I did the October invertebrate check at New Inn yesterday morning in some surprisingly warm sunshine.  The results were unspectacular and rather reassuring.  A fair number of seven of the eight families we monitor.  No true mayfly (E danica), but as I have said many times before this stony spate river is pretty much hell on earth for a creature more associated with languid chalk streams.  I thought that overall numbers were down compared to last year, but a check with the records when I got home showed that the results this year are almost identical to October 2008.  That's good news as far as it goes since it shows that the river has suffered no noticeable harm from pollutants.

My ambition remains to see a steady increase in invertebrate populations year on year so as to provide a sufficient food source to support increased trout and salmon recruitment.  I think that one of the key factors influencing riverfly populations is the presence of good bankside herbage and tree cover and here we may be able to make some headway after a visit I had today from the Woodland Trust.  It would seem that the Trust are fairly flush with grant money for native tree planting at present and we are now looking at a couple of schemes that will increase the amount of bankside planting without impinging on fishing or grazing land.  More on this once all the necessary permissions have been obtained.

We had an added bonus this morning up at the Tarn whilst I showed my guest around.  Our crayfish are now in breeding mode and a number of large specimens were moving about in broad daylight much to his delight.

Still no rain, but the forecast for tomorrow promises us a wet day so fingers crossed.

Ian