The wandering rod has now been put in contact with its owner and awaits collection.  It would seem that the sheer pleasure of sitting with a hot drink contemplating the scenery with a mind in neutral gear left this particular member in such a state of bliss that all thoughts of where he might have put his tackle were banished from his mind.  I fine weather this valley can have that effect and we have just such fine weather again this morning.  The river is now quite low and well past its best, but there will be fish lurking in the pools and my guess is that quite a few salmon will be with them.

For the first time for eight weeks the beck at Ling Ghyll is low enough to draw down to check on crayfish movement so the plan is to go up there this morning and do just that.  Any member planning to fish at Horton today is more than welcome to visit and take a look.  We should be up there all morning at least.  Then this evening a number of crayfish traps will be put in the Tarn to begin the licensed population survey.  It's about six years since the last one was done and it will be interesting to discover whether there has been any change in population density over that time.  If you see any traps whilst fishing please avoid these.  They will be there for just a few days and should cause minimal inconvenience. 

Those of you who remember the last survey will know that each creature is numbered as it's recorded and released so watch out for these marked crayfish over the next few days.  I will post results up in the hut and on the club web site.

Ian