The fells are veiled in mist and low cloud this morning and it's currently raining hard so any members planning to fish tomorrow should find rather better conditions on the river than of late (you timed it right Brian).

Here's a conundrum to set you thinking over your morning shreddies.  I had a call yesterday evening from crayfish Paul reporting back on the night-time visit to the Tarn that he and his students made on Saturday to observe the crayfish doing crayfishy things.  Whilst peering into the water near the boathouse with lamps they spotted a fish about 12cm long just wandering around by itself.  First thoughts were that this was either a minnow or stone loach, but minnows usually travel in gangs and you can't really mistake a loach for any other fish.  The consensus amongst the group which contained a number of EA fisheries officers was that this was a young brown trout. 

Now, we have always assumed that trout do not breed in the Tarn because there is no surface inflow and no spawning gravel.  Our stock fish are all hand graded so it did not arrive via a stocking.  We have put no brown trout in the Tarn for about 5 years so whence came this fish?

I await with interest any thoughts you may have.