As you can see the final crayfish course of the year took place at the Tarn yesterday under some welcome sunshine and the results of the check that the students did surpassed all expectations with over 90 creatures in just one trap and in excess of 300 animals measured and recorded overall.  so we go into the autumn season confident that our native crayfish are healthy and continuing to breed well.

Whilst Paul was giving his usual lecture on handling and monitoring crayfish I watched a large hatch of sedge begin which prompted the resident rainbows to put on a display of noisy feeding and porpoise jumps.  This sedge hatch has been going on for some days now when we get a bit of sunshine which must indicate that the bed of the Tarn is crawling with caddis worms.  No wonder the fish are sometimes reluctant to surface feed when they have a crunchy snack coating almost every rock and stone on the bed.

For those of you who have not seen one here is a large (and slightly pissed off) male crayfish.



It rained hard from mid afternoon yesterday and persisted most of the night so the river is in flood at present.  More showers are promised today so levels will remain up and colour will be in the water for some time yet.  It's just about fishable for trout and almost ideal for salmon and sea trout which will be running on the strong water.

Ian