The first day of September and autumn is upon us already.  The change of month has brought a welcome change in the weather too with some sun and blue sky this morning. There is a hint of autumn chill in the air and a fair bit of cloud, but we have the first sight of Ingleborough across the valley that I have seen for weeks.

I have commented before on the kindness of those who I have met in the course of the years that I have been involved with the MAA and yesterday brought yet another example of the kind thoughtfulness of anglers.  I was musing in yesterday's blog about the size of stoneflies and whether this indicated different species or ages of creature.  Low and behold a ring at the door brings Mike H and three very welcome Freshwater Biological Association volumes on riverfly larvae which will help me to take identification down to species level and so unravel the conundrum.

Members should be aware that the last crayfish course of the season takes place at the Tarn tomorrow lunchtime so be prepared to find a few folk busy with traps if you come up to fish.

Finally it looks as if the very wet weather forecast for tomorrow will now miss us so river levels for trout fishing should remain good to the middle of the week.  The ground here is saturated so expect the river to maintain a reasonable level for a good few days even if we get little rain.  What we do need is some sun to bring on a decent fly hatch and tempt the trout up to the surface.  With all the flood water we have had over the past few weeks I suspect that our wild fish are stuffed with worms and ambivalent about a few paltry flies.

Ian.