It dawned bright and sunny after a brief shower of rain late last evening, but cloud is steadily building and we are forecast some more persistent rain by lunchtime.  The river is really desperate for a top up being just about at bare bones above Horton.

This lack of good water on the river has prompted most members to concentrate attention on the Tarn and at least 10 visited this water during the course of Wednesday.  I still think that the best time for fishing here is late evening.  The light is more diffused and fish are more ready to feed on the steady hatch of buzzers and sedge that are then present.  Besides, it's a stunning spot to be as the sun sinks behind Park Fell, the shadows lengthen and the birds begin heading for their night time roosts.

The dams at Ling Gill were drained down again yesterday to check for the presence of crayfish in the holding ponds.  Of course, without a good spate to provide a real trial of the setup it's too soon to draw conclusions, but the early indications are that the system is working better than anyone dared to hope.  Only two crayfish were found in the top pool yesterday, a juvenile and pregnant female.  The juvenile is so small that it was probably overlooked in the initial removal and the female will have also been missed as she was probably tucked away in a crack as is the inclination of crayfish in her condition.

We shall have to wait and see the results following a flood, but it's clear that in steady flow no creatures are managing to get past or over the dams.

Gavin P arrived last evening with new swivel seats for the boat.  These are very posh and once fitted will make fishing from the boat a much less painful experience for elderly joints and bones.  They should also make the boat that much safer as they will provide a waist high grab point when standing to move within the boat.  We will get these fitted as soon as practicable.

Finally, do take a look at the latest article on Angli Vespers.  This deals with the capture of the largest fish caught at the tarn some 17 years ago.  I'm confident that there are still some very large old brown trout lurking in the shake holes down towards the bottom end by the trees so who knows, this record may yet be beaten.

Ian