

    It's a cold, grey and misty morning - very autumnal and it doesn't look as if it's going to clear much all day.  Water levels in the river are dropping but still good after a little rain in the night.

There is a parish meeting here tonight to discuss the development plans for the old slaughterhouse site.  I had a conversation with an officer at the EA yesterday and understand that their development control people have serious reservations about the plans and want considerably more detail about a number of issues.  The plans have now been referred to the fisheries and flooding interests who will consider them from their perspective, but it does look as if the EA are not entirely happy with the plans so far submitted.

We will wait and see.

If any one knows a good source of Christmas tree netting can they please email me.  I have the barley straw for the Tarn but netting is proving more difficult to source unless you want it by the pallet load.

Ian

    I'm a bit late posting this today.  I wanted to bash off an email to Natural England (formerly English Nature) about the proposed fencing work at Cam Beck.  It's pretty important to get all the official bodies on side early on and although the site is not an SSSI it seems sensible to give NE a chance to make observations.

It's clearing nicely here now after a rather damp and dismal start.  The river is in fine form now with plenty of water going over Settle weir.  We spent so long talking to folk in Settle yesterday that I didn't get up to Stainforth to look for salmon but will do so today as conditions are near perfect.

It seems that most of the restrictions placed on fish farms after the VHS outbreak back in May will soon be lifted.  There have been no further infections for some months now and a call last evening from Tony Campbell at Washburn Valley gives hope that he will be free to trade live fish outside the control area very soon.  All too late for this season but we should be back to normal ready for the start of spring 2007.

The challenge now is to get the water quality in the Tarn back up to a good standard.  It may clear naturally over winter but it can't hurt to give nature a help by placing barley straw in at the end of this month.  Who knows, we may get another hot dry summer next year and it would be best to go into that with perfect water.

Ian

    A rather moist morning after a pretty wet night but it's clearing from the west and looks like another showery day with brighter patches.

The river came up quickly yesterday morning so that water conditions here are now very good.  So much so that AM caught a really nice salmon in tip top condition by Whit Beck towards lunchtime yesterday.  This suggests that they are running up the Foss and getting up to Horton quite quickly now.  I'm off to Settle later so will try to stop by the Foss and get a look.  I am still determined to get at least one good photograph of a salmon on these falls.  It's an ideal spot but really difficult to time the picture just right.  By the time you react to what you see and press the shutter release the fish has either got into the water at the top of the fall or fallen back.  It's even more difficult with a digital camera because of the extended delay between shutter release and image capture.  Anyway, we will have another bash at it.  I also want some good shots of redd building and spawning so, work permitting, will try that up at Dale Mire later this week. 

If I do get anything worth sharing I'll post them up.

The Hot Pot supper on the 13th looks set to be a good night.  We have at least 25 farmers and families coming and 15 or so members.  Not a bad response and a few always turn up on the night who forget to reply to the invite.

Ian

    We had a fairly wet night, but again not enough to really make a difference to the volume of water in the river.  This morning is breezy and showery with some brighter patches and a bit of blue sky breaking through now and again.  It's appreciably colder than of late.

I didn't manage to get up to Low Birkwith yesterday but will do so early this week.  I should hear about the grant one way or another sometime this week.  If the answer is no then I will try other grant sources such as the Aggregate Levy.  It's one of the advantages of living cheek by jowl to a quarry but the application process is a nightmare since you have to answer a whole range of gender, age and ethnicity questions.  As a club we do pretty well on age but I'm not sure that Lancastrians count as ethnic minorities even up here in God's own county.  Still it's worth a try if the YDMT can't help.

Ian

    We had quite a lot of rain here last night and as a consequence the river is up a bit this morning.  It's still not ideal for salmon but it looks as if we might get more rain today so Monday may well see some good conditions.

I have it in mind take a wander up to Nanny Carr's this afternoon to do a proper survey of the line of the proposed buffer fence.  It's a good opportunity to do some detailed planning so that, if we are successful with the grant application, we can get started quickly with a firm idea of how the work should be done and the exact line the fence will take.  It's a fairly complex bit of fencing in places because at some point it will have to cross Cam Beck and how this is done will require some thought given the height that the beck can reach in a good spate.

I will take some photo's of the site and post these up later to give a better idea of the scope of the project, but the map I've just posted in the "conservation" folder gives the location and extent of the fence.  Comments from members would be very welcome. 

Ian

    It's a stunning morning here in the valley.  Early on we had a mist down on the river that gradually thinned as it climbed the hills and gave a soft almost iridescent light as the sun broke through.  Add a heavy dew and crisp feel to the air and you have an almost perfect autumn morning.  All it needed was the smell of wood smoke and cooking bacon. Wonderful.

We had a classic illustration yesterday afternoon of the principle that in game fishing the only true theory about catching fish is that there is no true theory.  Alan Maden dropped by to catch up with things, tell me about his trip to Lewis and try the river for a sea trout.  A great time was had by all on Lewis with a good bag of salmon and sea trout, much good company and a dolphin experience of a lifetime.  About an hour after he left me Alan was back to tell of the 6 and a half pound cock salmon he had just landed by the rock pool.  Now, the river is low with very little flow and one would have thought that the chance of a salmon on that water would be nil.  Yet, there it was, in good condition and ready to take a fly intended for a sea trout. It just goes to show - you never know!

It's the last day of the trout season today but if we get some rain soon then the river will still be worth a try for  salmon until the 31st and of course the Tarn has only been stocked with rainbows this year so remains open until October 31st.

Ian

    It's a cracking morning here in the valley.  Just a high, light covering of cloud with plenty of diffuse sun and a very light breeze.  The river is still a bit on the low side but conditions are not bad for the final trouting days of the season.

The first fallen leaves are now on the pastures round the house and it really feels like autumn has begun especially as the sloe gin got made yesterday and put down for Christmas.

I can't remember seeing for many years such a crop of berries and fruit on the trees as we have now.  A walk up the river is brightened on even the dullest day by the burning bushes that are the rowans and may trees.  They seem almost overburdened with berries and hawes.  The same is true of my damson tree, enough this year for several bottles of wine.

I'm not sure what the reason is for this super abundance.  Maybe it was the hot, dry summer following the very wet spring and wet back end.  Whatever the reason the dales really do look a picture now and any one contemplating a salmon fishing trip next week should bring a camera.  When the salmon aren't there there will always be plenty to photograph.

I was sorely tempted this week by a property advert for a croft in the far north west of Skye.  6 acres, a trout stream, two building plots, 35 goats, grazing rights on 1000 acres of the Glendale estate, a three bedroomed Victorian house and views to kill for, all for £300k.  Very, very tempting!

Ah well, back to the real world.

Ian