That's another trouting season over and its been an odd one with a very dry spring, wet summer and a very warm and dry start to autumn.  A very large number of young brown trout were spotted during the season which hopefully will mature over the next couple of years to provide some more consistent success for those members who regularly trawl the river. 

There are definitely some big fish in the pools below Horton as evidenced by their fondness for salmon flies and there does seem to be some indication that natural fly life is increasing slightly to keep these adult fish well fed. 

It's still an ambition to get our native crayfish back into the river and efforts to secure funding to continue the project will be redoubled next year.  We are so close to success that it would be a waste of much effort and past money if the project were not to be taken to a conclusion.

So, it's just salmon (if we get some water) and the Tarn residents now until the end of October.  Then the fishery will slumber until March.

Ian

Well, it's the last day of the trout season tomorrow and with the river falling quickly in this glorious Indian summer the early morning may be the best chance of bagging a last minute brownie.

I was working in Settle all day yesterday so when lunch time came around we took the dogs for a swim down below Penny bridge.  What an inviting spot this is for a keen fisherman.  There was just enough water to wet a fly (and a couple of blond labs) and the trees on the far bank provided good shade and cover.

The swans seem to have taken a holiday away from the Tarn as they often do at this time of year.  I surprised a heron that was hunting frogs in the wildlife area and he (or she) seemed most put out by my close approach making a complete hash of a running take off.

My plan is to wander up river tomorrow from Turn Dub and re set all the loose tree stakes on the bank side planting as far as the new bridge.  They should then see out another winter.  Most of the tubes are now sporting growth out of the top so in a couple more years we may have the beginning of some decent cover on this long beat.

Ian

I went up to the Dub first thing this morning and found the river in near perfect condition for a kick sample.  This produced no real surprises.  The river has an abundance of fly life here and the pattern over the last five years has hardly varied although there is just a hint that the numbers of larvae at each sample are slowly increasing.  What was unusual this time was the large number of very small cased caddis that came to the net.  By small I mean really small no more than a couple of mil at most needing a glass to confirm that they really were cased caddis.  The cases were composed of minute grains of sand.

I'm no expert on the life cycle of caddis fly, but if these represent immature creatures that will grow on we should see a very good population of caddis at this site next season.

It's a glorious day here with the promise of even better weather tomorrow and Thursday.  The river is lowering, but still good for a final fling at the brownies.

Ian

I did the invert check at New Inn yesterday morning.  All is fine, in fact a look back over 5 years of records for this site shows a small, but perceptible increase in riverfly numbers.  I got a good few caddis on this check which is unusual for this site.  It's any ones guess why this should be, but a wet summer with plenty of well oxygenated water and fairly low temperatures may be one answer.

I went up to the Dub first thing this morning to do the check there more in hope than expectation.  My fears were well founded as I found the Dub overflowing with last nights deluge and the river far too high for safe wading.  With the summer arriving at long last this week I should get the check done tomorrow.

Members visiting the Tarn this week will notice a change to the lodge.  It has a new roof.  A very smart job it is too in glass fibre.  This is thanks to the generosity of Gavin and should see us all through to that happy fishing ground in the sky.

Ian

Following on from my comments yesterday about sparrow hawks, I was standing at the kitchen sink this morning contemplating the washing up when I spotted a magpie down on the wire that tops the dry stone wall enclosing the croft.  This seemed agitated and bounced up and down shrieking so I got the field glasses for a closer look to see what was exciting it.  Just as I raised the glasses to my eye a sparrow hawk swooped down and the magpie flew up to meet it and began a brief mid air skirmish before both landing back on the wire and engaging in a noisy stand off.  I had no idea that these birds would fight and had assumed that they normally ignored each others presence.  I've no idea what the battle was about, there was no evidence of any kill when I went to look later.

We may be in for a late summer this week with much sun and some unseasonal warmth.  I'm not counting chickens yet especially after the dismal summer that we just endured.

Off early tomorrow to do the September invert check at New Inn so more on this tomorrow.


Ian

Its not been a bad day for once, in fact we had some pleasant sunshine late this afternoon and with barely a breath of wind it felt quite warm.  Just right for a member who travelled up from the south with a guest for a weekend's sport on the Tarn and river.

Conditions may hold up quite well for the last few days of the trouting season as damper conditions are forecast for tomorrow and Sunday with brighter weather at the start of the working week.

I was standing in my breakfast room yesterday morning watching the sparrows busy feeding and fighting round the nut feeders when a shadow shot across the window followed by what looked like a heap of buff feathers.  This heap resolved into a sparrow hawk which hauled itself off the back lawn where it had crash landed and sat looking sheepish on the dry stone wall at the back of the house.  By this time the flock of sparrows had long gone so it shook itself and took off westwards towards Ingleborough.  It's the closest view I have yet had of this rather handsome raptor and I guess a rather too close view for my resident sparrows.

The sky seems empty now without the swallows which have now all departed.  So far I have had no sight or sound of that soundtrack to autumn , the curlew.  It can't be long now before that bubbling, rather lonesome call is heard over Horton as the leaves are now falling fast from the giant sycamore in the lower garden and I'm busy with the lawnmower picking them up.

Ian

Its been a dry day for a change and a chance to play catch up with a number of jobs delayed because of the persistent rain that's fallen here for days.  As a result I haven't visited the Tarn today so fired up the web cam for a look this evening just as the cloud over Ingleborough broke up to let through shafts of red gold light.  The picture was stunning.  The water every shade on the palette, from purple through to silver with a golden haze blurring the fells in the distance.  Not a ripple disturbed the surface and the resident trout were keeping their heads down.

The river is well off good salmon conditions now and unlikely to improve over the next few days as we seem set for a spell of dry and bright weather for a change.  I am aiming to get done the invert check for this month on Thursday so that might well put the kibosh on the weather.

Panorama was thought provoking last evening as it dealt with the chronic shortage of water in those little counties down south.  The impact of water abstraction is having a severely detrimental impact on the chalk streams by reducing flow and allowing silt to build up.  Time for a spot of joined up thinking.  It's imperative that planning guidance ensures that all development proposals are assessed against strict water usage criteria as well as other infrastructure and service requirements.  We can't keep throwing up houses without clear water supply and management plans otherwise we will lose our unique chalk streams.  I'm surprised that the ancient and revered angling clubs on the Test, Kennet and Avon are not manning the barricades. Perhaps they are, but the media as well as our political masters are ignoring them.

Ian

The quest for elusive salmon continues with at least one member making the trip to the river over the weekend.  His experience can best be described in his own words:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness really sums up conditions here this morning.  I was up at the Tarn first thing in a world shrouded in dense fog.  The sheep in Tarn pasture moved in and out of sight like ghosts to a soundtrack provided by the moorhens who called to each other across the water.

Mushrooms will be emerging now so a visit to the cow field in search of big field fungus is a plan for later this morning.

We had a lot of heavy showers yesterday which have kept the river in good salmon water.  The wind has fallen away now and the flood is falling back quickly so today may give the best chance for salmon as the next couple of days are forecast to be dry and sunny.

Ian

A lot of overnight rain and a wet start to the morning has lifted the river to near spate conditions.  The forecast suggests that it should turn showery later so salmon conditions should be very good as the river comes off the flood.  A trip to Horton may not be wasted this weekend.

Ian

The best day of the month (and last month!) and I have to spend it firstly at an interminable Council meeting at Skipton and then in the office in Settle.  Such is life.

My comments yesterday about salmon at Stainforth prompted a couple of members to email me to say that they had watched the Foss for some considerable time at the weekend and saw many fish coming up the falls.  That's good news indeed as most of these, I think,  will be making for the spawning gravels above Horton.  With the weather forecast to go downhill towards the weekend we should see a return to high water and some decent salmon conditions.

Last Wednesday two intrepid members made their way to Penny bridge below Studfold only to find the water already taken by two other member.  Is this a club record? Four members of the MAA trying to fish the same beat at the same time and all of them MAA Council members.  It only needed three more for a full house.

By the way, I have in my possession a rod found on the bench in the lodge.  If any member is wondering where the hell his rod is speak to me.

Ian

The weather has calmed somewhat now although there is still a stiff, cold north west breeze blowing down the river.  We had a lot of overnight rain so the river looked very salmony this morning.  Looks can be deceptive though as one member dropped by to report this afternoon.  He muttered darkly about fishing all the likely places for salar and getting a single brownie for all his pains.

I will find out what the salmon count is on the weirs lower down the Ribble.  This should give some clue as to how many of the silver migrants are entering the catchment although it won't necessarily tell us much about the numbers making their way up to the fleshpots of Horton.

I'm out and about all day tomorrow, but should have time on Friday to take a trip down to Stainforth and to have a look at the Foss.  If the water keeps fairly high for the next couple of days then salmon should still be coming up the Foss and that may provide a more accurate indicator of the number of fish seeking the headwaters.

Ian

A fair drop of overnight rain has lifted the river a touch. Not to spate conditions, but it's borderline salmon fishable.  That could be of merely academic interest though as it's now blowing a hooley so wind knots would be the result of all but the most accomplished of casts.

I see that next month there will be a talk in Settle given by a relation of Arthur Ransome who as many of you will know fished often at Horton and had some undefined association with the MAA (we can find no record of membership, but do know that he was a visitor to my revered predecessor Nat Hunt).  It will be interesting to hear if this talk touches upon AR's local angling exploits.

Ian

Just back from an early foray to the Tarn on a DRY morning.  Mind you, it does not look likely to stay dry for long as cloud is building from the south west on a stiffening breeze.

For the first time that I can remember in nearly ten years of being keeper here there were no recorded visits to the Tarn last week.  No doubt the weather put members off, but it's a wee bit surprising as we had some pretty good salmon water last week that should have tempted some to make the trip to Horton.

That's not to say that the Tarn wasn't fished at all.  As I arrived at the top of the lane a rather guilty looking cormorant took off from the water down near the wildlife area and I see in the nature book in the lodge that there have been a few sighted over the past couple of weeks.  The scare crow is well past his sell by date and will have to be retired this autumn.  It's difficult to know how best to deter the pterodactyls without scaring off the duck and other benign water fowl that home on the \Tarn.

The river is in good trout water today after some heavy showers yesterday so if the rain does keep off this morning there should be some good fishing to be had.  In the few minutes its taken me to write the last two paragraphs the cloud has broken and the sun has come through so the day may not turn out too bad after all.

Ian

And still the clouds continue to pour their bounty on the heads of the hills and lo, the waters floweth greatly and we are sore amazed.

Its been showery today so water levels are falling back from the floods of a few days ago although there is still plenty of colour in the flow and a fairly stiff westerly breeze will make casting a challenge on some exposed beats.

As I sit here knocking this out I am once again being watched with interest by a veritable flock of swallows who are perched on the phone wire outside the office window. They don't seem to mind the wet, in fact they seem to spend more time on the wing in this light drizzle than they do when it is dry.  I suppose that fly are more abundant or easier to catch in the wet.

I've not yet had any reports of major salmon migrations up to Horton, but with the river so high it can only be a matter of days before we begin to see a lot of fish moving up Stainforth Foss.  I repeat this every year, if you haven't spent time down by the old pack horse bridge at Stainforth watching salar leaping the foss then go down this autumn and catch a real wildlife treat.

A reader of this blog asked what impact signal crayfish have on fisheries in their native habitat.  The simple answer is, not a great deal because over in the States they face predation and depletion of population from natural elements in the their environment that just aren't present here.  In fact some scientists in the States are worried about the future of signals because of the impact of other, more aggressive, species of crustacian.  As my correspondent says, heaven help us if these creatures reach our shores.  We really should be demanding a ban on the live movement of non native crayfish (and other species).  DEFRA are reluctant to move against a relatively small lobby of crayfish trappers and "celebrity" chefs but would find it very hard to resist sustained pressure from anglers and ecologists if we all got together and demanded action.

Ian

Another foul and wet day, no good to man nor beast (except salmon).  The river is not quite in spate, but too high and coloured for decent trout fishing.  The forecast is for more of the same tomorrow with a brief respite on Friday before more rain returns at the weekend.  So Friday looks as though it may be a decent salmon day.

There has been a flurry of correspondence in the angling community recently about the impact of non native crayfish on salmon and trout recruitment.  This is something that has concerned me and I have been banging on about for a couple of years now and it's good to see anglers at last waking up to the threat pose by non native crayfish to our riverine ecology.

We are currently encouraging the S&TA, Environment Agency and others to consider funding research on the Wharfe into the impact of signal predation on salmonids and it is likely that a meeting will take place soon to discuss the proposal.

It may be too late to save the Wharfe which is heavily infested with signal crayfish; however, the research may save other northern rivers from becoming devoid of salmonids and other fish. 

Ian

A veritable monsoon late last night and early this morning brought the river to full spate by mid morning.  Indeed, so high was it that I could see white topped waves from my kitchen window and that's a fairly rare event.  We now have frequent heavy showers with intermittent sunny spells so the water has dropped somewhat off the flood, but is still high.

With a wet (and windy) week forecast the river should stay quite high, certainly high enough to move the salmon around and I suspect that we will soon see some fresh run fish up at Horton.

I received an email this morning from an angling club down in south Derbyshire.  They are seriously concerned by the potential impact on the river Mease of a planning application to construct over 8 log cabins on 1.5 acres of land near the banks of the river.  The main concern is the potential for serious pollution posed by the discharge of sewage from this development.  I do not know the Mease but do know that it flows into the Trent so the potential for serious impact on the ecology of the Trent valley must be a concern.

If anyone feels that they could offer useful advice to the Mease club then do please contact me.

Ian

Autumn has arrived here today in the guise of heavy rain, strong winds and a definite lack of warmth.  It wasn't too bad yesterday after a dismal day on Saturday which I spent mostly at a board meeting.

The river is now coming back nicely into fishing condition, but the stiff breeze will make for interesting casting on some of the exposed reaches of the river.

I was surprised yesterday to find one of my swallow nests still to contain young.  This must be a third brood and is incredibly late as the phone and power wires around here are now teeming with swallow families readying themselves for the long journey south.  Perhaps they know that we are to get an Indian summer later this month and will delay departure to take advantage of the late fly life.

It doesn't seem to matter how many swallows and bats fill the air here, they never make much impact on the plague of midges that dance in the muggy weather and bring me up in lumps. I thought that the bitter winter would reduce the population of these irritating little pests, but no, we seem to have given a home to far more of them this summer than last.

Talking of bitter winters the long range forecast is for another icy blast this year.  So much for global warming.

I'm off to saddle the mammoth.

Ian

Its turned into a foul afternoon with heavy rain.  Hardly surprising as it's Horton show day and it always rains for Horton show.  Still, this amount of precipitation will lift the river nicely and should give some good fishing conditions tomorrow.  We are promised more rain during the course of next week so conditions may well remain good for some time.

I went down to the hatchery yesterday for the first time in many weeks.  Some work needed doing in connexion with a forthcoming project that will make use of the smaller pond.  Once drained down it was interesting to see how much gunk had accumulated since the last drain down, probably some time last year.  Whilst we cleaned some of this algae away we noticed at least one trout lurking amongst the concrete blocks that provide some varied habitat and shelter in this tank.  The fish was about 9 inches to a foot so quite a mature creature.  I can only guess that it had worked its way up the spawning channel and dropped down the pipe inlet into the tank.

The main job was to cut a larger outlet so that the tank replenishes more quickly and water quality is raised.  This looked to be a fairly quick job with an SDS drill and diamond cutter but proved to be an absolute s*d.  The old outlet from the tank is blocked off with sandstone slates and 2 inches of render.  The render was easy to cut through, but the sandstone was another matter altogether..  We packed it in at 5pm an will return for a fresh assault on Monday.

Ian