The river is looking pretty miserable now with just a trickle going over Settle weir and a lot of exposed boulders up at Horton.  The forecast for the week ahead shows little sign of rain so the Tarn remains the only really viable venue for fishing at present.

There was quite a good clip about riverfly monitoring on TV last night in the programme on the Natural History Museum.  From what I could see of the invertebrates that came out of the River Monow which was featured our stocks of riverfly are pretty good.

A few days ago I mentioned the pending court case involving the native crayfish gourmet.  A report in the Telegraph yesterday tells me that this chap was fined £4,000.00 for eating native crayfish out of the River Kent.  A very expensive meal that should send a clear message to others who illicitly trap our native white claws.

It will soon be time to restart the Ling Ghyll crayfish project for this year.  Last time I saw Paul B he told me that as soon as the big diesel powered pump was available from the EA he would begin drawing down the site for the first time since last summer and we will see how many creatures have made it over the successive weirs.  With relatively few big spates this winter hopes are high that very few will have washed down into the canyon beyond the waterfalls.

Ian