Not for the first time am I very glad that I manage a game fishery in the hills of west Craven.  I read a report yesterday that course fishery managers in more populated areas are having a very difficult time with east European migrant workers who seem to regard any open water as a free larder.  Groups have been stopped with dustbins full of chub, carp and roach and fisheries are losing thousands of pounds in lost stock.  Here in Britain we have lost our taste for these fish whereas in the middle ages every village had its fishpond and course fish were an essential part of the staple diet.  The monks regarded fish as a vital part of the monastery economy and there were very stiff penalties for anyone caught poaching the fish.  Perhaps that's the solution to the current problem.  We need to set up public stocks in every Town and village and anyone caught poaching should be placed in them and pelted with rotten fish?

This run of fine weather continues, it's a little more cloudy this morning, but there is plenty of sun and very little breeze.  Of course the lack of rain since Thursday means that the river has dropped from its best, but there is still some good water for trout fishing on the main pools.

The prospective member that Alan M brought up on Sunday had a very successful day and landed eight fish working up to Rowe End.  He went away with a very favourable impression of the river and a commitment to join the club so a successful day.

I didn't manage to get down to the hatchery yesterday, but am going to do so as soon as I finish writing this.  I will take the rake down just in case there is sufficient water coming down the channel to provide a good enough flush to wash out the gravel.  If not it will have to wait until we next get rain.

Ian

What a cracking morning!  Rather too bright for good fishing, but what a nice change it makes to have some sun at last.  The stiff north westerly that kept temperatures down yesterday has dropped and we have some high white and fluffy cloud to add a bit of interest to a sapphire blue sky.

I'm planning to go down to the hatchery this morning to rake through the spawning gravel to get rid of the silt that accumulated when the pipe was first opened.  This is is essential if the trout eggs that we hope will be laid here this winter are to thrive in an open, oxygen rich environment.  The only snag is stopping the silt from washing down into he pond where the fry are, but a slate across the inlet should prevent most of the material getting in.

Peter M rang me last evening to tell me that a 10lb salmon was caught (possibly at Rowe End) and released by a member on Friday.  He was actually fishing for trout with a small river rod, light tackle and a very small fly so was pretty stunned when the rod was almost yanked out of his hand by a strong take.  The fish was silver and in very good condition.  We thought that salmon were here at Horton and here is the proof.

A slight departure from the usual fishing theme now, but I know that some members are quite artistic and computer literate and I came across a software program quite by chance a few days ago which I thing could be very addictive.  Just the thing for those long winter evenings when the start of the season seems a lifetime away and you have tied all the flies you are likely to use for the rest of your life.

This program turns pure mathematical equations into stunning graphics only restricted by the limits of your imagination.  It's called Apophysis, is very simple to use and runs what are known as flame fractals.  The software can be found here Apophysis and what's best of all it's free!  Just go to the site that opens in the link and download the file called Apophysis 2.02, don't bother with the beta versions they are still under test.  Version 2.02 works perfectly.  There is an excellent tutorial here Arcane Fractals that will have you creating images like nothing you have ever seen before in just a few minutes.  Be careful, the damn thing is seriously addictive.

Have fun.

Ian

It's a glorious morning here in the valley with plenty of sun and some high broken fluffy cloud.  It's a bit chill in a light north wind, but it looks set to remain fair for the rest of the day.

I'm just back from an early foray to the Tarn and was reluctant to come away as it's really looking its best in the sunshine with the water rippling in the breeze and reflecting the light in dancing patterns.  The swans still have their two cygnets which seem to be growing well and look quite lively. 

The whole valley seems to have suddenly come alive this morning with farmers up and down the river hastily cutting grass for haylage.  Conditions are almost perfect with a good drying breeze and plenty of sun.  There should be plenty of bottom on the grass after all the rain of the past two months so provided that we get some settled weather over the next few days there should be plenty of good fodder for the winter.  It's amazing how much both cows and sheep seem to love haylage despite its unappetising look and smell.  I tried my goats on it last year and they seemed to prefer it to sweet hay.  It's a Godsend up here as it is so much easier to make than hay which needs so many consecutive days of fine weather to cure properly.

The water level on the river has dropped appreciably overnight, but it's still quite fishable which is good as Alan M is taking a prospective member for a tour of the fishery later this morning.

Ian

It's a much better morning with plenty of sun and fluffy white cloud driven on by a stiff westerly breeze. It still looks a bit showery, but conditions for fishing should be good on a falling river sheltered from the wind.  It looks as if we shall avoid the heavy rain forecast for tomorrow so Sunday fishing should be OK.

I said yesterday that I would talk a bit more about a new threat to our native crayfish.  This comes in the form of another alien species of crayfish the marbled crayfish.  This creature not only carries the dreaded plague that has so devastated our native species, but it is hermaphrodite so it only takes one animal to begin a population.  The problem is further compounded by the fact that the beast can breed at 8 weeks so it does not take long for it to overwhelm all suitable habitats and drive out any native population present. 

It would seem that despite import being illegal the animal has entered the country via the aquarium trade and is being released because it soon overpopulates any aquarium tank

So far all recorded sightings of this pest have been in the far south, but like the red signal, once established in the wild it will not take long for it to colonise all suitable habitats.  It would be prudent to keep a close watch for any suspected populations and the info below may help in identifying it.

It's illegal to import this creature or release it into the wild so if you do come across it it must be humanely destroyed.

Hope this helps

Ian

So much for showery weather yesterday.  By mid morning we had  a fair deluge that kept me trapped in the hut long after the students left.  Still, it was more than pleasant to sit in the warmth from the stove and chew the fat with Peter M and the venerable member.

Despite the atrocious weather the course went very well with another large group of highly motivated students who processed a very large number of native crayfish.  We had nearly a hundred in the 14 traps that Paul set out on Wednesday.  These were large, healthy individuals which reinforced the findings we got on Monday that the population at the Tarn is thriving.  One of the traps produced a surprise, a 1.5lb rainbow trout.  Whether this had entered the trap after the crayfish or had been attracted by the mackerel bait in the trap I cannot say, but there it was looking extremely peeved and a bit ragged round the fins after a night spent confined in the trap.  It was uncooperative when I tried to release it and insisted on attempting to return through the funnel back the way it came in.  It was eventually persuaded to leave by a better route and after a brief rest to recover it swam off without a word of thanks. If anyone catches a medium sized fish with ragged pectorals you know who it is and where its been!

Paul mentioned to me a disturbing situation from down south which may have a devastating long term impact on out native crayfish.  More on this tomorrow after I have had time to read up on the situation and can get a good picture to show what the problem looks like.

We have a cloudy and very blustery morning here in the valley and a river that is quite high and coloured after all the rain that fell yesterday.  The forecast for the weekend is promising though and there should be good conditions on the river as it falls and clears during today.

Ian

I like getting nice surprises, those little unexpected and chance discoveries that give your spirits a bit of a lift.  For a long while I have been looking out for a copy of Isaak Walton's classic on fishing "The Complete Angler" and on the way to Askrig on Tuesday we stopped off in Hawes to browse the market and get some lunch.  Whilst there we dropped into the village hall where there is a regular book sale and I came across a reprint of Isaak's work in almost new condition.  What makes this a particularly nice find is that it's illustrated by Arthur Rackham who has been a favourite illustrator of mine since I was a child and was given a copy of Anderson's tales with Rackham illustrations.  The book is a facsimile copy of a 1931 reprint of the fifth edition of 1676 and is lavishly illustrated with colour plates.  A great find.

The weather here this morning is showery and dull, not perfect conditions for our students to learn how to handle crayfish, but it should be an enjoyable morning non the less.  The river is still a bit on the low side as the rain we had yesterday morning gave over pretty quickly to give a fine bright day.

David H fished the Tarn with his son all afternoon and things were slow until the last hour when they began catching with virtually every cast on dry fly.  One strong take broke a 3 lb line so watch out for Moby Dick!

Ian

It's chucking it down here at present under a pretty leaden sky, but the forecast is for showers later so maybe it will pick up a bit as the day matures.

The river had got surprisingly low by yesterday afternoon and Brian S and his wife who fished most of the day had a fairly thin time.  All the rain this morning will bring levels up appreciably so, given a bit of decent weather, conditions tomorrow should be better.

Paul is coming up today to set traps for the course tomorrow.  Anyone planning to fish the Tarn can be reassured that disturbance will be minimal.  The traps will be at the top end only with two sets off the boathouse, two sets on each cross wall and a set between the boathouse and the southern cross wall.  Ian W had no problem landing a 2lb+ fish whilst the students were working on Monday and since they will only be there between 11am and 1 pm they should cause minimal interference.

I went up to Askrig yesterday to show Sheila's brother and his family the falls.  There was very good water coming down the Ure certainly enough to encourage salmon to run high up the river, but we saw nothing in the half hour or so that we were by the river.

The really bad news this morning is that the CLA Game Fair which was to be held at Harewood House this weekend has been cancelled.  It seems that the very heavy rain that fell at Leeds on Friday finally defeated the valiant attempts of the organisers to keep the show ground fit for the thousands of people expected to attend.  This will be a devastating blow for all the businesses that were relying on the exposure they would get at the show and will cost local business an estimated £50 million in lost income.  Another victim of this dreadful summer.

To end on a rather brighter note there is a large family of swallows perched on the power line outside my office window looking in at me with some curiosity.  They at least have found the damp weather beneficial and have bred well this summer.

Ian

The morning began here bright, sunny and almost cloudless, but it's now beginning to cloud up a bit.  Still, the river looks very inviting with a fairly good flow which is pretty clear after no rain for about 48 hours.  Levels are dropping quickly so anyone planning to fish is better off doing so today unless we get more rain later.

We had a good morning checking crayfish at the Tarn yesterday with a large and enthusiastic group of students.  They came fro a wide range of backgrounds including the EA, British Waterways, private consultancies and MOD Estates.

I did my usual short piece about the importance of conservation and natural methods for maintaining and improving the river ecosystem and the work that the club is doing to ensure that our wild trout have a future in sufficient numbers to ensure that our members can catch fish.

I think that they learnt a lot, they certainly saw plenty of native crayfish.  The 14 traps produced about 50 very healthy animals covering a good range of sizes of both male and female and a hand check of the margins picked up some juveniles as well so our local population continues to thrive.  Paul has a repeat performance on Thursday with a new group and it will be interesting to compare those results with what was found by the first group.

Ian

It tuned out to be quite a pleasant day yesterday, in fact so much so that Mrs F and I walked up from Helwith Bridge to Dale Head to survey Long Lane for the Parish Council.  The problem here is 4x4 off roaders and trail bikers who wish to see Long Lane registered as a BOAT (byway open to all traffic).  For anyone who knows it this track is a tranquil green lane that presents a wonderful view of Pen y Ghent as you get towards Dale Head and provides a classic route up its eastern flank.  It's heavily used as part of the Pennine Way and provides a super Sunday walk.  What we were looking for was evidence as to why this route should remain a bridle way and not be trashed by the off road brigade.  Its tranquillity so close to the main Horton road and the village itself is really the telling point and Sheila now has to write a submission to the National Park which can be considered at the forthcoming Public Enquiry.  Fingers crossed.

Mike H had a good morning on the Tarn and stopped by to show me the 4lb plus rainbow he caught during the late morning session after the sun came out.  A really nice fish, a bit ragged on the tail fin, but in very good condition.

Crayfish Paul stopped by in the evening after setting the canary trap up at Ling Gill and putting 14 traps in the Tarn ready for the crayfish monitoring programme this morning.  We can now only wait and see whether the trap at Ling Gill returns a positive or negative response for plague.  We are taking a group of 15 students to the Tarn this morning to check the traps and record the contents.  Again fingers crossed that our population of these endangered crustaceans are still thriving at Horton.

I will report what we find tomorrow.

Ian

I'm just back from a quick visit to the Tarn to check on the cygnets, the water quality and take the fishing returns for last week.  All looks good with both cygnets alive and growing well, water quality very good and catches well up since we stocked on Tuesday.

A couple of members beat me to it this morning and were already out in the boat looking for an elusive rise on what is so far a still, overcast and rather gloomy morning.  No sign of the promised sun yet, but at least it's not raining (yet).

I came across an article yesterday about a international course fishing championship which is being televised.  Now, I may be fairly ignorant when it comes to course fish, but it's never really struck me as the most absorbing of spectator sports yet the picture shows a gallery of what must be hundreds of people busy watching a small group of fishermen anxiously watching worms drowning.  Where do we go from here? perhaps televised national synchronised meditation or formation day dreaming competitions?

Ian

Guess what?  It's raining here at Horton.  Not the monsoon that has left much of the midlands looking like a Vietnamese paddy field but a steady irritating drizzle that seems to get through everything given time and leaves you feeling like a damp sponge.

I hope it improves during the week as I'm off to the CLA Game Fair at Harewood House on either Friday or Sunday depending on which day looks as if it might be less damp.  This is one of the largest country sports events in the world and is well worth a visit.  I was immensely impressed with the organisation when it was last at Harewood a few years ago.  The signposting to the event is exemplary, parking is easy and even if you don't have an advanced ticket, the gates seem to work very efficiently to get people in quickly.

And once in the show ground you need at least a day to work round everything that there is to see and do.  The fishing village alone will take a morning or more to do justice with all the big equipment makers represented as well as organisations such as the Wild Trout Trust and Salmon & Trout Association.  To cap it all you can win prizes with your casting technique (or maybe not if you cast like me).

The whole event is a celebration of the rural way of life which is increasingly under threat from a Government that's indifferent to rural issues and an urban population which regards the countryside as some sort of glorified theme park.

So take yourself along at the weekend and experience the very best that the English sporting countryside has to offer.

We had the Horton School end of term barbecue last evening which was a pretty soggy affair, but after the fist bottle of Chablis the rain no longer seems quite so wet, good food and good company soon warm the spirit.  It's quite uplifting to see just how easily Horton folk adapt any event to accommodate even the worst weather and I spent a good half hour talking to Neil Handy about the hatchery under a leaking umbrella that blew inside out at least twice.  Up here weather just seems to be something that happens in the background whilst you concentrate on having a great time.

Ian

We have a return to overcast and slightly damp conditions here this morning with copious quantities of midge just to add a bit of spice.

It seems that river fishing was a bit of a challenge yesterday made no easier by a small furry audience.  Peter M emailed me to say that he fished down by Penny Bridge in the morning and got 2 fine wild fish in fairly coloured water.  Whilst so engaged he heard a loud splash and turned expecting to see a salmon.  What he saw instead gives me the job for the day as two mink sat on the bank watching him with some interest. Eventually they crossed the river and disappeared down stream possibly joined by a third.  I will set a trap near the bridge and see if I can remove these predators.

Later, Peter went up to Selside and fished dry and wet fly in combinations of patterns but saw not a sign of a fish.  A bit worrying this since we have spent so much time, money and effort in trying to raise the wild trout population here.  Maybe the conditions just weren't right or, as Peter says, someone needs to teach him how to fish the river here.  I doubt that it's the latter as he is a thoughtful, experienced and astute fisherman.

Ian

    Here is Neil putting the first young brown trout into the rearing pond at Horton for 60 years.  There were about 40 fish in all, most around 2 inches and we will now just have to be patient as we wait to see how they get on.  It will be fascinating and not a little worrying as we wait to see if any wild fish find the channel this winter and successfully spawn.  Only time and a great deal of patience will tell if this project is going to be the success that it deserves to be.

The children came up to watch and asked a lot of very perceptive and intelligent questions. They really do seem to have become attached to their young fish and were fascinated by the thought that they may grow on to be over a foot long simply feeding on flies and other invertebrates.

The plan is to set the hatching tank up in the School again this winter since the children had so much enjoyment and success in rearing their first brood of young trout.  It all bodes well for a healthy future for our wild brown trout.

It's not a bad morning so far with some sun and quite a bit of scattered high cloud.  It's warm with a very light breeze and there is still plenty of water on the river so our usual Thursday contingent should have a rewarding day.

Ian

It looks as if we shall have  a mixed bag sort of a day.  It started bright and sunny, but there is a lot of threatening cloud about and heavy showers are forecast.  It's warm and there is very little wind so between the showers fishing should be good on a river that was replenished with a good drop of rain in the night.

I'm off down to the hatchery in a moment to help Neil introduce the School fry to the new tank.  The older children at the School are coming up to watch and this will be quite an event as these are the first fish to go in here for 60 years.  More on this and perhaps some pictures tomorrow.

We stocked the Tarn yesterday with 200 very fit looking rainbows.  All these fish were between 1.5 and 2 lb with a hand full of bigger brutes at about 3.5 lb just to add a bit of spice to the fishing.  They swam off well and seemed to get the idea of feeding themselves quite quickly as the surface of the Tarn soon became peppered with rises.  It will be interesting to see what impact these new fish have on success rates over the next few days.

Ian

I took the sampling net down to the hatchery yesterday lunchtime and did a very quick foot square kick sample in the gravel in the new spawning channel.  The results are encouraging and show a good population of bugs already established.  Above the tank inlets I found 5+ Heptagenia, 10+ Baetidae and a lonely Gammarid as well as a lot of midge larvae.  Below the tank the results were lower, but the amount of silt in the gravel increases on the lower length of the channel and I suspect that if this were flushed out the results would improve over time. 

Of course, any bugs found in the substrate above the tanks is also likely to be present in the tanks themselves so there should be plenty of food available for the growing fry when we introduce them later this week.

I had a call from Crayfish Paul last evening who tells me that he is running his annual crayfish course at Malham next week.  The plan is to set traps in the Tarn on Sunday ready for the students when they come up on Tuesday.  There will be a repeat of the course later in the week so we should have students up at the Tarn again on Thursday morning checking the traps and recording the number and health of our native crayfish.  This annual check is invaluable in helping us to monitor this vital population of white clawed crayfish which are now becoming so scarce elsewhere in England.

Talking of creatures becoming scarce, I read yesterday that the Scots are very worried about their east coast salmon population.  It would seem that the numbers of fish entering the great salmon waters of the Tweed, Spey and Tay are well down this year despite very good water on all these rivers.  The concern is that overfishing out at sea is having a dramatic effect on the grilse which should now be making their way back to spawn for the first time.  This contrasts with experience on this west flowing river which seems to be doing fairly well salmon wise at present.  We had a pretty good end of season last year despite not having any water for most of the summer and conditions this year could not be better.  Plenty of salmon have been seen lower down the Ribble and Neil is certain that there are a good number of fish already up at Horton.  When the water clears a bit I must go salmon spotting again.

Ian

Well, we didn't get the violent storms and the deluge yesterday that the forecast promised.  What we did get was a strong north west wind and a fairly steady drizzle that has kept up the level on the river, but not brought it into spate.  It's still a bit coloured this morning , but will clear during the day as it's fairly settled and bright here this morning with just a gentle north east breeze.  It's a good deal warmer than of late so we might even see a fly hatch this afternoon.

We spent a very enlightening hour with Neil at the Hatchery after lunch yesterday.  He is abuzz with ideas about how we might use the place and very keen to get things going quickly since the high water has brought in a lot of bug life to the spawning gravels and the two tanks.  He plans to put the remaining fry from the school into the main tank during this week and I will give him a hand as the plan is to take the children up to the site to watch.  This really is a most impressive piece of work that Neil has brought into being.  Even if only one or two fish find their way up into the spawning channel then the potential for increased wild fish numbers is huge.  Given that a mature trout will lay up to 8 thousand eggs if only 10% of these survive to swim up stage then we have increased the population by 800 fish and given that most of these fry will wash down into the tank where they can feed on free from predation then a very high percentage of this 800 should make it through to adulthood. 

The plan is to make up some covers using permeable membrane that's commonly used for ground cover. This will allow some light and air through but keep out most UV that causes algae build up and deter feathered and furred predators.  We only need to cover part of the tank to provide a refuge and can use the spare scaffold poles that are currently taking up space behind the boathouse at the Tarn.

All this is very much an experiment as we don't really know how the site will perform, whether the fish will find the channel or whether the tanks can sustain a growing population of fish without artificial feeding.  The aim is to interfere here as little as possible and allow a natural cycle to develop where fish come into the channel to spawn, fry wash down into the main tank and are then free to either grow on in the tank or drop out of the outlet into the main beck. 

It will be great fun experimenting, watching and learning over the next few years.  There is no other facility like it in the country and what is done here will be unique and will teach us much about creating a self sustaining fishery.

Of course, there is also the crayfish side of the project and the plan here again is to put a few adults in at the back end of this summer to see how they respond to the new habitat.  As for re-stocking the river, Paul Bradley is planning to set some canary traps at the foot of Ling Gill and then test the occupants for evidence of plague.  If he gets a negative result then plans can be made to begin placing a few native crayfish at suitable sites up and down the river.

By pure chance all this comes exactly 60 years since the last fish were taken from the old MAA hatchery in 1947 and I think that our founding fathers who invested so much in the site would be fascinated and pleased by what is now being done.


Ian

What a smashing morning.  It's warm, still and the high smear of cloud is giving us plenty of diffused sunshine.  The conditions here for fishing are near perfect with plenty of clear water on the river and some good rises on the Tarn.  I'm just back from the usual early Sunday foray to the Tarn and the good news is that both cygnets are doing well and seem to have cottoned on pretty quickly that the presence of an upright ape descendant often means food.  They came scuttling across the water as I arrived by the hut closely followed by a very attentive cob showing off by running on the water.

The forecast for later is pretty dismal with the threat of heavy rain and localised thunder storms.  I hope these keep off until we have been down to the hatchery this afternoon as there is very little shelter on Brants Gill.  It will be interesting to find out what specific plans Neil has for bringing both the hatchery and crayfish refuge into operation.  It all looks impressive with the off line spawning channel flowing strongly over a clean gravel bed and the tanks looking clear and well filled.  The area could do with a bit of tarting up to level out some of the spoil heaps and clear up around the tanks so if Neil is OK with this I may have a crack at a general tidy up later this week weather permitting.

I'll report back tomorrow.

Ian

Two words sum up the conditions here this morning - wet & windy.  It's rained all night and the river is now bank full and running dark so fishing is really not an option this morning.

We were due to stock the Tarn today, but I have just rung the farm and postponed delivery until early next week as there is a very good chance that the pick up will bog down in Tarn pasture given the sodden state of the ground after so much rain.  The fish are ready, all around the 2lb mark, so we will get them put in as soon as conditions permit.  Who would think that you would have to postpone a July stocking due to the wet?  Still, its the way this summer(?) has gone.

The Secretary and I are due to meet Neil H at the hatchery tomorrow to discuss plans for stocking the pond with fry and to talk about fitting anti predator covers if these become necessary.  The one good outcome from this incredibly wet summer is the good flushing that the hatchery has had which will remove the toxins from the concrete.  The plan is to introduce some of the remaining fry from the School tank and see how they get on.

Of course I didn't manage to get any riverfly sampling done yesterday, it was far too wet and by mid afternoon the river was too high to safely wade with the net.  I am determined to do a sample this coming week and Tuesday currently looks to be a brighter day so that will be my aim.

Ian

It never ceases to amaze me just how local the weather can be in this valley.  Yesterday was pretty miserable here with a steady drizzle falling all day.  But, late morning I had to go to Skipton and just below Stainforth the drizzle lifted and we even had a bit of sun.  At Skipton it was relatively warm and quite dry.  Coming back later we ran into heavy murk again just outside Stainforth so it seems that Horton had been sitting under its own cloud bank all day. I'm not sure what the parish has done to incur the wrath of the weather Gods, but it would be nice if they relented since it's still grey, damp and gloomy this morning.

My plan is to try to do a quick invertebrate check later today.  I have been threatening this all week, but time just seems to have slipped away again.  A quick check on the cygnets is also planned for this afternoon so more on this tomorrow.

Ian

Its dawned rather damp and gloomy here this morning with a persistent fine drizzle soaking the meadows and pastures.  It has more of a nuisance value than any practical use in raising the river level, but since there is still good water to be found on most lengths fishing should still be OK by the weekend.  We are promised much heavier precipitation tomorrow.

A church packed to overflow gave Marma a fine send off into the hereafter yesterday and Roger the vicar gave a fine eulogy that captured the essence of a great farmer and countryman, laced with humour and conjuring for many inner visions and memories of encounters with Marma over the years.

We then filled the Golden Lion to drink to his memory and the wake was still in full swing when we left at well past four.

As a consequence not much got done yesterday apart from transporting a yellow may dun from New Inn to Newhouses.  This had taken up residence on the dashboard of the Nissan and seemed quite happy sunbathing rather than seeking a mate on the water.  Goddard tells us that these fly are not of especial interest to anglers as their hatch is to sporadic to be of much interest to the fish, but I do seem to see quite a lot of them on this river so maybe they are a Ribble delicacy?

Ian

The cygnets were taken for their first swimming lesson yesterday afternoon and both returned safely to the nest where the pen resumed sitting on the remaining four eggs so she presumably still believes that these are viable.  It was slow work at the Tarn with very few rises and the only fish caught were on sedge tied with deer hair.  I have currently an almost inexhaustible supply of goat hair which is similar to deer hair but not quite so buoyant.  I have left a bag of the stuff in the hut so please help yourselves.  My very hairy goat has decided that now is the time to moult and is pursuing this objective with some considerable vigour.  As a consequence we are all up to our knees in shed hair and the goat is now several dress sizes smaller.

During the deluge early last week I noticed that the boathouse roof has a substantial leak in it where the felt tore last winter.  I have attempted to fix this with roofing tape which bonds tightly to the felt.  We will see how successful this is when next it rains which the forecast tells us will be Friday.

Turning to the river, Geoff B tells me that he spotted a kingfisher below the village at the weekend and also saw a 14 pound salmon so we now know for certain that there are migratory fish on the fishery.

It's Marma White's funeral today at 12 noon and it would seem that virtually the whole parish will be there to give him a good send off.  A fitting tribute to a fine countryman who will be very deeply missed by everyone who knew or met him.


It's heavily overcast this morning with a light westerly drifting the clouds along.  The forecast is reasonable with only showers predicted and a chance that it will brighten by lunchtime.  The river is now fairly low, but still fishable on the pools.

Ian

As you can see, the swans now have two cygnets on the nest with four eggs remaining to hatch.  The pen still seems inclined to sit so I'm hopeful that these too will prove viable and we shall have a good brood of cygnets.  The challenge then is to get them to survive to the point where they fledge.  It doesn't often happen here.

Whilst searching for something else I cam across a fascinating article In New Scientist that suggests that fish, like humans, can process information and perhaps emotions on different sides of the brain.  Scientists working in Edinburgh and Sydney have carried out experiments that show that fish growing up in the wild amongst predators use their left eye to look at novel objects while their offspring raised in captivity use the right eye.  This suggests that life experiences can affect which side of the brain fish use and even, so one scientist suggests, that they have emotional mindsets  since different sides of the brain may correspond to a curious or suspicious attitude.

There are differences of opinion amongst scientists about this subject with some claiming that it's a matter of inherited preference , but most agree that  there is strong evidence that fish learn to use different hemispheres of the brain according to environmental influences.

So what does this mean for fishermen?  Well, I would suggest that since nearly all our fish are now wild stock they will most likely be using the left eye to watch out for novel objects so placing your fly to drift down into the left field of view of a feeding fish rather than to the right or on to its nose may result in greater success.

Have fun experimenting!

It's a glorious morning here with plenty of sun, no wind and a high smear of cloud to diffuse the light.  The river has dropped appreciably over the past couple of days, but it's still in good form and fishable on all the pools and deeper runs.

Ian

We have another rather nice start this morning.  It's warm with broken cloud and some sun.  Showers are forecast, but nothing significant and the river is looking at its best.

I went up to the Tarn yesterday morning to check around, take the weekly water readings and fishing returns.  The good news to report is that the swans have hatched a cygnet.  Just one from the six eggs so far, but the pen is still sitting so I'm hopeful that more will hatch from this clutch.  The cob is now very protective and clearly not happy about me getting too close, but he does seem to lack the killer instinct of some of his kind so maybe this is the root cause of why this pair lose so many offspring.  They are just not aggressive enough.

Ian

Wonders will never cease!  Its dawned bright and sunny here this morning with only a light breeze to shift the high fluffy cloud that's giving a softness to the light.  The river is falling quickly now as we had no rain yesterday, but it's still very fishable.

I was reading an article yesterday evening about one of our rarest fish, a relic of the ice age and a cousin of the trout which inhabits some of our deep, cold northern lakes.  It seems that the arctic char faces an uncertain future despite having been present in lakes such as Conniston for thousands of years.  The problem would appear to be rising temperatures rather than degradation of habitat.  Scientists have monitored conditions at these waters for decades and have found evidence of a steady increase in water temperature over the past 70 years.  This rise is about 1 - 2 degrees c which doesn't sound much, but is enough to drive the char into deeper water so constraining the extent of their preferred habitat.

Mind you, my own observations of salmonid species suggests that they might be a little more temperature tolerant than the text books tell us, but I suspect that they can't cope with a sustained rise in temperature or lowering of oxygen saturation.

Is this really further evidence of a human driven rise in global temperature as Al Gore would have us believe or just part of a natural temperature cycle which is now near its peak?  My own take on this for what it's worth is that the cause of the rise in world temperatures is far more complex than commentators would have us believe and that natural phenomena such as solar activity play a major part and cannot be controlled by us.  Having said that, it clearly makes sense to me for us all to be efficient and frugal in our use of energy.  We waste a lot which is economically senseless, but we don't need to revert to a peasant economy as some would have us believe to "save the planet".  What really annoys me is the way in which anyone who questions the rigour of the science behind the claim that man's actions are principally to blame for the change in climate is labelled as a "denier" and the population swallows every cataclysmic announcement from the climate change lobby without proper analysis of the full range of facts.  The trouble is that science teaching in schools is now so far down the curriculum that youngsters don't have the skill to do their own research and draw sensible conclusions.  Thanks Mr Shore for first rate Secondary Modern general science teaching that encouraged me to question everything and experiment to find answers (sometimes even the right ones).

Ian

It seems that i am going to have to rethink my idea for protecting the swans.  I had thought that a floating island to provide a refuge away from the fox would help to ensure that the cygnets reached a stage where they were no longer vulnerable, but yesterday's papers were full of pictures of a vixen which has taken to swimming for eggs.

No sooner had I finished reading about this aquatic fox than Peter M sent me a similar article with pictures which show the vixen swimming out to an island on a lake to collect goose eggs for her cubs.  It seems that she manages to get them back whole by carrying them in her mouth so, to some at least, water is no barrier. I have heard of foxes taking to water to throw the hounds off the scent, but never one which swam to collect food.  The more we learn about wildlife the more there is to know.

Apart from a shower a few minutes ago it hasn't rained for about 12 hours now, a record for the past fortnight.  Consequently the river is coming off the flood and looks in very good shape.  Despite the waterlogged land it's surprising how fast the flow drops off once the rain stops.  Whilst out with Alan M on Thursday the level fell by about 2 inches in the 2 hours we were on the river.  That's the problem with being so high up in the catchment we seem to pass our water on very quickly to those who don't really need it or appreciate it down on the flood plain.  It seems to me that the more bank side vegetation we can encourage to grow the better we can hold some of the run off back for a slower release.  This would ease flooding lower down and keep a higher flow here for longer.  There is a lot of unfenced river north of Cam Beck where the waters gather.  We will just have to see what can be done here over the next few years.

Ian

I spent the morning yesterday with Alan M in pursuit of salmon and sea trout between Row End and Parker's Wood.  Whilst this endeavour was unsuccessful in terms of its intended quarry it was very enlightening about the state of the brown trout stock.  Alan had a number of takes by fish which represented a wide range of ages and sizes all of which were judged to be wild trout.  The smallest looked to be a yearling in super condition and fighting fit.  The largest was about a pound and a half, again a beautiful fish with a deep gold belly and vivid spots.  This is heartening as it shows that there is a good population of wild fish here across a wide range of ages.  This is a beat that has been heavily stocked in the past, but we found no evidence of these fish surviving.  More encouragingly we found good evidence that wild fish are here in large numbers.  The evidence is not conclusive, but it does suggest that our current policy of not importing stock to the river is working and there are plenty of wild fish to be sought.

In the evening I took young Steven up to the Tarn as a thank you for all the hard work he has done at Cam Beck helping to build the access gate and erect the fence on the west bank of the river.  We met Gavin P there just as he landed the only fish that came to the hook all evening.  This was hardly surprising as within 10 minutes of our arrival we had another of those deluges that have been a feature of the weather here for the past couple of weeks.  I retreated to the hut to steam gently in front of the stove and draw up designs for an ark whist our intrepid piscators got wetter and wetter.  After half an hour even they had had enough as it was becoming difficult to tell where the Tarn finished and the fisherman started so we made a dash for home during a brief respite from the vertical flood.

It continued to rain for most of the night so the river is once more bank full and running coloured.  It's stopped raining for now and is blowing a strong wind from the north, but there is the ever present threat of rain from a heavily overcast sky.  What a wonderful summer!

Ian

It's a bit dryer here this morning after a showery day yesterday so the river is dropping off the flood and the colour is clearing nicely.  Mind you, it's still very cloudy with a freshening westerly breeze so the chances are that we will see yet more rain before the day is out.

If it does stay dry then I plan to take the net down to New Inn this afternoon and do a bankside check on the invertebrates currently populating the river.  It's two months since we last took a look and it will be interesting to see what impact if any the intervening floods have had.  This won't be a particularly thorough or detailed check, we still need to set a date to do another proper survey. 

We have a family reunion scheduled for the end of September which will take place in Devon and one of those planning to attend is my cousin Malcolm who is head of entomology at the Natural History Museum and is in overall charge of the riverfly initiative.  It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the results of surveys across the UK and to see how these compare with our own results. 

Ian

Just after I posted yesterday's blog some very sad news reached me.  Many members will know or will have met Marma White who farms Low Birkwith and always had time for a chat. Marma died suddenly on Monday evening and our thoughts are very much with his family, especially his young brother David who lived and farmed with him and must be devastated.  Marma was a great friend to the club  and a scourge of the mink which move on to the river from time to time.  He was crucial to the work we have just done at Cam Beck.  Without his permission, encouragement and unwavering generosity in donating land the project would never have been contemplated.

His parting leaves a void in my life as we had so many chance meetings at Newhouses and along the river when work would be abandoned and half an hour spent putting a mad world on a better course.  He was one of the first locals to welcome us when we moved to Newhouses and his open, friendly manner totally dispelled any lingering sense we had that we would be treated as "offcumdens" and resented.

The whole community here at Horton is stunned by the suddenness of his passing.  Marma had not enjoyed the best of health for some months, but his condition didn't seem life threatening and he was working, dosing sheep right up to the hour before he died.

Rest easy Marma I will miss you.

Ian

I woke at 5 this morning and so decided to pay an early visit to the Tarn.  Big Mistake!  I spent nearly an hour trapped in the hut by a deluge that seemed to prelude the onset of Noah's flood.  I expected at any minute to see an ark come floating out of the murk complete with bearded prophet and a floating zoo.  Al I got was two very soggy coots and the cob who clearly thought the downpour was all my fault.

It's now stopped raining - just, but the river is in full spate and very coloured so fishing will be virtually impossible until the spate eases and the colour drops out.  The water level in the Tarn is higher that I can ever recall seeing it in summer and is now well over the lower step by the hut.  It's not usually this high in winter.  Still, the quality is currently excellent with a good steady pH just over 8 and a temperature that will do nothing any harm.  It's well oxygenated and when we get a dry spell fish are feeding continuously.

Those of you at the back who were paying attention will recall that I had been asked to write an article for the on-line magazine "Flyfisher's Republic".  Raif Kilips who edits the magazine and website has done me the honour of publishing the article this month and you can find it at http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/tales/nanny-carr/.  There is nothing new here for those who read this blog regularly, but it's a way of showing the wider world just how seriously fishermen regard the state of our rivers and the actions that they are prepared to take to nurture and conserve them.

The need to educate and balance out other opinions was brought home to me again yesterday by a letter in the paper which reflected on the recent floods and resurrected that old (and I thought discredited) practice of dredging and canalising water courses.  This idiot advocated the clearance of all bank side trees and vegetation and the deepening, straightening and scouring of rivers to speed flow.  This was the practice of the old river authorities back in the 60's and 70's and it didn't work You end up with sterile conduits which need constant maintenance and simply transfer the flood problem elsewhere.  Far better to hold the water high in the catchment by allowing the land to act as a natural sponge.  The need is to increase bank side vegetation to slow up the run off and allow the flood to build and dissipate slowly.  Thankfully this seems to be the perceived wisdom of the EA.  Of course, we also have to stop building on flood planes and stop the relentless increase in the plague of homo sapiens which infest this planet, but that's a pretty contentious point of view!  I await the arrival of the "thought police".

Ian

I was in Halifax all day yesterday and whilst we had some heavy showers there it seems that we had nothing compared to the deluge that hit Horton in the afternoon.  Coming back past Settle weir at about 7pm last evening it was apparent that the river was in full spate with a chocolate brown concoction thundering and foaming over the weir and down the fish pass.  At Horton the story was pretty much the same with the river almost over topping the banks at New Inn.  It has rained in torrents again this morning so a trip to the river to day would be futile although the rain seems to have eased off now and the sky is a little brighter.

What these constant floods are doing to the fry stock is any ones guess, but it must be having a detrimental impact on young fish who will find it hard not to be swept away on the spates.  Only time will tell I guess.  It will also be interesting to see how the bugs have fared and when the spate eventually eases (if ever) I will take the net down to New Inn and do a sample to try to get a comparison with what we found back in May.

I plan to go up to Cam Beck this week to see if the floods have damaged the water gate supports or bank side planting since these are still vulnerable and summer spates of this intensity were not part of my original planning.  It all goes to prove that nature (as well as goats) is capricious we we are just puny humans after all when she really wants to let rip.

Ian

A slight departure from things piscatorial this morning as an article in yesterday's paper triggered some thoughts and reflections.  Exactly 20 years ago I read a book whilst sitting in a flat in north London.  This book had a profound effect on my values and the way I live.  It rekindled a fascination with the countryside, the way it works and lives and stirred memories of a childhood spent on the edge of Dartmoor.

The book was the Fox and the Orchid by Robin Page and is an unsentimental but evocative observation of country sports and country life, and the importance of farming with the grain of nature rather than treating the countryside as a factory floor.

Now, Robin writes a column every three weeks in the Saturday Telegraph which is often an articulate and compelling lament against the ignorance of DEFRA and its European masters and the impact of urban focused policies and politicians on the way that life is lived in rural areas.  This week we looked at real country shows and in particular the Royal Cornwall Show which seems determined to resist the rend that has overtaken most large agricultural shows up and down the country and keep its focus firmly on the countryside and country life.  I love real country shows with their strong characters, the smells and sounds and being surrounded by people who have a practical and unsentimental passion for a way of life that owes little to the pap of "celebrity culture".  Far too many of the big country shows now seem to cater for the interests of the commercial heavyweights or have become glorified car boot sales.

We are fortunate here in the dales that the majority of local shows are firmly rooted in farming, food, livestock and rural skills and past times.  There are far too many to mention but Kilnsey and Pately Bridge are two that immediately spring to mind.  Here you can wander around with a pint of local ale and listen to local accents which to the uninitiated seem to be speaking a foreign tongue.  A language rich in tradition with words that pre-date the conquest - gimmers, tups, hogs, mules, shearlings, yows, weathers, all of them sheep. Here, for most, livestock farming is not about units of production, but is all about bloodlines, conformation and building a flock or herd that instills a sense of pride and passion.  That's why the FMD epidemic in 2001 and the government's response was such a tragedy.  Decades of careful, expensive and passionate selective breeding was wiped out overnight as whole flocks with their unique genetic mix were slaughtered.

But folk here are resilient and it's at country shows where they come together and yarn that you get a real sense of this collective resilience.  As Robin finishes his article - " real people, ignored and abused by Blair and his countryside hating Government.  Foot and Mouth, the hunting ban, the right to roam, low food prices, ridiculous red tape, the single farm payment fiasco, bovine TB, the uncontrolled power of the supermarkets, cattle passports, ear tags (my goats eat them), etc, etc, etc".  If people ever took it into their minds to resist it would make Al Qa'eda look like a Church social.

Thanks Robin for changing the way I live.

Ian

Ian