We had a look at the scaffold poles yesterday and concluded that it might be possible to persuade the clips to come lose without resorting to cutting them.  So we will attempt to do this over the next couple of weeks.  A quick check under the stones along the exposed margins of the tarn revealed a lot of juvenile crayfish.  So no problems with crayfish recruitment at present.

One of my regular correspondents may well have found the answer to Warren Slaney's poaching problems.  He sent me a quote from an 1822 published work "The Art of Angling" by  Thomas Best which reads as follows:

"If any person shall enter into any park or paddock fenced in, and enclosed, or into any garden, orchard, or yard adjoining or belonging to any dwelling house, in or through which park or paddock, garden,  orchard, or yard any river or stream of water, shall run or be, or wherein shall be any river, stream, pond, pool, moat, stew, or other water, and by any ways, means, or device what so ever, shall take, kill, or destroy any fish bred, kept, or preserved therein, without the consent of the owner thereof, or shall be aiding or assisting therein, or shall receive or buy any such fish knowing the same to be so stolen or taken as afore said, and shall be convicted thereof at the assizes within six calendar months after the offence committed he shall be transported for seven years."

Of course, transportation then meant Australia which may well prove too attractive a prospect for modern felons so we will have to find somewhere less attractive.  Afghanistan or Iraq?

I had a long conversation yesterday with the new fisheries scientist engaged by the RCCT whom you may remember is setting up an electrofishing programme on the Ribble.  We concluded that there is much benefit that the MAA might derive from this project including the opportunity for some free training for those interested.  I have one or two members who have expressed their willingness to be trained to undertake electrofishing but any member is very welcome to volunteer for this fascinating exercise.  If you would like to be involved later in the summer just let me know.

We are also proposing to take scale samples from the larger fish that turn up in the nets when we electrofish for later analysis.  I am currently wrestling with the interpretation of scales using the club's stereo microscope and this too is an area that members may well find of interest as it can reveal much about the life history of our wild trout including whether a fish has been to sea and thus can be considered a sea trout.

Lastly, what of the weather here? Well, it's much breezier and cloudier than of late and we may get a shower or two later in the day.  Certainly not enough to make an improvement to the river conditions, but there may be more rain tomorrow.

Ian