Gosh, the first of September already.  Where on earth has this season gone?  It's certainly rather autumnal here this morning with the river in full spate for the first time since March.  We had a lot of rain in the night, but it's a wee bit brighter now and looks showery rather than really threatening.

One thing is for certain, the salmon are in the river and should find their way to Horton on the falling flood.  I am pleased to say that the first salmon of the autumn run was landed yesterday at Row End by Alan Maden.  This was a 7lb cock fish in good condition and was safely returned to add his genes to the Ribble gene pool.  Alan also got 8 healthy wild brownies of around a pound and a half.  There is nothing that gladdens a keeper more than reports that "his" river is healthy and showing good returns for an afternoon's fishing.

Any fishing on the river today will be a challenge until the flood drops and with more heavy rain forecast for tomorrow don't expect conditions to be ideal until Sunday afternoon at the earliest.

Ian