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