With water levels too low for decent fishing the season has rather fizzled out and the final day tomorrow is hardly worth the effort. 

I did the invertebrate check at Turn Dub yesterday in some bright, warm sunshine.  The river was crystal clear and flowing strongly over the riffles just below the Turn Dub inlet.  The results for this site were once again very similar to last October with a good number of gammarus and a lot of very small cased caddis.  The kick close to the bank turned up a couple of surprised looking bull heads.  It's important to get these little fish out of the sample quickly because they can play havoc with the results of a sample by eating any invertebrate that wanders within reach.  I learnt this to my cost in the very early days of sampling when I left a very large bullhead in the sample tray and then wondered why a seemingly good haul of mixed invertebrates was diminishing as I counted them. 

Long term readers of this blog will recall that a couple of years ago we planted a lot of saplings between Turn Dub and the top of the fenced run just above where the Pennine Bridleway will cross the river.  Most of the hawthorns have taken, but we had less luck with the ash that went in here.  The Woodland Trust contacted me last week and came to visit last Friday.  I have now submitted an application to them to complement the planting we did in this fenced area with a thousand mature saplings.  At the same time we will repair the fence at the foot of the Tarn and put some native hardwood trees in the wildlife area.  The beauty of this scheme is that the Trust provide not only the trees, but also the guards, stakes and labour to put the whole lot in.  Once again we will be planting in pockets and groups so as to leave plenty of casting room and avoid creating an unnatural sylvan corridor.  Our hope is that these trees will mature to provide good cover for young brown trout.  Some willows will be put in right on the bankside so that their roots create ideal homes for mature trout.  It will take a few years, but you have to start somewhere.

I was recently sent a wonderful account of habitat improvement carried out on the Wharfe over a hundred years ago  They were trying to do then what we have recently rediscovered and improve habitat by planting trees and sowing wild flower seeds to encourage the recruitment of river flies.  I will shortly post this up on the club website along with a great deal of other material that has recently been sent to me.

Ian

Well, it looks as if that's it for the 2009 season.  The river has fallen quickly today and is now too low for decent salmon fishing.  With no real rain forecast for the next few days it's unlikely that we will get another spate before Friday.

I got a call this evening from a friend who has lived all her long life in the village and had taken a relative down to Stainforth to see if there were any salmon coming up the Foss.  She was beside herself with excitement having spent an hour by the falls during which time she thinks that she saw dozens of fish leaping.  Many were quite large, but she was intrigued by the small (she believes about 2lb) fish that were jumping also.  these seem too small to be returning salmon and my thought was that these were sea trout, but I would welcome any ideas.  Coincidentally Alan M dropped by at lunchtime having caught the last of the good water this morning and also caught and returned an eight pound very coloured fish.  Alan said that he was just leaving the pool below Whit (Monkey) Beck when a shoal of five trout passed him going up stream.  Received wisdom tells us that trout don't shoal, but could these also be migrating sea trout?

Finally, here is a photo of the discharge entering the river yesterday.

The rain was pretty relentless yesterday and combined with the wind made for a thoroughly miserable day.  Clouds do however have silver linings and consequence of all the wet was a river in spanking form this morning or at least it would have been if it hadn't been for Horton Quarry which chose to discharge a rather unpleasant flow of washings down the beck between Cragg Hill and Whit Beck.  This came in  a series of pulses and caused considerable turbidity down through Cragg Hill.  The President was fishing at the time and rang me in high dudgeon.  Two solutions sprang to mind, use florescent flies or ring the EA.  The latter seemed the more constructive action and a very speedy response resulted. 

I stood by the Tay bridge with the Pres and watched this muck spread across the river.  It's unlikely to be fatal to fish, but I see no good reason why members should have their fishing spoilt by the actions of a company that should know better.

If any member is down by the Tay Bridge tomorrow and sees a pulse of muck discolouring the water can you please ring me.

Despite this problem I gather that at least two salmon were caught and released today with plenty more seen or lost.
We are forecast more rain tomorrow so the river should remain in good salmon water.  There are reports of plenty coming up over Settle weir.

Ian

As I confidently predicted yesterday we awake this morning to a river in full spate.  Looking out of the window now I can see that the heavy rain clouds are lifting on a stiff westerly breeze and a fair bit of blue sky is breaking through so by lunchtime we should have a falling river and near perfect salmon fishing conditions.  Be prepared for blustery showers though as I doubt if the current blaze of blue will last long on this breeze.

I now have a lot of material waiting to upload to the club website which has been sent to me by one of my regular correspondents.  I will try to get this on to the site later today so if you haven't visited Angli Vespers for a while then it may be worth a browse later this evening.

Ian

Good news for all members who have been eyeing their salmon rod with a growing sense of desperation as the seasons close draws ever nearer and the Ribble remained rather lacking in salmon lubricant.  It's been raining hard on and off all day and it's currently chucking it down.  The prospects for good fishing water tomorrow must be good and even better the strong winds we have here this evening are supposed to moderate tomorrow morning.  So why not forget the extra hour lie in tomorrow and celebrate the transition back to GMT with a spot of salmo salar baiting.

Ian

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

Well we got the wind that was forecast for today, but not so much rain.  Despite that the river is still in fairly good water and with a wet day in prospect tomorrow should remain so for a while yet.  The Ribble salmon should be running up to Horton in good numbers now.

I raised the issue of the Rowe End sewer at last night's parish Council meeting and councillors have undertaken to write to United Utilities asking them why we have now had four pollution incidents in the past two years related to this pipe, what they have done to alleviate the problem and what they propose to do to ensure that no further incidents occur.  I seem to have been given the task of drafting this letter (serves me right for raising it).  We will see what sort of response we get from UU.

My broadband connection has been going up and down like a bar maid's knickers over the past couple of days so if you have emailed me and not got a reply, sorry.  The problems with the equipment are hopefully now resolved (I hope that's not tempting fate).  It always amazes me that such a complex and advanced system that we have here to get broadband into this valley does not fall over more often.  All credit to LN Communications who designed and installed the network.

Ian

Good news for those of you with twitching rod arms.  The river is currently in quite good water after 24 hrs of steady rain so we should see some significant salmon movements over the next day or so.  The forecast is for more rain sweeping in from the south west on a strong wind so favourable conditions should last most of this week.

Ian

It's a miserably wet day so far, but precipitation is falling as mizzle rather than the prolonged heavy stuff that will lift the river to salmon fishing levels.  So as we approach the end of the salmon season there is still not enough water to make the trip to Horton to wet a salmon fly worthwhile.

A chance meeting with a member of Settle Anglers in the hardware store in Settle yesterday saw us chewing the fat for so long that we were in danger of being locked in as the store closed.  Only the intervention of Mrs F who came in to find out if  I had slipped through a time warp into another dimension curtailed the natter.  I learn that the screw turbine at the Hydro plant will be installed shortly, but work is well behind schedule and considerably over budget.  I really do have my doubts as to whether this generating plant will ever be of any value and I really can't see it having a long life.  Looking at the work done so far I get the distinct impression that one really good Ribble flood and the whole lot will go to hell in a handcart.  I shall keep my fingers crossed!

Ian

It's a dismal start to the day with a veil of thick fog draped over the valley masking the river and fells opposite and severely restricting the view from my kitchen window.  No rain so the river is still too low for salmon and judging by the forecast for this week will remain so.

I thought that it was just me that suffered the baleful attention of Mr Sod and his well known law, but it seems that others fall within the scope of his radar from time to time.  A regular visitor to the Tarn emailed me yesterday to recount the sorry tale of his last visit on Monday.  he took the boat out to mid water and began fishing. The fishing was going well, too well.  On attempting to retrieve the anchor he discovered that it was held fast to the bed of the Tarn. 

Now I make it very clear to new members when they join that extreme care must be taken at all times when fishing deep for fear of snagging the plug that prevents the Tarn from draining away little thinking that this might actually come to pass.  Be that as it may, our esteemed member was now stuck with no means of summoning help and a set of self help options none of which were ideal.  He could cut the anchor line and abandon the gear, swim for the shore or make a further attempt at freeing the recalcitrant anchor.  He decided upon the latter and after much heaving, sweating swearing and exhausting effort managed to haul up the anchor together with a rather large carboy that was last seen many years ago when it was employed to anchor barley straw bales to prevent them drifting in the wind.

To have dropped anchor right on top of this hazard that has lain happily unmolested for years must count as very bad luck, but leaves me wondering just what else is lurking in the depths of the Tarn just waiting to ensnare an unwary fisherman.  A mermaid with a Yorkshire accent or a kraken like giant crayfish?  Happy fishing!

Ian

I really should learn that reading the Sunday papers over breakfast is a sure fire way of bringing on dyspepsia, apoplexy and a chronic attack of the Victor Meldrew's filled as they are with tales of the "elf and safety" Mafia, a legal system that seems far more intent on punishing victims of crime than the perpetrators and politicians whose perceptions of real life seem to have been formed on the planet Zog.  But this morning as I waded through the small rain forest of Fleet Street's finest (now produced in Victoria Street) I came across the salvation of the world! 

I have long been addicted to the delights of a small brown bar in a distinctive black, gold and red wrapper.  This has sustained me even when found to be deformed, redolent of sweat and carbide (when carried under a caving helmet since you ask) or almost liquid on a hot summer's day in the oven of a railway carriage.  The magnificent Mars bar is, oh glories of glories, now to be offered in dark chocolate

So the economy may be going to hell in a hand cart,  the earth may be about to boil away into the void and there may be no new series of Dr Who next year, but who cares now that we have a dark chocolate Mars bar.

Turning to matters prosaic and piscatorial, the river is far too low now for decent salmon fishing with merely a dribble going over Settle weir and nothing of note moving up Stainforth Foss.  The forecast for this week holds little prospect of rain with a ridge of high pressure centred over the UK.  So it looks as though the Tarn is the best bet for the time being.

Ian

Sorry for the silence over the past few days, but cellar renovation works have rather taken up most of my spare time.  The river has been too low for decent salmon fishing most of this week, but a little rain last night has lifted it a bit so it may be worth casting a fly over some of the bigger pools today to see what's lurking and may be irritated.

There was a minor pollution incident at Horton at the end of last week when the main sewer backed up and overflowed in the heavy rain we had at the weekend.  My devolved river watching arrangement here worked perfectly.  After the last incident with this particular sewer I gave the EA Hot-line number to a local resident whose house overlooks the river and asked her to phone it immediately if she saw any overflow.  This she did and the EA were on site within fifteen minutes arranging for United Utilities to tackle the problem.  Little damage is likely to have been done as the river was in full flood and any sewage entering the river will have been well diluted and dispersed.  This sewer pipe is becoming a too regular source of trouble so I will raise this at the next Parish Council meeting and get a formal assessment of the problem from UU.

The recent major incident on the Trent just shows how vigilant we all need to be if our fishing waters are to be protected.  It takes just a moment of carelessness or crass stupidity to wreck an ecosystem that will then take years to fully recover.  The upper Ribble is especially vulnerable because of the natural barrier at Stainforth.  If we were ever to have a really major pollution incident then non migratory fish stock would almost certainly take a heavy hit along with all the fly life that are such a vital part of the system.  Organophosphates are our biggest worry up here, but there is always the fear that some unscrupulous fly tipper will dump something nasty up on Gayle beck where the road comes close to the watercourse.

Don't have nightmares!

Ian

We have been busy today plastering the cellar so just a quick update this evening on conditions on the river.  It's been raining hard all day so we have a full flood at present.  With dryer conditions promised for tomorrow water levels should be just about ideal for a salmon run at Horton.

Ian

I see from the local weather forecast that tomorrow promises to be a real pig of a day with very heavy rain due to fall during the afternoon.  A marked contrast to the glorious autumn day that we had today featuring wall to wall sunshine, a very light breeze and an almost balmy temperature. A pity the trout season has ended as conditions were just about perfect for trouting with plenty of water on the runs and riffles and a really good flow going down the refurbished fish pass at Settle weir helping to bring our migrating Salmo salar up to Horton.  If we get the rain that's promised for tomorrow then Wednesday should be a great salmon fishing day.

My babbling yesterday about runner ducks brought a response from a regular correspondent that had me laughing out loud.  It would seem that I'm not the first resident of Newhouses to keep runners.  They were kept by my much missed neighbour Mary many years ago and she used to take them together with her geese up to the Tarn.  It would seem that one of our illustrious past members was of the habit of shooting duck at the Tarn and one day, mistaking the resident domestic runners for pochard, terminated the egg laying career of two and went on his way rejoicing.  The rather stunned audience of fishing members who witnessed this execution repaired to Newhouses to quietly offer compensation for the crime.

Finally, to those two members who expressed some concern at the  absence of the swan family all last Tuesday, don't worry they were all safely feeding on the Tarn yesterday.

Ian

Aeons ago when TV came in two flavours and no colour there was a very popular programme called "What's My Line".  It's simple format involved a panel of "celebrities" trying to guess from mimed actions the occupation of members of the great British working public.  It crossed my mind just what the illustrious panel would have made of the activity I was engaged in this afternoon.

To start at the beginning.  On Friday at the Hot Pot I was approached by a young lady who asked me if I knew how to sex ducks.  Not something that you get asked on a daily basis and fairly unique as a chat up line. Casting a furtive glance in the direction of my wife who has a gimlet eye and ears like radar scanners I ventured that I did indeed know how to tell ducks from drakes when the breed in question is to all intents and purposes identical in both him and her.  Basically when young the only sure fire way is to listen for the quack.  In a duck it's a very definite quack in a drake it's more of an adenoidal squeak probably because the male generally can't get a word in edgeways. So this afternoon saw us at a farm further up the valley confronting a large flock of runner ducks which through foresight on the part of the owner had been confined to a stable.

This is where the fun started as the only real way to tell him from her is to pick up each bird  and encourage it to emit a noise by giving it a gentle squeeze.  There then ensued a scene from a silent movie with added sound (cacophony) as the three of us pursued ten ducks round the stable attempting to grab each one identify its sexual persuasion and place a red leg ring on the females.  Runner ducks live up to their name.  Whilst not the most stable creature on two legs they can show a remarkable turn of speed when they wish to and being very young they possess the wriggling ability of a greased piglet We quickly worked out that the best modus operandi was to get them cornered and quietly grab anything that came to hand.  This usually resulted in what may have been a polite enquiry as to what was going on or more probably runner duck for a stream of invective.  Whatever, it served to enable identification whereupon each identified animal was given a red leg ring if female and deposited in a pen next door.

We then decided on a spot of quality control which involved catching up all the females and returning them to the stable.  This left the supposed drakes all together.  These were encouraged to move about a bit so that they communicated and we could check for quack.  No quack just a lot of hissy fit so we got it right first time, reunited the whole flock and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.  We returned home with a new addition to the small family of runners that we traipsed all the way to Whitby to get not realising that our neighbour was breeding the damn things.

Just something else to add to my CV. Duck sexer to the gentry.

It's been fairly dry today so the river is now falling quickly and is probably already well past its best for salmon fishing.  A dry day is in prospect for tomorrow also, but rain may be with us on Tuesday so mid week could see some decent water in the river.  Watch this space.

Ian

Judging from the zombie like state of at least one member who turned up at my place this morning the supper last evening was a storming success.  We filled the dining room to overflowing (some were camped out in the hotel lounge) and vast quantities of a superb meat and potato pie with mushy peas were put away followed by apple pie.  The crack was stimulating with both farmers and members holding forth on all manner of subjects.  When I left at well past eleven some hardy souls were still at it and a valiant effort was being made to drink dry the pub's supply to whisky.

We had arranged to repair the boat house door this morning, but gale force winds which have persisted all day made this a less than sensible occupation.  We had visions of the door heading off for Pen y Ghent once we got it off its hinges.  So please continue to exercise extreme caution when opening the door especially in high winds until I get it rehung later this week.

There is now plenty of water in the river so the salmon will be running over the next couple of days.  Further good news is that thanks to the efforts of our local EA fisheries officer the refurbished and improved fish pass on Settle was opened up last evening.  Here is the email copied to me:

After a lovely sunny day yesterday its turned wet this morning with low cloud masking the fells.  Whether it will be wet enough to lift the river sufficiently to get the salmon running remains to be seen, but at present the cloud shows little sign of lifting.

Last evening was fairly still and moonlit with just a hint of autumnal chill so Paul and I went up to the Tarn to lamp for crayfish.  You will recall that Paul had marked out the perimeter of the Tarn in 25 meter sections using canes with coloured flags.  Our aim last night was to record sightings of crayfish with in each of  sectors.  We started at the cross wall opposite the hut and worked our way clockwise round the margin.  The results we got are fascinating and show that our native population is well dispersed throughout the Tarn.  We got significantly more creatures in the margin at the hut side probably because this side is sheltered from the light breeze that was blowing from the south west.  The proportion of numbered creatures (from the survey) to unmarked was about one to three with very few smaller creatures active.  It would be interesting to see whether the time of the check has any bearing on numbers seen so I may go up and take another look very late one night next week if the conditions permit.

Despite some dodgy moments both of us managed to stay upright and avoid a soaking.

We did notice that some of the numbered creatures had travelled considerable distance from where they were originally trapped with one (number 1) that was taken in the first trap by the cross wall found down at the south  east corner of the duck wall.

I will see some of you tonight.

Ian

Well, that's it.  The end of the 2009 brown trout season and a rather odd one it turned out to be with high water making fishing difficult through most of the summer then low water proving equally problematic for the last three weeks.  Despite that fish were caught and a quick check of the returns on the club web site shows that 119 brown trout were caught and 24 visits to the river recorded giving a ratio of catch to visit of just shy of 5 fish which I guess is not too bad.  Of course there will be many more visits by members that are not recorded on the site and these will be both blank days and fish full so the real tally for this year is going to be rather different.  The returns do show where fish were caught and in most cases list the fly that did the killing.  Rather more info than has been available hitherto.

We did get quite a lot done this season including the refurbishment of the hut, a lot of native crayfish related work and a bit of electrofishing survey work.

Council's decision to switch supplier for the Tarn fish proved a good one with fish arriving exactly when and as ordered.  These fish earned nothing but praise being fully finned, fighting fit rainbows and blue trout which gave some excellent sport and will hopefully continue to do so until the end of October.

All we need now is a few days rain to lift the river high enough to enable the waiting salmon to make it up to Horton.  My gripe yesterday about the closure of the fish pass at Settle prompted a full and very helpful response from the Chairman of the RFCA and rather than repeat it here I have posted it in the news section of the club website.  The gist is that the pass is indeed closed at present and has been for the past two weeks, but the EA are monitoring the site closely and the contractors are committed to opening the pass when flow is at a level that would enable salmon to use it.

So now we look forward to the farmers supper tomorrow which promises to be the best attended for some considerable time with around 45 members, farmers and guests booked in to the Crown for supper.  The dining room will be cosy!

Ian