It rained here a fair bit in the night and the river has lifted a good few inches.  Despite the forecast that promised a wet day the clouds seem to be lifting and breaking to give some sunny spells so we shall have to wait and see if the more prolonged spell of rain that we so desperately need actually materialises.

Despite conditions the river did perform quite well after the last rain on Monday night.  Gavin reports that:

Last night I spent a few hours fishing up into Parker's wood from the bridge on a very pleasant evening with a sluggish and slow flowing river.

The good news is much as last year and that this stretch appears to be full of young fish that will swim very close to your boots if you stand still. this along with a  very large population of minnows  must mean surely that the river is extremely healthy. There were plenty of fish showing and producing aerial displays including some quiet large fish, but any fly presented was instantly attacked by minnows or juvenile trout.

I had 6 fish and at a pinch if I was to stretch the fish the biggest it went around 7”  the smallest which I thought was a big minnow was just over 4 ”, but all were in first class condition and colour.

In the pool below Parker's wood there looks to be good growth on 2 clumps of water crowfoot at the tail of the pool. I could not find any other weed growing in this area which considering I placed around 8 planted groups of weeds into this pool was quite disappointing. The two that are growing appear very firmly anchored to the river bed and now reach the surface so when they flower and seed it might just start other populations. I also walked down the shallow section below the bridge to Cragg Hill farm to see how the weed had fared down there and again found no evidence of any growth or of crowfoot weed in any of the places it was anchored this was difficult though as most of the bed as large amounts of algae. This is a little strange as we have had no high water since planting which makes me wonder if this is being taken by the ducks on the river.

Gavin's thoughts that ducks may be taking the crowfoot seem creditable to me after recent horticultural experience.  I have been cursing rabbits for devastating my lettuce plot, attacking the broccoli and starting to chew through a row of kale.  Yesterday all was revealed when I surprised my ducks under the netting busy snacking on the endive which I thought would be too bitter.  Having kept runner ducks for many years this is the first flock that have even so much as taken a nip at the garden veg. Barriers are being erected.

Ian