It's a stunning morning with high white fluffy cloud, plenty of sun and a light westerly breeze.  I went up to the Tarn first thing to have a check on the water, fishing and the cygnets.  The latter are growing well, but still under close control of both parents.  Fingers crossed that they continue to thrive.  The water is in very good shape for August, cool on the alkaline side of neutral and well oxygenated.  The real evidence of this is the fishing returns for last week which tell me that this was the best week since back in May.  From 13 visits 55 fish were caught of which 41 were returned.  This is a very good ratio of just over 4 fish per visit.  The returns also show that a handful of big (4lb +) rainbows were caught, some of which were returned.  This is in stark contrast to August last year when fishing was pretty dismal and is one benefit of this wet summer.

Of course, circumstances conspired to prevent me doing any survey work on the Tarn yesterday.  I got sidetracked by other priorities and the wind stiffened sufficient to make trolling the punt up and down the Tarn a labour rather than a pleasure.  So Friday looks the best bet now for this task.

The hatchery is the next item on today's agenda and a check to see how the channel has settled down after I cleaned the gravel last week.

Ian