Despite the bitter cold and fairly high water yesterday I managed to get the invertebrate check done at New Inn.  It seems that our native river flies thrive in very cold water as each sample produced prodigious numbers of baetis nymphs and very good populations of the other six families that are found at this site.  I got some truly enormous gammarus (shrimp) some of which seemed to be in the process of mating.  Water quality is superb with high levels of oxygen and a fairly neutral pH.  Conditions could not be better for nurturing trout alevins as they begin to emerge from the redds over the next few weeks.

Rain over night has lifted the river enough to make sampling at Turn Dub today too much of a risk so an early morning assault on this site is planned for tomorrow.

Readers of the Dalesman should look out for an article on yours truly round about March.  This will include some photos and focus on my work for the MAA and the efforts the club has made to preserve native trout in the upper Ribble.

It's always good to see other clubs achieving success and expanding.  I had a fairly long conversation with the Hon Sec of Settle Anglers in the local supermarket yesterday afternoon.  He confirmed the news I had heard they they have just signed a lease on a reservoir above Settle and are busy assessing what they have got.  It looks like a decent brown trout water, but since the reservoir feeds the Leeds and Liverpool canal draw down in summer may be a problem.  Settle Anglers are now hoping for a continuation of the wet summers we have had here over the past couple of years.

Returning to media matters, keep an eye on BBC Countryfile over the next few weeks.  You may see something familiar.

Ian