One of the issues that came up at our recent riverfly training day was that of bio security.  Our tutor made it pretty clear that with the prevalence of crayfish plague and other nasties that now lurk in our rivers we all should routinely disinfect our gear between trips and between visits to different catchments especially where we know vulnerable species are present.  Some of us got to thinking about the measures we take to secure the safety of our fishery and especially the health of the crayfish population at the Tarn and concluded that we need to do a little more.

So on my doorstep last evening courtesy of Les S arrived a trough with a lid that will be part filled with a mild disinfectant and placed in the hut at the Tarn.  The idea is that members who fish the river before fishing the Tarn or who have fished on other catchments before visiting the Tarn will have the opportunity to disinfect landing nets and waders before commencing fishing.  We will trial this to see how effectively it is used and how much mess it causes, but with prudent use it should be OK.

Les was in a state of high excitement when he rang me to tell me that the trough was by my door.  His visit to the Tarn had proved highly rewarding as he got into one of the big rainbows that tore his line down to the backing and put up a tremendous fight before being landed.  the fish weighed in at over 3.5 lb and apparently the comments of his fishing partner are not printable.  The policy of putting in a few bigger fish with each stocking is clearly being appreciated.  By all evidence there is no lack of food for them as every fish that is eviscerated is pretty well stuffed and the only puzzle is why they bother with an artificial. Perhaps like us they can't resist one last visit to the buffet even though they are not really hungry.

We are forecast a lot of rain later this morning which will bring the river back into flood.  Between these flushes it does seem to be fishing pretty well so may be worth a try later tomorrow.

Ian