After gloating over the quality of fish currently residing in the river I was brought back down to earth with rather a bump by the discovery of a number of mutilated trout at the Tarn.  We evidently have a predator at work and from the damage to these fish my guess is that mink are responsible.  The number of coots on the water seems to have diminished since Sunday and there is a half chewed seagull in Tarn pasture which tends to reinforce the theory.  Appropriate measure are being taken and for more info members should visit the secure website.

If you are fishing the Tarn over the next few days please do report to me anything that you see that suggests that it's something other than mink.  I know about the cormorants that arrived last week and am visiting the Tarn each morning to move them on.  Hopefully they will get the message that they are unwelcome here and return to Morecambe.

Other than that things are pretty much as usual with frequent showers keeping the river on the decent side of fishable and our salmon on the run.

Ian