Despite a light shower last night this run of dry, settled weather continues and it's warm and sunny this morning with very little breeze.

The venerable member stopped by on his way to the Tarn this morning as I was milking and thought that a day spent sunbathing in the boat would be preferable to any serious fishing.  That's the problem with the leisured classes - no commitment!

I went out on  a History group walk last night to look round the old slate mill at Helwith Bridge.  This is a fascinating site with much of the original infrastructure still intact.  The mill building is now a house, but its original purpose can still easily be discerned with the wheel pit clearly visible and the mill race traceable on the ground.  What is interesting is that there was a substantial weir just upstream from the site below the railway bridge which must have raised the river by a good 3 to 4 feet.  This was dynamited away in the 1950's after a particularly heavy flood washed away part of the railway embankment.  The weir is likely to have had a considerable effect on water levels in the river for a considerable distance upstream and removing it must have had an impact on fishing at the lower end of the fishery.  I must try to find reference to this in the club archive.

Ian