I arose this morning with the intention of playing in the river (doing the November invertebrate check).  A dry and almost bright day yesterday had reduced the flow to non life threatening levels so a quick check before the snow arrived that we were promised this afternoon seemed a good plan.  No it wasn't.  A look out of the window showed, even at 7 am this morning that the weather Gods weren't playing ball.  It's now been raining hard for hours driven on by an unusual north east wind and the meadows below the house are several inches deep in water.  The river is in full flood and well across the lane down by the Crown Inn.  So no invertebrate check today.

Friday saw me up at Malham Tarn Field Centre for a meeting to review progress in the various crayfish/trout in the classroom projects that have been under way this summer.  These seem to have been very successful with a very encouraging survival rate seen in the captive breeding tanks at both Horton and Wortly schools.  It was concluded that the projects should run for a further year with more sites being investigated especially  places with a high public throughput to maximise the publicity and educational value.

It was further resolved to keep this years crop of young crayfish captive for a further year so that their rate of growth can be monitored and their maturation observed by the schools involved thus giving a bit of continuity whilst next years crop are gathered and hatched.  Whilst these projects are very small scale they do contribute significantly to raising public awareness of the plight of native crayfish and help to ensure that extinction is still some way off yet.

Ian

A bit late with this post this week, but refurbishing my utility room has rather taken up most of my time.  The job is mostly done now and a flagged floor with Belfast sink should make washing waders and other assorted gear a good deal easier.

It's rained pretty well every day since last Sunday so the November invertebrate check will have to wait until the river is a tad safer.  Even in moderate water there is a pretty fierce tug over the rocky substrate that makes wading less than easy and it's well nigh impossible to use a staff and grapple with the sampling net at the same time.  Swimming in the Ribble at this time of year is not my idea of fun.

We now have confirmation from the Woodland Trust that they will supply and plant a thousand native hardwood trees on our fishery.  Some of these are destined for the far end of the Tarn with the majority to be planted in pockets between Turn Dub and the Pennine Bridleway site.  There is some good spawning gravel on this beat and the tree cover as it matures will provide habitat to encourage salmon and trout parr to remain resident here.  In the longer term these trees should also offer some good refuge for mature fish and encourage an increase in fly life.

The aim is to get the contractors on site in the New Year and have the job completed well before the commencement of the new fishing season.  Thanks are due to the Trust for their generosity, Gavin for all his support with the Tarn fence and Geoff D for agreeing so readily to planting on his land.

Ian

Wonderful news for all those of you who invested your fortune with Bernie Madoff.  I understand that an auction of all Bernies worldly goods includes a fair amount of fishing tackle.  This is likely to be top notch stuff so if you fancy bagging a bargain (even though you probably paid for it in the first place) watch out for further news of the auction.

Even better news is that Mrs swan and her three cygnets are back from their autumn break and reunited with the cob on the Tarn.  The cob has been looking lonely this past few weeks and I was beginning to wonder if something untoward had happened to the pen and her family, but an early morning foray to the Tarn this morning to check around and batten everything down  for the approaching winter revealed all five birds happily feeding down by the duck wall.

There's a new on line presence in the local angling fraternity.  Settle Anglers have just put up a website that's already full of useful and interesting stuff.  Check it out at www.settleanglers.co.uk or MAA members can find a direct link from Angli Vespers under the Resources/weblinks menu.

One idea I plan to pinch from this new site is a page of favourite flies along with photos and tying recipes.  Over the next few weeks I will pull together details of all the artificials recorded in the river return on the MAA website and their standard dressings, but please do email me with your own favourites, when they are most effective (time of year, time of day, conditions etc) and where on the river they work best and I will include those too.  Even better if you can include a small jpg showing the beast in all its glory.

Ian

After almost persistent wet weather since the close of the season it's been a gloriously sunny day here in the valley.  We had the first sharp frost of the autumn this morning and this abrupt change to cold weather will trigger thoughts of spawning in or wild brown trout.

A glance at the metcheck forecast for tomorrow reveals a chance of snow flurries so here comes winter.

I mentioned a while ago that one of our esteemed members had just published a book on north country fly patterns.  In my mailbox this morning arrived the first review of said tome.  Gavin tells us that;

I have just finished reading Mike Harding’s new book “A Guide to Tying North Country Flies”. It is a fully informative little book with many old and localised fly patterns along with many of the old faithful patterns and variants that we all use on our rivers. Mike should be congratulated on producing this book in the spiral format and with its entertaining ease of reading hopefully will encourage more anglers who do not tie their own patterns to have a go.

So here is something else for the Christmas list and a chair by a warm fire with a glass (or two) of malt.

I'm off tomorrow to look at the hatchery with crayfish Paul who has an "idea".  More on this in due course.

Ian

Isn't it always the way?  Just as the season comes to an end down comes the rain and the river is in super salmon fishing condition. Since Sunday we have had a series of spates and the fish have been coming up the Foss in droves.  I have had a number of calls from locals in raptures about the sight of leaping salmon down at Stainforth.  A guest staying in my holiday flat went home as pleased as punch with his first ever photo of a salmon in full flight.  Less welcome were the visitors captured in the photo below whose fishing methods were unorthodox in the extreme.



Seriously though,  we haven't yet to contend with this problem at Stainforth.  (Picture acknowledgements to Roman Gollubenko/Solent and the Daily Telegraph).

I'm switching now to a weekly Blog probably posted on Sundays.  The daily dose of rant will return in March.

Ian

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

Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?  Here we are, the last day of the brown trout season already and the past seven months seem to have flown by.  I will be in retrospective mood tomorrow, but all in all it doesn't seem to have been a bad fishing season.

We did some electrofishing on the main river yesterday.  After a false start that found us scratching our heads by the river just above the football field and contemplating a boulder strewn broad channel that was clearly going to be a nightmare to survey we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and decamped to Drain Mires where we could get the waggon right down to the river bank along side some very good salmon spawning gravel.  This area is very open and windswept with almost no bank side cover and some poaching of the banks by livestock so we had some apprehension about what we would find.  Certainly no brown trout as this is not good trout habitat.  In a 30 meter length we got over 30 salmon fry and a single salmon parr together with a host of minnow, bullhead and stone loach.  Not a bad result for 3 hours work, but it's evident that with a bit of judicial habitat work this area could become a super salmon and trout nursery.  The west bank here is well fenced already and the east bank is fairly high with a good uncut margin before it merges with the meadow behind.  A bit of bank protection and a few willows here would work wonders for both salmon and trout recruitment.

Depending on how the weather shapes up we may try to survey another river site early next week.  The aim is to get some reliable data about salmon recruitment on the higher reaches of the river before the hydro scheme becomes operative at Settle so that any changes in recruitment can be referenced against the situation without the scheme in place.  My big concern at present is that the work currently being done at Settle has closed the fish pass on Settle weir so if we do get some decent water over the next few weeks our salmon will find their progress up stream severely restricted.  The fish pass needs to be opened up as soon as possible and I find it rather surprising that the EA allowed work to be carried out here during the migration season.

Ian

We had a slight change of plan yesterday.  Instead of electrofishing the main river we went up to Nether Lodge and did Cam Beck just below the farm.  This is an unfenced, tree lined length with a cobble and boulder bottom.  Not easy to net, but we got some quite interesting results.  As well as a good number of bull head, minnow and stone loach (they seem to be everywhere) we also found a dozen or so trout parr up to 4 inches.  The real surprise was a large salmon parr which was taken in one of the small pools.  The fish in this beck are very dark in colour, not so brightly spotted as those in Brants Ghyll an take a great deal of concentration to spot and bring to the net once the current has stunned them.

The plan now is to do the main river this morning, but it will be a challenge to find enough water on a narrow riffle of sufficient length to make this viable.

It's yet another grey and cloudy day with just a light breeze.  We are promised a little rain later, but this is likely to arrive too late to make the last day of the season a sensible fishing option.

Ian

The main crayfish survey concluded yesterday with a total catch for the six days of just shy of 900.  When the recaptures are added in then well over a thousand creatures came into the traps.  This is a staggering total and well over twice as many as were recorded the last time a population density survey was done here in 2002.

Those members who visit the Tarn over the next few days will notice a number of coloured pegs set around the margins of the tarn.  These are marking out 25 and 50 meter intervals so that exact locations can be plotted.  The plan is to lamp the Tarn late one evening this week, probably Thursday and record the number of crayfish active between each peg.  This data will show how well the population is distributed at the Tarn and whether the population total extrapolated from the trapping results is skewed due to traps being set at the most densely populated locations.  The pegs should cause no interference with fishing so please be patient and leave them in place.

It's back to the very depleted river this morning as we plan to electrofish one of the riffles upstream from Austin's pools.  I am not aware that any electrofishing has ever been done this far up the Ribble so the results whatever they show will be interesting.

We seem to have a fair number booked for the Hot Pot Supper on Friday, but there is still time to get your name in to Michael if you wish to attend.  It should be an enjoyable evening.

Ian

I spent a fascinating morning yesterday helping the Ribble Catchment Conservation Trust to do an electrofishing survey of Brants Ghyll.  This was a full qualitative survey unlike the five minute quantitative survey that we did here last autumn.  First we set a couple of stop nets 30 meters apart to define the survey area.  Then the area within the nets was fished from top to bottom. This took about three quarters of an hour and produced a fair bucket full of fish.  Whilst we waited for the escapees to settle down and take up station the catch was processed.  The result was a very healthy population of trout and salmon parr together with a reasonable number of trout and salmon fry.

We also got quite a haul of bull heads which I know from my riverfly work are common in the river and about a dozen very large stone loach.

After placing this processed catch into an aerated bin we did two upstream passes with the gear to ensure that the area had been entirely swept of fish.  These produced a further small haul of parr and fry and a handful of bullhead and loach.

The health of a salmonid population is judged by reference to a standard measure and what we have in Brants Ghyll is a category borderline B/C population where category A is the highest.  This compares to a D category last season so it looks as though both salmon and brown trout are recruiting well in Brants Ghyll.

We will shift our attention to the main river on Monday and take a look at a riffle sequence above the Austin's pools between New Inn and Newhouses.

I then went up to the Tarn to give Paul a hand with the day's crayfish recording.  We now have a catch of around seven hundred creatures most of which have only come once into the traps.  So by Sunday we should have over nine hundred which leaves no doubt that the Tarn is likely to be the healthiest population of native crayfish in the UK.  Just out of curiosity I set two traps right out in the middle of the Tarn.  In the past only the margins have ever been trapped so we thought why not?  let's see what a couple of deep water traps turn up.  I will check these later this morning.  We may get nothing, but who knows.

If you are visiting the Tarn over the next few days please be aware that the boathouse door is parting company with the rest of the boat house and taking the support with it.  A repair is a three man job at least so this will have to wait until we can get a small working party to the Tarn, get the door off, repair the door post and rehang the door.  In the meantime please do be careful if you are taking out the boat.  The door is extremely heavy and should be treated with great caution.

Ian

If you

Not much sign of sun over the past few days and very little rain so the river remains very low and sluggish.  We are going to attempt a spot of electrofishing this morning on Brants Ghyll and a couple of selected pools on the main river.  The objective is to try to build on the work done last autumn on the side becks and establish the nature of the brown trout population on the upper river.  I have a feeling that there may well be just too little water to get any meaningful data, but we shall see.

What is going well is the crayfish survey.  The last two days checks have produced over 150 creatures in the ten traps on each day with very few repeat catches.  So at this half way stage we already have a larger population sample than was got in the whole of the 2002 survey.  This suggests that our native crayfish are recruiting very well which speaks volumes for the overall health of the Tarn and its fish stock.

My belief is that this high density population of crayfish is a significant benefit to the fishery as these omnivores play a vital role in keeping the water clear and clean.  They are scavengers and will soon dispose of any dead matter in the water thus reducing the risk of disease that might affect the resident trout.  The young crayfish probably provide a ready food source for bottom feeding fish through the early spring which is why early all fish irrespective of whether they have just been stocked or are over wintered come to the rod in such good condition.

We shall see what today's check reveals.

Ian

We cleared down the crayfish traps at the Tarn yesterday morning and found an exceptional haul of animals.  The perceived wisdom is that a single crayfish per trap indicates a location with a thriving population.  We got an average of 23 creatures per trap with one trap holding 50 white claws.  This early result suggests that the Tarn may well be the best native crayfish site anywhere in the UK, 

We recorded and numbered each creature checking for disease and any other indicator that problems may be building in the population.  Only two of the 230 animals processed showed signs of white porcelain disease.  Again the rule of thumb is that a 10% rate of infection is accepted as normal so our population is not only exceptinally large it's also seems to be exceptionally healthy. 

There are still 5 days of the study left to run so these are just preliminary findings.  The traps were reset yesterday and will be cleared down again today.  It will be interesting to see how much of the catch consists of re caught animals and how many are fresh catch.  The numbers will tell us and the numbers will also show how mobile the population is as we can relate each numbered creature to the location where it was originally and subsequently caught.

Do look out for numbered crayfish when fishing the Tarn.  Crayfish bingo is always an option to help pass those tedious hours when the trout are not cooperating.

Despite some rain yesterday the river is still too low for decent fishing and with high pressure forecast to build again over the next few days it's doubtful if there will be much decent water before the end of the trouting season next week.

Ian

The first significant rain for a fortnight fell during the night and its a typical equinoctial day so far with a very stiff westerly wind blowing along a lot of dank grey cloud.  The river has risen a touch, but it will take a drop more rain yet to make any real difference to the level.

We set ten traps round the Tarn last evening as part of the crayfish survey and these will be checked this morning.  The plan is to do a 6 day check so the traps will remain in situ until Sunday with daily processing of results.  I will post these up as we get them and try to draw some comparisons with the results obtained from the last survey in 2002.

Ian