News on the FMD front is a little better this morning.  It seems that the outbreak may be isolated and was probably caused by an escape from the research centre at Pirbright where, during July, they manufactured a batch of vaccination using live cultures of the identical strain of the virus found on the farm at Guildford a couple of miles away.  Let's hope the outbreak is contained.

It rained all day yesterday and by mid afternoon the river was bank full and heavily coloured.  It's now falling and clearing so anyone planning to fish here later today should find ideal water.  The weather seems to be lifting and brightening with just a light westerly breeze so conditions currently look very good.

News reaches me of a record breaking brown trout from the Aire at Skipton.  It seems that a record that has lasted for 49 years was smashed by an 18 year old fisherman when he landed a 5lb brownie on an orange spinner last week. He was fishing just below Carleton Beck when the trout took and in his own words "all hell broke loose" and it took 5 minutes to bring the fish to the bank.  This fish was 21 inches in length with a girth of 12.5 inches and in superb condition.  The previous record was 3.9lb set in 1956 again at Carleton.

I wonder what the record is for the upper Ribble?

Ian