News reaches me this morning of a proposal to be put before Parliament that will encourage the introduction of beavers to the Hodder catchment.  Not surprisingly this has rattled a few cages and the RFCA has written a very well argued letter to the Lb Dem MP who spawned this idea suggesting that this might not be the idea of the century.  Beavers have been absent from these waters since the early middle ages and much has changed in the past seven hundred years or so.  Industrialisation has taken its toll on even the most remote rivers and becks.  Dams and weirs have been built that impede the movement of salmonids and prevent them from utilising all the available spawning habitat and if there is one thing an industrious beaver likes it's a good well built dam.  I know not what the bank side tree cover is like on the upper Hodder, but if it's anything like the Ribble then a colony of beavers will have the banks treeless in pretty short order.  So I strongly suspect that the cry "nice beaver" will not be heard on Bowland.

The Sage rod that I mentioned a couple of days ago has been sold.  Just goes to show the power of on line advertising and I didn't even charge a commission!

It's been showery rather than persistently wet here for the past few days so the river is in rather good water with just a touch of colour.  It's dryer today with only a light westerly breeze so fishing the river will be better than of late.

Finally, I am now getting a steady stream of material for the "History" section of the members website so expect to see additions to the site on an almost daily basis.  A lot of club songs (50) have turned up so maybe we should start future Council meetings with a rendition of selected verses.  I'm always happy to add stuff to the site for anyone who finds the technology challenging.  Driving a computer can be a dark art.

Ian