It's the Hot Pot Supper tonight at the Crown hotel and as I reported a few days ago we seem to have a goodly number attending so it should be an enjoyable and convivial evening.  Sandra's Hot Pots are renowned.  Full of meat and spuds and a real trencherman's supper.  By 10pm tonight waistbands will be tight and the 'crack' should be in full flow.

So is the river!  It's far from in spate, but we had a surprising amount of rain yesterday which has brought a decent flow to the river and should make it worthwhile bringing a rod for those staying over and planning to fish for salmon tomorrow.  It's started very foggy and damp this morning so the flow should not fall off too quickly.  It's incredibly warm for mid October and I worked up quite a glow mucking out and milking this morning.

I had a couple of emails from David M following our chat on Wednesday and I'm sure that David won't mind me sharing one with you as it intrigued me and may be of interest to others.
David writes:

If you want well known Manchester Anglers J Arthur Hutton is one of them. Joined 1884 and died Feb 1955.
He wrote several books including salmon fishing on the Wye (Abervergeny etc) and  his book on reading salmon scales to determine the life of the fish was most celebrated . This was published about 1909 and the ideas were mainly his own. Just looking now the book he presented to the M.A.A. is up for sale on the web. I never had the pleasure of rowing him round the Tarn but I did meet him from time to time but only as a youth tagging on to the great and the good of the club.

He was about the only angler who was talked about with "reverence" when I was young.You did not laugh and joke when he was around perhaps this was because he was above eighty.

I had a look at the book on the web.  It's available at only £20 and is probably part of the old MAA library.

Here are the details for anyone who might consider buying it:

Hereward Books (www.herewardbooks.co.uk)

Hutton J Arthur Salmon Scales As Indicative Of The Life History Of The Fish £20.00   1909. 1st. 14 plates, some foxing to contents, printed card covers, small circular paper label to top corner margin, Manchester Anglers Assoc. [12591]

The thought struck me that it might be possible to apply Hutton's techniques to the scales of our large trout which some believe are sea trout.  This might settle once and for all the question of whether these big fish are always resident in the river or are migratory fish which return from the Ribble estuary.

See some of you tonight.

Ian