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