Switzerland is a strange country famous for cuckoo clocks, leather shorts, a knife that has destroyed more trouser pockets than any other and making money laundering an art form.  Now news reaches me of a potential threat to angling as we know it coming out of Switzerland and I don't mean a legion of redundant clock makers wearing cow hide trousers wielding spoons attached to small red pocket knives.  It would seem that there is currently legislation passing through the Swiss parliament that will have the effect of making it a criminal offence to practise catch and release on the Swiss rivers.  This is a clause buried away in a new animal welfare Bill which states that it will be an offence to fish with the intention of releasing a fish once caught.  The clause will make it mandatory to dispatch every fish with a sharp blow to the head from a blunt instrument.

Now I'm not aware that Switzerland is a must go destination for many UK anglers, but that's not the point.  The real threat here comes from our own animal welfare lobby who I'm sure are watching the passage of this legislation with interest and already drawing up plans to lobby for similar legislation in the UK.  The effect of such a law would be catastrophic for our conservation programmes.  Just imagine the impact on native fish stock on heavily fished rivers where every fertile hen fish is removed from the gene pool.  It will be short order before the only way to maintain an adequate fish stock will be by constant stocking with reared fish, course and game fish alike.

We need to watch this one and stay ahead of the game.

I was cheered up considerably yesterday morning by a conversation with a member who called to collect a guest ticket.  He had been a member of MAA for many years, but left when the fish cage at the Tarn took its toll on both water and fish quality.  He rejoined last year and now tells me that he had the best days dry fly fishing on the Tarn last week he has had in his entire life.  Thanks Peter, it's good to know that all our efforts are producing results that members appreciate.

It's not a bad morning.  It's warm with a light breeze, a lot of high cloud and some sunny breaks.  So a good day for wetting a fly.

Ian

It's a change to much cooler weather this morning with a lot of cloud and the threat of rain to come.  However, there is little or no wind so fishing should be quite good on both a replenished river and restocked Tarn.

I finished reading "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" yesterday and what an absorbing book it turned out to be.  I suppose that the underlying message is the importance of belief and that it's quite possible to achieve the impossible against all received wisdom, common sense and the nay sayers if you simply have faith in your convictions and believe totally in ultimate success. 

I guess that there is a message here for fishermen.  One must go to the river in the firm belief that fish will be caught.  To do otherwise is to court failure even though the omens be not good.  When I taught management theory we called this the power of positive thought and impressed upon our students the importance of approaching any task or project with the firm belief that it would succeed totally.  We seem to be surrounded by negative influences and cynicism, its a national pastime to be cynical and it does prevent the rush to over exuberance that seems to engulf our transatlantic cousins far too often.  But being too cynical too often can rob us of that genuine childlike conviction that miracles are possible and success is ours to grasp.  So next time you stand by the river and it seems devoid of fish or you sit in the boat at the Tarn and all seems dead just believe that you will catch a fish and who knows?

Ian

We have had a Yorkshire monsoon here since about half five this morning and it's still raining hard at eight thirty so the river will be high and coloured later today.  It's forecast to be an unsettled week so it's going to be a question of taking it day by day as far as river fishing is concerned.  The Tarn is fishing well since the last stocking, but not last night. 

I took the Romanian Chef from the Crown up to the Tarn last evening.  He is a nice chap and a keen angler, but never done any fly fishing and was anxious to have a go.  I saw him contemplating the river with a rod a few days ago and a supervised couple of hours at the Tarn when it was quiet seemed a good way of satisfying his curiosity and dissuading him from poaching.  Young Steven came up to give a few casting lessons as my casting is rubbish. The wind was a bit wicked so I had little hope of any success and his technique to begin with seemed to be more of the thrash the water to a foam rather than the gentle kiss of fly on meniscus.  After a bit of tuition he slowed things down a lot, but the fish were reluctant to rise in the choppy conditions.  Much to my surprise and that of Mike H who had arrived to fish he got into a decent sized rainbow which unfortunately he lost as a result of trying to haul it vertically from the water.  Fortunately the hook straightened and came out so no damage done and he now has a much better idea about the gentle art which he can apply down at the Helwith Bridge fishery.  So, a fairly happy Romanian and one less potential threat to the river trout I need to watch.

Ian

Just back from a slightly delayed trip to the hatchery to install the new shrimp nursery.  As previously reported, this consists of a large onion net stuffed with barley straw and a few empty bottles to act as floats.  The idea is that the straw floods and sinks to the limit of the floats and as it begins to decompose slowly gammarus take up residence using the straw as a haven and source of food.  If this experiment works it can be repeated on both the river and the Tarn to increase the number of gammarus available to sustain large trout.

It was a delight to be down by the ponds in this glorious summer weather.  The song of the water babbling down the cascades in the spawning channel mixed with the song of birds and the contented munching of sheep in the nearby meadow combined to lift the soul.  I took the opportunity to clear some of the cress that is growing so strongly that the channel is becoming blocked.  There was no sign of any fish in the ponds, but the water is dark so visibility is limited.  Even in this hot weather the water is icy cold and seems to be very well oxygenated so if fish are present they should be thriving.

I will give the nursery a few days to sink and naturalise before attempting to introduce shrimp then check progress fortnightly so more on this later.

Ian

Remarkably for this summer it's been a week now since we had any rain so the river is falling away now to normal summer levels.  It's still fishable on most runs and all the pools have good water, but it will obviously continue to drop now until we get another wet spell.

It's a cloudier day today, but still very warm with almost no breeze so there is a good chance of a fly hatch later on which may encourage both river and Tarn trout to surface feed.  The fish that were stocked into the Tarn on Thursday seem to have settled down well and dispersed so fishing here should now be less of a challenge than of late.  That's provided that the hatches of caenis drop off.  The hut is totally smothered in "anglers curse" and the fish have been cruising the shallows hoovering up the hatched fly.  OK if you dress flies under a microscope, but pretty useless otherwise.

I am going to try to install the gammarus nursery later today so that it can naturalise before we put in the shrimps so more on this tomorrow.

Ian

After much hassle the fish finally went into the Tarn on Thursday afternoon.  Feedback so far suggests that these are good fish, well finned and tailed and are providing good sport.  They should certainly help to improve the visit to catch ratio which has been declining over the past couple of weeks with one or two nil returns creeping in which I hate to see.

Now a recommendation for a little light summer reading for all those of you about to head off for your annual summer slob out.  I was lent a book last week "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" by Paul Torday.  On turning to the first few pages I got a chill of a past life colliding with the present.  The book opens with an exchange of memo's between Civil Servants including some between the Private Offices of certain Government ministers.  Some of you may know that for 25 years I stalked the corridors of power in various Ministries and my formative years in the early 1970's were spent as a correspondence clerk to a  succession of Ministers. The book is hauntingly familiar and Paul Torday must know someone in Government circles to write with such wicked accuracy about the machinations of Whitehall.  Basically the book is about a project to introduce Atlantic salmon into the Wadi's of Yemen so that the calming and beneficial influence of salmon fishing can spread a balm of sang froid over the benighted region of the Middle East.  The wit and humour are sharp and Torday has certainly done his home work on the underlying science so that the whole plot becomes absorbing and realistic enough to become believable.  It's the ideal hammock companion (apart from Liz Hurley that is).  Go out and buy a copy and enter the bizarre world of Dr Alfred Jones and the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence.

It's a great summer day here in the valley all the more so as in the last half hour our water supply has been restored.  The pipe burst down by the Crown yesterday afternoon so we have been subsisting on bottled water for the past few hours.  Newhouses looks like a refugee camp with pallets of water bottles dumped on the verges by Yorkshire water.  I have just managed to get a shower much to Sheila's relief as I spent all day yesterday cleaning out the goat house and spreading the accumulated muck. It's surprising just how pervasive the smell can be and how well it sticks to people.  My goats are now busy arranging the fresh straw to their liking.  This mainly involves seeing just how much of it you can eat whist sitting on it and trying to prevent the hens from pitching it out into the yard.

Ian

It's another grey and humid morning here in the valley with cloud well down blanketing the fells.  Sitting here writing this I am struck by just how many young sparrows are about now.  Looking out of the window I can see well over a dozen lined up along the gutter of the farmhouse opposite the widow all noisily waiting their turn at the nut feeders in the back garden.  It's becoming a challenge to keep these feeders topped up as in addition to the sparrows we are getting lots of blue tits, great tits, green finches, dunnock, gold finches, blackbirds and wrens.  All these birds seem to arrive with families in tow and it's heartening to watch so many  the youngsters demanding food.  They all seem to have got our four cats well sussed and so far this season I have only had to remove one corpse from the house, brought in as a toy that soon ceased to work.

The wet weather has meant that the hay meadows are being cut rather later than usual and little silage was got round here earlier in the year so the increased availability of seed and insects that inhabit the growing meadows must have helped to ensure that more young birds survived.

The Tarn fish should be here shortly so anticipate better returns per visit from tomorrow onwards.

Ian

This is late today as I wanted to get the invertebrate check at Turn Dub done before Mr Sod managed to intervene again and prevent me doing so.  All seems well with good representations of most of the eight relevant families.  There were more gammarus this time and a very healthy crop of Baetis larvae.

I was struck by how well the herbage is growing along the banks here now that most of the woollies are kept out by the fence.  Not all though as I counted eight of the blighters on the far bank up to their ears in the tall grass. I shall have to investigate how they are getting in and block off the route.  It's a month since I was last at the Dub and I was surprised to see just how many of the broadleaved trees we planted a couple of years ago have failed.  I guess it's a combination of sheep and the spring drought.  Coincidentally, when I started up the PC a few minutes ago down came an email from Gavin P commenting on the same thing.  I will need to investigate further and try to find the cause before we try to plant here again.

Gavin also tells me that he has a source of gammarus that will serve well to kick start the nursery I have made so I will get the thing installed later so that it can stabilise before we put in the shrimps.

Stocking the Tarn at 10 am tomorrow so be warned.

Ian

There is no doubting that trout like gammarus when they can get them.  I suppose a good belly full of gammarus is a bit like a prawn sandwich only more filling and large shrimps help to sustain large trout.  With this in mind and with an eye on sustainability I have been researching how best to boost the population of gammarus in the river.  I think I may have found the solution and it seems in theory to be simple.  All you need is a large mesh sack stuffed with barley straw and a few floats which you place in the water where you wish to aid the recruitment of gammarus.  The little beasties can't resist the security and food source that the straw provides and they go forth and multiply.

That's the theory!  I now have permission to run an experiment using this technique using the larger pond at the hatchery.  All the material is ready and, time permitting, I will set things up later today.  All we need do then is wait a few months to see what results we get.  If this works then I intend to repeat the experiment on quiet backwaters on the river and at the Tarn.  The bonus is that the gammarus will migrate out of the straw over time thus becoming available to the fish for food.  They will supplement the other invertebrates already in the fish pond and ensure that the young fish get a good start before they in turn migrate out into the beck.  A further benefit is the impact that the straw will have on water quality as it breaks down.  Due to the release of a cocktail of chemicals the straw will keep the pond free of algae as we know from past experience at the Tarn.

I did an invertebrate check at New Inn bridge yesterday and am pleased to report that all seems healthy.  There were no real variations from previous checks and it was pleasing to see a good crop of stoneflies in every sample I took.  I even found our friend  above in two of the 4 samples I kicked.  Being detritivores, gammarus are not common in this fast running water, but they were there yesterday.

Someone turned off summer again this morning.  It's currently very foggy and damp.  Potentially quite good fishing conditions if you can find your way to Horton.

Ian

We awake here at Horton this morning to find that summer has returned after a long absence.  It's absolutely glorious out there at present with wall to wall blue sky a few wispy clouds and almost no breeze.  The temperature is also climbing back to somewhere near normal so it seems a perfect day to go monitoring invertebrates for the July check using the revised skills that I learnt from Dai on Saturday.

The river is just about perfect.  Well watered and clear and it would not surprise me if salmon were lurking in the usual lies below Horton bridge.

I have decided to begin experimenting with breeding gammarus.  There are a a few things to tie up first before I say much about this, but if all goes to plan I should have the first nursery set up by the weekend.

I will report later on the invertebrate results.

It really is a day to skip work and go fishing!

Ian

Despite the lousy weather and a river that was aggressive and refused to cooperate seven of us spent an informative, enjoyable and rewarding day revising our riverfly monitoring skills yesterday.  Dai Roberts proved to be a good tutor and gave us a thorough testing in our sampling methods and ability to identify the results.  I certainly came a way having learnt much that was new, with confidence that I can contribute to the national programme and that we can all meet the rigorous monitoring standards set by the EA.

We also made a valuable contact at the EA since Daniel Atkinson was present throughout the day and he and I have arranged to share information which will prove beneficial to the Ribble and our fishery. 

My main conclusion from the day is that we are doing all the right things as a club to encourage the recruitment of invertebrates.  There are one or two additional (and simple) things we may well try such as a return to fly boards for olives and barley straw bundles for gammarus, but on the whole there is a sufficient food source in the river to enable our wild trout to recruit to provide very good quality fishing.  The main thing we all need to remember when going after them is to use tiny flies with sparse dressings unless the water is dark and on the flood.  There is nothing new in this.  A hundred and fifty years ago Stewart was adamant that this was the only way to fish northern rivers.  The flies we saw hatching yesterday would need a 20 or 24 hook.

Here is a photo of some of our enthusiastic young scientists hard at work identifying bugs.



As I was in the pavilion all day I missed seeing Crayfish Paul who was running a course at the Tarn, but he dropped in to see Sheila and reports that our native crayfish population is continuing to thrive.  He now believes that this is one of the most healthy and flourishing populations in the UK.  We will aim to keep it that way.

Finally, I have arranged to stock the Tarn on Tuesday so be prepared for a little disruption around that day.

Ian

The plan today is to set up for the two courses that are running tomorrow.  Paul will be up later to put in the traps so that the crayfish can be checked by his students tomorrow and Dai Roberts should arrive this afternoon to set up in the pavilion for the invertebrate monitoring course.  With plenty of water in the river the latter course should find plenty to sort and identify by New Inn bridge so hopefully we can have a very worthwhile discussion about the implications for the fishery of the volume and variety of what we find and what we can do to help our riverflies to recruit naturally.  I will report results over the weekend.

It's still wet here with a moderate westerly breeze and it shows little sign of letting up. Very much a day for wet weather gear.

Ian

It's less wet this morning, but still windy and overcast.  I had a call from Crayfish Paul yesterday to tell me that he will be running his annual crayfish handling course over this coming weekend so expect to find a number of traps in the Tarn on Friday and a large group of students in Tarn Pasture on Saturday morning.

It's good that these courses run as it ensures that our native crayfish get a regular health check from the leading expert in the UK.  The annual trapping and recording provides a profile of the population over time and indicates whether the creatures are continuing to thrive and recruit at a constant rate.  By examining the individuals in the trap we can monitor for any evidence of sickness such as plague and take whatever steps are required to ensure that ailments are eliminated.

Paul tells me that he will be running two further courses, one in August and one in September so our crayfish will get a thorough going over this year.

Fingers crossed that there are no evident problems.

Ian

Back to sanity after a weekend spent in the kingdom of the damned (London).  Still, London was sunny and warm and Horton this morning is wet and windy so maybe the damned have more luck. 

Talking of luck we had a good share yesterday which is pretty unusual for me.  Heading west along the M62 aiming for Halifax to drop off my brother in law and his wife there was a quiet bang and the Nissan lost power.  "Oh tsk"we thought (or words to that effect but stronger) "the tank seems to have a problem".  A drift along the hard shoulder brought us to a slip road and a handy business park where we called the AA.  I had visions of having to fork out for a new turbo charger and broke out in a cold sweat.  Just half an hour later (honestly that quick!) we were on the move again with the tank running sweeter that a nut.  It seems that the air pipe on the turbo had shaken lose and blown off thus rendering the turbo ineffective.  Mrs F does not recommend trying to drive a few tons of 4 litre Japanese 4x4 without the assistance of a turbo.

As above it's wet and very windy this morning so though the river is in very good water, fishing on both it and the Tarn will be challenging today.  The forecast for tomorrow looks much more promising.

Ian

It's been a while since I last mentioned W C Stewart and his 1857 masterpiece The Practical Angler, but many interruptions have made this a rather slower journey to the end of the book than I anticipated.  What has struck me is how observant the man was, how much he thought deeply about the 'whys' of what he saw and how relevant his observations and advice are today.  Clearly he spent hours experimenting with techniques, trying to discover how a particular method worked and if it did so in a range of conditions and on differing waters.  The strong message that comes across from his writing is that if we are to succeed as anglers then we must be prepared to cast aside pedantic reliance on favoured methods and be prepared to fish to the conditions prevailing at the time by varying every aspect of our approach.  Obviously the tackle he used would now be considered antiquated.  I know of no angler who uses gut even though some may well prefer to continue with split cane rods, but his methods seem to me to need only minor modification to take account of advances in rod, reel and line technology and modern materials should make his methods simpler to achieve.

What has changed is attitude.  His was to basket as many fish as practicably possible in the time available, volume of catch was the measure of a successful day and the only evidence of success was a long line of silver bodies laid out side by side at the close of play.  How now do we measure our success?  I guess that it's more subjective and more deeply personal.  Each member of the MAA I talk to enthuses about different pleasures from a day spent walking a rod with little piscine success, but a wealth of observations of nature and a sense of calm having spent time out of the rat race through those who land the one perfect fish in hours of toil to those who land and return what Stewart would regard as a reasonable basket (even though he would bite his sporran to see these fish returned to the water).  Perhaps that's the joy of modern angling, no one is under pressure to impress, it's simply done to satisfy some inner personal goal or pleasure and leave the day a happier individual.

We have some sun this morning which makes a nice change.  The river was in full spate yesterday so will take a few hours to fall and clear.  I guess that by this afternoon we should have near perfect conditions here at Horton.

No blog for the next couple of days as I am in London for a family gathering so see you again on Tuesday.

Ian

I was out all day yesterday at various meetings concerned with activities in the village and only managed to catch up with emails this morning.  My in box brought two messages from members which sent my emotions in totally different directions.  The first, from a fairly new member, recounts a lack of success on the river which combined with the ever increasing cost of fuel leads him to the conclusion that he would be best seeking fishing nearer to home.  This saddened me as my aim has always been to try to ensure that members always enjoy their experience on the river and leave feeling fulfilled.  This river can often present a challenge and I must apply my mind to further ways in which we can help new members to develop the skills needed to meet those challenges.

The second was more uplifting and came from a long standing member who I know also finds the river and its trout a little shy.  Here is Andrew's message:

I spent a couple of hours up at the Tarn yesterday morning doing a few much neglected jobs.  I have put up a new rubbish bag holder which was donated by a member.  Please use this for sandwich remains, old mono, expired fishermen etc rather than the floor (see Mike Harding's comments below).  I have put Simon away in summer/winter quarters and cleaned the boat of all the accumulated swallow crap.  It was one of the nicest mornings we have had for a while so I sat in the grass for a while watching the squadrons of damsel flies patrolling the water margin mostly avoiding the lunges of one or two large rainbows that were hunting in the shallows.  Damsel fly is clearly a favourite dish of the bigger trout as on a few occasions a fish would heave itself three quarters out of the water to take a damsel above the water.

I had a call from Jeff B who tells me that a couple of days ago he got an eight pound salmon on Walker's run just below Cragghill Farm.  This was a fine fish, slightly coloured, but in good shape and can only have been in the river a comparatively short while.  The fish went back where it came from to add its genes to the ever increasing pool of Ribble salmon stock.

It's best described as a "soft" morning here in the valley, very little breeze and a fine heavy mizzle that is shrouding the fells all round.  The forecast is looking good for next week with more settled weather and the promise of some sun.  We shall see.

Ian

Well here's a surprise.  Despite a pretty grim forecast for today it's currently dry with the occasional glimpse of sun.  I doubt if it will last though as the cloud seems to be piling up over Whernside and spilling down the valley so no doubt we will return to precipitation again shortly.  It was a foul day yesterday, but despite all that the elements threw at us 18 happy snappers spent an entertaining day up at Colt Park on the landscape photography workshop.  I came away with a much better understanding of the power of the macro setting on my digital camera and some shots that I am quite pleased with.  I found that I could get some really good images focusing down to about an inch away from the subject.  When transferred to the PC they explode on to the screen showing the finest detail such as minute hairs on the leaves of plants and the puzzled expression on the face of a stone fly!  Our riverfly day the weekend after next will be a good opportunity to experiment further with this setting.

I plan to do a few jobs around the Tarn later today if the weather holds off.  Simon needs to come in for the remainder of the summer (what summer?) and the place would benefit from a bit of general tidying up.  I plan to stock the Tarn again early next week so expect a few days when the fish will be both disturbed and stupid.

Ian

I don't know if it's the damp weather, the quality of the water or some other factor (or combination of factors), but the Tarn is experiencing an explosion in the normally high population of damsel flies just now.  Those who fished over the weekend report that there are virtual swarms of damsel fly nymphs cruising the shallows and the trout are after them like hungry wolf packs.  Of course, this means that our normally free rising trout are now almost exclusively feeding below the meniscus so floating flies are achieving little success.  The order of the day at present seems to be buzzers or anything that resembles a damselfly nymph.  The problem here is that this brings the tackle down into the weed which is also burgeoning which tends to generate hypertension and foul language.  Still, it's good to see the Tarn so healthy. 

We must be due an annual crayfish course shortly so I will try to find out if and when this is taking place.  It would be nice to have the annual reassurance that all is well with our native crustaceans.

Yet again it's dawned showery and dank and looks set to continue in the same vein for most of the day.  I'm off shortly to get wet on a landscape photography workshop at Colt Park to try to improve my skill with a still camera.  The plan is to concentrate on getting macro shots rather than wide vistas so the weather may not be too much of a problem.

Ian

Do you ever wonder about the impact that the conversations you have with others may have.  Whether balls are set rolling or if small stones eventually create landslides that bring about real change in either attitudes or actions?

A good while ago I spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours talking to an angler who was considering options to change the way in which his club managed its fishery on a river not far from here.  For some months (and for very valid reasons) everything went quiet and I assumed that this was another of those occasions when much is said, enthusiasm is engaged, but the sheer effort of shoving the boulder of change up slope only to see it roll back again saps energy and commitment.

I had a couple of emails over the past few days that suggest that our time was well spent and whilst everything that my friend wished to address has not yet come to pass real progress is being made.  He tells me that a motion to move to a sustainable wild trout fishery was only lost by the narrowest of margins, that attitudes are changing, that a few club and committee members have joined the Wild Trout Trust and that next time the motion comes before committee for a vote it may well be carried.  Furthermore they are embarking on a programme of invertebrate monitoring to establish a baseline for measuring future improvements in habitat and water quality.

You can't change over 150 years of tradition overnight, but the moves here seem remarkable and a credit to the persuasive powers of my friend.  It may not be long before yet another Dales river becomes a haven for wild brown trout.

Don't ask about the weather!  At least the gales subsided yesterday, but we still have plenty of precipitation and it's none too warm given that it's July.

Ian

We had the mother and father of a thunderstorm here yesterday afternoon which persisted into the evening.  The rain was torrential and by early evening the river was in full spate and heavily coloured.  It turned showery later and remains so this morning with a light easterly breeze.  The river is still very high and the colour has yet to drop out so fishing will be a bit of a challenge today.

Barring any last minute hitches, our riverfly refresher training is all now in place for 19 July.  With a bit of luck we will have enough water on the river to enable us to sample easily (if this stormy weather persists we may have too much!) and the aim is to expand the knowledge we gained on the original course in May 2007.  We are now getting pretty reliable data each month, but what is less evident is how we use this data to inform our understanding of the health of the river.  For example, is what we find what we should expect to find or are the volumes within families and number of families indicative of an underlying and persistent problem that we need to address?  We also need to explore ways in which we might assist our native invertebrates to recruit and thus increase the amount of food available to our native trout.  Finally, we need to find ways to share our knowledge with members so that they can be better informed about the predominant prey species available to trout throughout the fishery and thus make better choices about which flies to dress, the size these flies should be and where to fish them month by month.

It should be an informative and enjoyable day.

Ian

I was out early yesterday and spent a thoroughly enjoyable morning giving a new member a conducted tour of the fishery.  We first went down to Helwith Bridge then proceeded up the river calling at all the best beats as far up as Lodge Hall.  The river looked in fine form with good clear water and a lot of hatching fly.  We saw few rises and little sign of fish stirring, but the weather was a bit oppressive and thundery which may have kept them down.

We finished up at the Tarn where two members were enjoying considerable success tempered only by the presence of the RAF who seemed to be trying to find out how low they could get a Tornado at full throttle without "failing to maintain ground clearance" as I once saw in a USAF crash report.  We stood on the board walk round the hut watching a couple of perfectly formed rainbows cruising in and out of the weed in the gin clear water.  All in all a reasonable introduction to the delights of the fishery I hope.

It's once again cloudy and showery here this morning with very little breeze.  It feels less oppressive than yesterday and if we do get some sunny breaks then the fish may well rise a bit more freely today.

Ian

We had a lot of rain from about 6pm yesterday through to around 4.30 this morning so the river is again pretty full and flowing fast and clean.  It's now bright and sunny with about 60% cloud cover, a light north east breeze and quite warm in the sun. So river fishing remains good. 

A fairly new member emailed me yesterday to report in triumph that he has at long last broken his duck on the river with a nice wild brownie landed down by the Tay Bridge.  He also mentioned that the usual parking place at Selside is now blocked with trailers, presumably to prevent thieves getting easy access to the diesel tank.  I will talk to the farmer when I am up at Selside tomorrow morning, ask about alternative parking and report back via this blog, but in the meantime don't be afraid to call at the farmhouse (large white house by the track).  The farmer concerned is a good friend of the club and will welcome your visit.

There are new owners of the shop in Horton.  Steve and Michelle have just moved in and will be pleased to carry on the outstanding service that Carolyn and Andrew provided for the past eight years.  Of course, there is no longer a permanent Post Office at Horton thanks to Royal Mail accountants who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, but an "outreach service" (Ye Gods!) is available at the Crown Hotel on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons provided by Settle Post Office.  This is proving a little less than professional so day migratory salmonid licenses are probably now best obtained before you get here.  Another nail in the rural coffin.

Ian

For nigh on a thousand years the parish church of St Oswald at Horton has withstood storm, pestilence, political and religious upheaval and provided shelter for its flock.  It's an icon of the village and appears in almost every representation of Horton as well as countless thousands of happy holiday snaps.  Just recently its tower, squat and solid like a prop forward, has become the home of a new generation of immigrants who seemingly don't mind the occasional change ringing of the peal of bells housed on the new steel frame in the belfry.  These immigrants were once far more common hereabouts and their screeching call could be heard often on clear summer nights as they patrolled the meadows and pastures seeking small furry things to satisfy a growing brood.

Our new barn owls have at least two chicks and all four birds are now seen regularly around the lower end of the village.  Let's hope that this is a sign that this rare and beautiful creature is making a long overdue comeback to Horton.  There are barns aplenty to provide safe nesting sites and judging by the number of voles and shrews my cats leave around the house (not all dead) there is good foraging here.  They make a very welcome complement to the more often seen and heard tawny owls and the little owl that sometimes sits watching me from the vantage of my barn roof.

It's a cracking morning, bright sunny with just a smear of high cloud and no wind.  The river is still flowing well and the Tarn is crystal clear.  I'm out on Thursday morning showing a new member around the fishery so he should hopefully see it at its summer best.

Ian