Keeper's Blog

20 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:32:00 +0100

It's currently dry here for a change and has been all night so the spate conditions on the river that plagued us yesterday will be abating and the colour should begin to drop out (always providing that it remains dry!).

As many of you will know, I keep a running check on fishing returns at the Tarn so that stocking levels can be adjusted to take account of activity. For some time now I have said that fishing has been good here, but the statistics really back up this assertion. For the week between 4 and 11 August eighteen visits were made to the Tarn and these resulted in 69 fish caught of which 28 fish were returned. This represents a catch to visit ratio of 3.83 fish (presumably one fish was minus its tail). the previous week was even better. There were fewer visits but more fish were caught per visit giving a ratio of 5. Considering that the catch limit is 6 per visit that's an incredible ratio and suggests that almost all visits resulted in maximum catch.

I have received a report from Paul Bradley on the state of our native crayfish in the Tarn. It's fairly long so rather than paste it into the blog I will post it up as a word document attachment to tomorrows blog. It makes encouraging reading and is very complementary about the club's management of the Tarn.

Ian

19 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:30:00 +0100

It's raining cats & dogs here at present with a sky that looks full of more rain to come. The river had fallen off by yesterday afternoon to give near perfect trouting water and with a very light breeze and some sun the fish were feeding at the surface. Today is rather different! there is no breeze, but neither is there any sun so hatches will be pretty well non existent apart from a few dumb olives which seem to hatch in even the most unpromising conditions.

I had a call last evening from a member requesting a guest ticket for today (bring an aqualung, Brian). During the course of our conversation he reported his experience of the top end of the fishery last Friday which was that 'it's stuffed with fish'. Now Brian knows the tricky waters above Lodge Hall as well as any member and if he says it's fishing well then I can rest easy. This is true bandit country where the trout are not big, but they are wild and feisty and take all ones bushcraft to sneak up on if you are not to spook them and send them dashing for cover. By all reports the river there can offer wild trout fishing at its finest provided that one has the patience, persistence and skill to tempt them.

The sky now seems to be getting brighter in the west so maybe it will stop raining soon and before the river comes into full spate.

Ian

18 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:48:00 +0100

I hope that you are not getting too bored with the recent historical theme to this blog, but the gestation of the MAA and the characters that have frequented these waters over the past 130 years fascinates me. My particular interest is with my illustrious predecessor, Nat Hunt. As many of you will know Nat was keeper here for over 40 years taking on responsibility for the fishery from Robert Walker towards the end of the 19th century. It was Nat who oversaw the building of the hatchery in Jackie Pasture on Brants Ghyll and it was he who ran it until Walter Pollard became keeper in the late 1930's. I have only ever seen one photo of Nat, the one in Anglers' Evenings so imagine my surprise and delight when I downloaded mail messages last evening to find two pictures sent to me by a correspondent both of which include Nat and are from almost the beginning and end of his reign.

The picture here is an important one as it shows members of the Association gathered at the hatchery on the occasion of its opening on 28 September 1907. Nat is on the far left. Who are the others?

I am very grateful to you John for this brilliant photo.

Yet again it's a damp start to the day with a wet week in prospect. So with river levels already high it's unlikely that the water will drop and clear much before the weekend.

Ian

17 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:51:00 +0100

From time to time I get email messages from strangers who have stumbled upon the MAA website and have something interesting to tell me. One such message arrived a couple of months ago from a chap who wished to know if I could tell him more about an old fly book he had in his possession. A quick referral to the fount of all knowledge on the history of the club and I was able to tell him a little about his book of old flies. He agreed to send me some photos of the book and here is just a sample of what he sent.

The second photo is slightly out of focus, but it shows the type of fly that was used at the Tarn a hundred years ago.

I sent these photos to David M and you may be interested in his comments. It's difficult to read the writing in the second picture, but the flies are by Austin and Glass.

Quite exciting really.
David Reid gave a paper in November 1878 "An October day among Greyling", where he tells of the fishing around Bakewell and especially from the Rutland Arms. The Inn had the fishing upstream past Haddon. These flies could be the very ones he showed at the lecture. Reid was 38 at the time and had a small metallurgy concern that employed twelve people. He had two living in servants at his home in 1881.

Edward Austin joined the MAA in the middle 1880s and became sec (after J. Arthur Hutton) in 1893 and relinquished the post in 1909 when Percy Glass took over.

Percy Glass joined the club in 1895/6 so that the two pages shown are almost from different eras!!!

The anglers at their monthly meeting used to have a collection of flies that they "put on the table" for examination and reference. These must be some of the remnants from that time.

There was also a large photographic collection, I wonder where it is now, it would be very interesting to see it.

David.

I suppose with such a long history attaching to the MAA there must be a very great deal of stuff out there waiting to be discovered.

It's not a bad morning so far in fact fishing conditions are near ideal with some sun, plenty of cloud cover, a light breeze and good water after last night's ran. The river should fish well today for brownies.

Ian

16 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:49:00 +0100

Because I was busy all day yesterday working on the preparations for the rebuild of our local wireless broadband network I did not manage to get up to the Tarn, but by all accounts it was like Piccadilly Circus at times with a good number of members and guests testing their skill against the resident rainbows. Most seem to have achieved success and similar luck was had by some on the river which offered good trouting water. One guest got his first ever wild brownie down on the Pipe Pool and seemed well pleased.

My picture the other day showing the Tarn some years ago set one member on a hunt through old photos and he left with me yesterday a set of three which shows the current hut being built in the early 1980's. Thanks Fred and here is one of the pictures which I gather includes some renowned past members including Freddie Tye MBE, Dr Fawcett, Les Sutcliffe, a joiner called Dewhurst and Fred himself.

So far it's not a bad morning with some high broken cloud, a light breeze and no rain. The river still looks good and should last through the weekend with good water.

Ian

15 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:33:00 +0100

It's a fairly nondescript sort of morning with quite a lot of cloud, no wind and no rain. In fact it hasn't rained hard now for a couple of days so the river is just about perfect for trouting, but a little low for good salmon fishing.

There are likely to be a good few members in evidence today judging by the number of guest ticket applications I have received over the past few days. With 12 miles of river to go at no one is likely to be crowded , but it's very good to see so much interest from members.

Ian

14 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:29:00 +0100

The foul weather promised us yesterday failed to materialise. In fact it was quite a nice day for a change so the river dropped back by afternoon to provide some good trouting water. It's back to normal this morning with a strengthening breeze and heavy showers which are likely to become more intense during the morning.

We took down the Bates memorial bench yesterday, cleaned up the platform on which it sits and took the bench itself down to Settle for David to work miracles. Compared to the night before the water looked fairly dead with barely a fish moving and little sign of hatch. I am becoming convinced that at this time of year and in these conditions the best fishing on the Tarn is to be had towards nightfall. It's certainly the most rewarding time of day to be up here and sets one up well for a small night cap and a relaxing night.

I am very reliably informed that the current boathouse was erected in 1978 as part of the club's centenary celebrations so the photo I published here yesterday must predate that. Frank also tells me that the platforms were present but derelict when he joined the MAA in the early 80's. The original of the photo looks considerably older so they may be previous incarnations of the platforms that were also then derelict. Any further ideas about its age?

Ian

13 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:30:00 +0100

Slurp, suck, slurp. I'm standing on the bank of the Tarn with Mike H on an evening blessed with photographers light and the most noticeable sound is that of rainbow trout busy feeding on a fly hatch. There are literally dozens of rises, some just a gentle sipping of a fly in the surface film like duchesses at a royal tea party. Others are violent snatches like lower orders at a bun fight, but it's an incredible sight on a magical evening. Mike, myself and David went up there to look at a few carpentry job that are long overdue attending to. We agreed to dismantle the memorial bench by the hut and take it down to David's workshop in Settle where he will refettle it. Also being attended to is the boathouse door which is binding on the doorpost. David was reminiscing about building the hut back in the 60's, replacing the old boathouse with something that members' wives could sit in and read whilst their spouses played games with the Tarn's resident brown trout.

By coincidence my neighbour gave me a copy of a photo of the Tarn which must have been taken a good few years ago as it shows a small boathouse and a number of stillages around the southern rim of the water. Can anyone date this?

The Association has now been accepted as a member of the Riverfly Partnership and you can visit their website at www.riverflies.org
When you get to the site just navigate to 'anglers, monitoring initiative' then look for the link to 'NW Central'. I have asked for the entry to be moved to 'Yorkshire' so it may well appear there in due course.

So far it's not a bad morning. I was anticipating far worse with a forecast of heavy rain and gales, but looks fair at present despite the heavy rain in the night which has brought the river back into spate.

Ian

12 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:41:00 +0100

Just for a change it's raining cats & dogs here this morning and just to add a bit of variety it's also windy. Roll on winter!

We did get a small window of relatively fine weather yesterday in which to run the latest crayfish course at the Tarn. This went very well despite a heavy shower which turned up right on cue as we began bringing in the traps to record the contents. Paul started with his usual discourse on native crayfish, how to handle them and how to efficiently record them. He explained that in most habitats a good population is indicated by around one individual per trap. Then I brought the first trap in from under the hut so that Paul could give a demonstration of handling and recording. This rather put the notion of one creature per trap in the context of the Tarn as we fished out 53 crayfish from this one trap. A very good mix of male and female as well as a wide range of ages.

The pattern was repeated with the remaining 11 traps and I think that the smallest number in any one trap was a dozen.

We found a couple of specimens with white porcelain disease, but this is entirely natural in such a large sample and probably represents a disease incidence of between 1 and 2 per cent of population which is well within the norm.

The students seemed highly delighted with the whole experience despite the soaking they got.

Turning to housekeeping matters I have put a lidded trough of Iodafor just outside the hut together with a note of explanation so that members can disinfect their nets, lines and boots between fishing the river and the Tarn. Since we now know that we are host to probably the best still water population of native crayfish let's keep them safe.

Ian

11 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:28:00 +0100

My shrimp breeding project has suffered a minor setback. On opening the tub containing the alleged gammarus I found no shrimps, but hundreds of freshwater hog louse which are not quite the same thing. So, back to the drawing board and a few trips to Turn Dub where I can collect a few specimens to kick start the programme.

It was a bit drier yesterday so the river began to drop. However, we have had more rain in the night so levels are back up again this morning and the weather is looking non too promising at present. The forecast is for wet and very windy weather this week so it's touch and go on fishing conditions for the next few days.

When it does stop raining the river is offering some good sport as recorded by Neil P who fished on Saturday:

HI Ian,

I just thought I’d drop you a quick mail about my day yesterday on both the Tarn and the River, Despite the rain that fell from mid morning onwards I had a truly cracking day on the fishery. I arrived early intent on having a bash on the Pipe pool and was on the water for about 8:00am the sun was shining and with little or no breeze quickly hooked two superb wild brownies. I fished on until around 10:30 with 3 or 4 more fish all about 10”-12” in size and in supreme condition. Then the heavens opened and what can only be described and that rain that gets you really wet seemed to be set in for the day so I headed for the hut on the tarn. After sitting in the hut for a good half hour my father and I decided to brave the tarn, whilst fishing the majority of the action seemed to be just out of casting reach along the centre of the tarn so after a couple of hours whipping the water with only 1 fish I took the boat out and quickly landed 4 good fish all about the 2lb size and very feisty.

In all I had a superb day and the only thing being dampened was the car seats on the way home..

Those of you planning to fish the Tarn today will find that Crayfish Paul is running a crayfish handling course this morning. There are currently a number of traps set out near the hut and by both ends of the cross wall. They will be taken out about lunchtime today when the students arrive so it will be a bit busy for about 2 hours from around 11.30.

I will report on our findings tomorrow.

Ian

10 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:25:00 +0100

It deluged yesterday much to the chagrin of those doughty souls who attempted to fish the tarn. By afternoon the river was in full spate with many meadows and pastures under water and the ford at Newhouses running about 4 inches high. It's a better morning with even the occasional glimpse of sun, but it will take a few hours for the river to fall and clear. When it does don't be surprised to see a few salmon up at Horton.

The shrimps arrived safely yesterday and my plan is to settle them in their new home later today. They look well enough with a good range of sizes indicating a good spread of ages so they should breed well, I hope.

I will also try to set up the disinfectant trough today - outside the hut (thanks Mike).

I have just looked out the window to see the clouds descending to obscure the valley and its now chucking it down again. Don't you just love England now that summer is here?

Ian

9 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:45:00 +0100

One of the issues that came up at our recent riverfly training day was that of bio security. Our tutor made it pretty clear that with the prevalence of crayfish plague and other nasties that now lurk in our rivers we all should routinely disinfect our gear between trips and between visits to different catchments especially where we know vulnerable species are present. Some of us got to thinking about the measures we take to secure the safety of our fishery and especially the health of the crayfish population at the Tarn and concluded that we need to do a little more.

So on my doorstep last evening courtesy of Les S arrived a trough with a lid that will be part filled with a mild disinfectant and placed in the hut at the Tarn. The idea is that members who fish the river before fishing the Tarn or who have fished on other catchments before visiting the Tarn will have the opportunity to disinfect landing nets and waders before commencing fishing. We will trial this to see how effectively it is used and how much mess it causes, but with prudent use it should be OK.

Les was in a state of high excitement when he rang me to tell me that the trough was by my door. His visit to the Tarn had proved highly rewarding as he got into one of the big rainbows that tore his line down to the backing and put up a tremendous fight before being landed. the fish weighed in at over 3.5 lb and apparently the comments of his fishing partner are not printable. The policy of putting in a few bigger fish with each stocking is clearly being appreciated. By all evidence there is no lack of food for them as every fish that is eviscerated is pretty well stuffed and the only puzzle is why they bother with an artificial. Perhaps like us they can't resist one last visit to the buffet even though they are not really hungry.

We are forecast a lot of rain later this morning which will bring the river back into flood. Between these flushes it does seem to be fishing pretty well so may be worth a try later tomorrow.

Ian

8 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:51:00 +0100

This is late again and today's excuse is that I have just got back from a check to ensure that the leg I broke back in January is still attached and working correctly. Good news. I have now been signed off and sent away with this months free offer. Three ruddy great screws which I gather I will carry for the rest of my life. All due to a moments lack of concentration on black ice.

It seem that right across the Dales fisheries are experiencing increased problems with toothed duck. I have seen the population and distribution of goosander grow ever larger over the past few years and they now must be having an impact on the ability of trout and salmon to recruit. I'm not sure just how many fingerlings a goosander and her chicks will take in a day, but it must run into double figures. I suppose that the presence of fish eating duck is some indicator that the number of young fish is pretty high, but the numbers will almost certainly decline without some degree of control over duck numbers. It seems that I am not alone in my concern as an article in the Craven Herald voices similar concerns and calls upon the RSPB (of which I am a member) to take a more holistic approach to conservation and look at avian predator impact as well as avian welfare. We do need a wildlife conservation strategy that is ecosystem based rather than species specific I think. Or am I being too idealistic?

Ian

7 Augusr 2008

Ian Fleming — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:51:00 +0100

For some obscure reason my last couple of blogs have not posted to the site. Odd. Still, not much has happened this week so far, but we did plan to introduce the gammarus to the nursery at the hatchery a couple of days ago. This has been delayed due to my shrimp supplier being busy with work so the plan now is to get them in sometime this weekend. It will be interesting to see how well they survive and whether they recruit well. If the experiment works then the plan is to use the nursery as a constant supply of shrimp which can be seeded into other nurseries, brought on in the hatchery and transferred in a waterproof bag to other sites when the population is recruiting well. We shall see.

Its been a rather wet week with a mix of sunshine and showers so the river has been up and down like a brides nightie. We had a lot of rain last night so the river is now just coming of the flood and clearing. I guess that by this afternoon it should be fishing well provided that we don't get a lot more rain. Fly hatch is another matter. Despite evidence of plenty of invertebrate larvae hatches have been sparse on the river. What we need is a lot more sun to warm thing up a bit and get the hatches moving. It's a different matter on the Tarn where we have had colossal hatches of damsel flies and clouds of caenis. We have also seen very substantial hatches of olives in the past few weeks and dry fly fishing has been very good for a lot of members.

It looks like a busy day at the Tarn with three members already in residence and at least another two known to be on their way up. If it goes on like this we may Have to instigate a queueing system.

Ian

3 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:39:00 +0100

This house has now returned to some semblance of normality after yesterday's invasion by my 18 month old nephew. It's astonishing just how much mayhem (and mess) a human can create. The lesson he will no doubt take away with him is that it's unwise to try to pick stinging nettles. We all have to learn!

We had a lot more rain in the night so the river is still very high and coloured. The forecast for today here in the valley is none too promising so don't expect the water to fall off too quickly. The Tarn looks good and with only a light breeze at present fishing there should be pretty good so long as you don't mind getting wet.

I see from BBC news that our native crayfish are under threat again (mind you, the BBC in its infinite wisdom describes these crustaceans as 'fish'). The river Kent is a fine trout stream in the eastern lake district which flows through Kendal and hosts a good population of native crayfish. Now it seems that this important population is under severe threat because some moron has dumped a load of engine oil in the river and the invertebrates including the crayfish are being wiped out. The EA are trying to save the population, but we know from experience here in the Ribble just how much harm can be done to these vulnerable scavengers by pollution. Pollution events such as on the Kent leave the population susceptible to disease such as plague and threaten the very survival of this fascinating creature.

Lets hope that the EA can save the Kent crayfish.

Ian

2 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:01:00 +0100

Up at the Tarn first thing this morning it was good to see the number of rises to fly, some quite aggressive with at least one porpoise leap. The conditions are calm and muggy with a lot of threatening cloud. We are forecast much rain later today so an already high river will no doubt be back in full spate by this evening.

I sometimes wonder about the amount of damage to fish that the heron who frequent the river do, but rarely find any evidence of predation such as dead fish or heavily marked fish in the river. It would seem that they are not so lucky down in Derbyshire judging by the last video clip on Warren Slaney's excellent blog. This shows just how much harm heron can do to a healthy, well stocked natural fishery. With so much emphasis on protecting birds at the expense of native fish there is little that can be done to counter this other than constant scaring. Fortunately the river here has been often high this summer which prevents the grey poacher from fishing the pools and fast runs.

We are being invaded today by my 18 month old nephew so it's off now to bolt down everything below 3ft from the carpet and take a couple of tranquilisers.

Ian

01 August 2008

Ian Fleming — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:45:00 +0100

So, August comes in with a bang! It's been a pretty noisy night here with thunder rumbling round the hills and torrential rain. Consequently the river is currently in full spate. It looks angry and is full of colour so fishing is a non starter until the levels drop off which will take a little time as the riverside meadows are all under water and the becks are brim full. It has brightened a bit just now and we even have some patches of blue sky and a little watery sunshine so prospects for later in the day are quite good.

The rather better news is that salmon have been found making their way up the river Nene at Peterborough. This is the first sighting of salmon on this river for many years. It's a river I know quite well from my time in North Bedfordshire and it never struck me as ideal salmon territory being muddy and sluggish, but if salmon are in the Thames I suppose that there is no good reason why they should not find the rather cleaner Nene to their liking. How long before salmon are seen at Bedford on the Great Ouse. It would have really been something to have seen them jumping the weir at Great Barford close by my old house.

Ian

31 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:48:00 +0100

Switzerland is a strange country famous for cuckoo clocks, leather shorts, a knife that has destroyed more trouser pockets than any other and making money laundering an art form. Now news reaches me of a potential threat to angling as we know it coming out of Switzerland and I don't mean a legion of redundant clock makers wearing cow hide trousers wielding spoons attached to small red pocket knives. It would seem that there is currently legislation passing through the Swiss parliament that will have the effect of making it a criminal offence to practise catch and release on the Swiss rivers. This is a clause buried away in a new animal welfare Bill which states that it will be an offence to fish with the intention of releasing a fish once caught. The clause will make it mandatory to dispatch every fish with a sharp blow to the head from a blunt instrument.

Now I'm not aware that Switzerland is a must go destination for many UK anglers, but that's not the point. The real threat here comes from our own animal welfare lobby who I'm sure are watching the passage of this legislation with interest and already drawing up plans to lobby for similar legislation in the UK. The effect of such a law would be catastrophic for our conservation programmes. Just imagine the impact on native fish stock on heavily fished rivers where every fertile hen fish is removed from the gene pool. It will be short order before the only way to maintain an adequate fish stock will be by constant stocking with reared fish, course and game fish alike.

We need to watch this one and stay ahead of the game.

I was cheered up considerably yesterday morning by a conversation with a member who called to collect a guest ticket. He had been a member of MAA for many years, but left when the fish cage at the Tarn took its toll on both water and fish quality. He rejoined last year and now tells me that he had the best days dry fly fishing on the Tarn last week he has had in his entire life. Thanks Peter, it's good to know that all our efforts are producing results that members appreciate.

It's not a bad morning. It's warm with a light breeze, a lot of high cloud and some sunny breaks. So a good day for wetting a fly.

Ian

30 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:32:00 +0100

It's a change to much cooler weather this morning with a lot of cloud and the threat of rain to come. However, there is little or no wind so fishing should be quite good on both a replenished river and restocked Tarn.

I finished reading "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" yesterday and what an absorbing book it turned out to be. I suppose that the underlying message is the importance of belief and that it's quite possible to achieve the impossible against all received wisdom, common sense and the nay sayers if you simply have faith in your convictions and believe totally in ultimate success.

I guess that there is a message here for fishermen. One must go to the river in the firm belief that fish will be caught. To do otherwise is to court failure even though the omens be not good. When I taught management theory we called this the power of positive thought and impressed upon our students the importance of approaching any task or project with the firm belief that it would succeed totally. We seem to be surrounded by negative influences and cynicism, its a national pastime to be cynical and it does prevent the rush to over exuberance that seems to engulf our transatlantic cousins far too often. But being too cynical too often can rob us of that genuine childlike conviction that miracles are possible and success is ours to grasp. So next time you stand by the river and it seems devoid of fish or you sit in the boat at the Tarn and all seems dead just believe that you will catch a fish and who knows?

Ian

29 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:01:00 +0100

We have had a Yorkshire monsoon here since about half five this morning and it's still raining hard at eight thirty so the river will be high and coloured later today. It's forecast to be an unsettled week so it's going to be a question of taking it day by day as far as river fishing is concerned. The Tarn is fishing well since the last stocking, but not last night.

I took the Romanian Chef from the Crown up to the Tarn last evening. He is a nice chap and a keen angler, but never done any fly fishing and was anxious to have a go. I saw him contemplating the river with a rod a few days ago and a supervised couple of hours at the Tarn when it was quiet seemed a good way of satisfying his curiosity and dissuading him from poaching. Young Steven came up to give a few casting lessons as my casting is rubbish. The wind was a bit wicked so I had little hope of any success and his technique to begin with seemed to be more of the thrash the water to a foam rather than the gentle kiss of fly on meniscus. After a bit of tuition he slowed things down a lot, but the fish were reluctant to rise in the choppy conditions. Much to my surprise and that of Mike H who had arrived to fish he got into a decent sized rainbow which unfortunately he lost as a result of trying to haul it vertically from the water. Fortunately the hook straightened and came out so no damage done and he now has a much better idea about the gentle art which he can apply down at the Helwith Bridge fishery. So, a fairly happy Romanian and one less potential threat to the river trout I need to watch.

Ian

28 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:38:00 +0100

Just back from a slightly delayed trip to the hatchery to install the new shrimp nursery. As previously reported, this consists of a large onion net stuffed with barley straw and a few empty bottles to act as floats. The idea is that the straw floods and sinks to the limit of the floats and as it begins to decompose slowly gammarus take up residence using the straw as a haven and source of food. If this experiment works it can be repeated on both the river and the Tarn to increase the number of gammarus available to sustain large trout.

It was a delight to be down by the ponds in this glorious summer weather. The song of the water babbling down the cascades in the spawning channel mixed with the song of birds and the contented munching of sheep in the nearby meadow combined to lift the soul. I took the opportunity to clear some of the cress that is growing so strongly that the channel is becoming blocked. There was no sign of any fish in the ponds, but the water is dark so visibility is limited. Even in this hot weather the water is icy cold and seems to be very well oxygenated so if fish are present they should be thriving.

I will give the nursery a few days to sink and naturalise before attempting to introduce shrimp then check progress fortnightly so more on this later.

Ian

27 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:19:00 +0100

Remarkably for this summer it's been a week now since we had any rain so the river is falling away now to normal summer levels. It's still fishable on most runs and all the pools have good water, but it will obviously continue to drop now until we get another wet spell.

It's a cloudier day today, but still very warm with almost no breeze so there is a good chance of a fly hatch later on which may encourage both river and Tarn trout to surface feed. The fish that were stocked into the Tarn on Thursday seem to have settled down well and dispersed so fishing here should now be less of a challenge than of late. That's provided that the hatches of caenis drop off. The hut is totally smothered in "anglers curse" and the fish have been cruising the shallows hoovering up the hatched fly. OK if you dress flies under a microscope, but pretty useless otherwise.

I am going to try to install the gammarus nursery later today so that it can naturalise before we put in the shrimps so more on this tomorrow.

Ian

26 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:39:00 +0100

After much hassle the fish finally went into the Tarn on Thursday afternoon. Feedback so far suggests that these are good fish, well finned and tailed and are providing good sport. They should certainly help to improve the visit to catch ratio which has been declining over the past couple of weeks with one or two nil returns creeping in which I hate to see.

Now a recommendation for a little light summer reading for all those of you about to head off for your annual summer slob out. I was lent a book last week "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" by Paul Torday. On turning to the first few pages I got a chill of a past life colliding with the present. The book opens with an exchange of memo's between Civil Servants including some between the Private Offices of certain Government ministers. Some of you may know that for 25 years I stalked the corridors of power in various Ministries and my formative years in the early 1970's were spent as a correspondence clerk to a succession of Ministers. The book is hauntingly familiar and Paul Torday must know someone in Government circles to write with such wicked accuracy about the machinations of Whitehall. Basically the book is about a project to introduce Atlantic salmon into the Wadi's of Yemen so that the calming and beneficial influence of salmon fishing can spread a balm of sang froid over the benighted region of the Middle East. The wit and humour are sharp and Torday has certainly done his home work on the underlying science so that the whole plot becomes absorbing and realistic enough to become believable. It's the ideal hammock companion (apart from Liz Hurley that is). Go out and buy a copy and enter the bizarre world of Dr Alfred Jones and the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence.

It's a great summer day here in the valley all the more so as in the last half hour our water supply has been restored. The pipe burst down by the Crown yesterday afternoon so we have been subsisting on bottled water for the past few hours. Newhouses looks like a refugee camp with pallets of water bottles dumped on the verges by Yorkshire water. I have just managed to get a shower much to Sheila's relief as I spent all day yesterday cleaning out the goat house and spreading the accumulated muck. It's surprising just how pervasive the smell can be and how well it sticks to people. My goats are now busy arranging the fresh straw to their liking. This mainly involves seeing just how much of it you can eat whist sitting on it and trying to prevent the hens from pitching it out into the yard.

Ian

24 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:02:00 +0100

It's another grey and humid morning here in the valley with cloud well down blanketing the fells. Sitting here writing this I am struck by just how many young sparrows are about now. Looking out of the window I can see well over a dozen lined up along the gutter of the farmhouse opposite the widow all noisily waiting their turn at the nut feeders in the back garden. It's becoming a challenge to keep these feeders topped up as in addition to the sparrows we are getting lots of blue tits, great tits, green finches, dunnock, gold finches, blackbirds and wrens. All these birds seem to arrive with families in tow and it's heartening to watch so many the youngsters demanding food. They all seem to have got our four cats well sussed and so far this season I have only had to remove one corpse from the house, brought in as a toy that soon ceased to work.

The wet weather has meant that the hay meadows are being cut rather later than usual and little silage was got round here earlier in the year so the increased availability of seed and insects that inhabit the growing meadows must have helped to ensure that more young birds survived.

The Tarn fish should be here shortly so anticipate better returns per visit from tomorrow onwards.

Ian

23 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:05:00 +0100

This is late today as I wanted to get the invertebrate check at Turn Dub done before Mr Sod managed to intervene again and prevent me doing so. All seems well with good representations of most of the eight relevant families. There were more gammarus this time and a very healthy crop of Baetis larvae.

I was struck by how well the herbage is growing along the banks here now that most of the woollies are kept out by the fence. Not all though as I counted eight of the blighters on the far bank up to their ears in the tall grass. I shall have to investigate how they are getting in and block off the route. It's a month since I was last at the Dub and I was surprised to see just how many of the broadleaved trees we planted a couple of years ago have failed. I guess it's a combination of sheep and the spring drought. Coincidentally, when I started up the PC a few minutes ago down came an email from Gavin P commenting on the same thing. I will need to investigate further and try to find the cause before we try to plant here again.

Gavin also tells me that he has a source of gammarus that will serve well to kick start the nursery I have made so I will get the thing installed later so that it can stabilise before we put in the shrimps.

Stocking the Tarn at 10 am tomorrow so be warned.

Ian

22 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:56:00 +0100

There is no doubting that trout like gammarus when they can get them. I suppose a good belly full of gammarus is a bit like a prawn sandwich only more filling and large shrimps help to sustain large trout. With this in mind and with an eye on sustainability I have been researching how best to boost the population of gammarus in the river. I think I may have found the solution and it seems in theory to be simple. All you need is a large mesh sack stuffed with barley straw and a few floats which you place in the water where you wish to aid the recruitment of gammarus. The little beasties can't resist the security and food source that the straw provides and they go forth and multiply.

That's the theory! I now have permission to run an experiment using this technique using the larger pond at the hatchery. All the material is ready and, time permitting, I will set things up later today. All we need do then is wait a few months to see what results we get. If this works then I intend to repeat the experiment on quiet backwaters on the river and at the Tarn. The bonus is that the gammarus will migrate out of the straw over time thus becoming available to the fish for food. They will supplement the other invertebrates already in the fish pond and ensure that the young fish get a good start before they in turn migrate out into the beck. A further benefit is the impact that the straw will have on water quality as it breaks down. Due to the release of a cocktail of chemicals the straw will keep the pond free of algae as we know from past experience at the Tarn.

I did an invertebrate check at New Inn bridge yesterday and am pleased to report that all seems healthy. There were no real variations from previous checks and it was pleasing to see a good crop of stoneflies in every sample I took. I even found our friend above in two of the 4 samples I kicked. Being detritivores, gammarus are not common in this fast running water, but they were there yesterday.

Someone turned off summer again this morning. It's currently very foggy and damp. Potentially quite good fishing conditions if you can find your way to Horton.

Ian

21 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:38:00 +0100

We awake here at Horton this morning to find that summer has returned after a long absence. It's absolutely glorious out there at present with wall to wall blue sky a few wispy clouds and almost no breeze. The temperature is also climbing back to somewhere near normal so it seems a perfect day to go monitoring invertebrates for the July check using the revised skills that I learnt from Dai on Saturday.

The river is just about perfect. Well watered and clear and it would not surprise me if salmon were lurking in the usual lies below Horton bridge.

I have decided to begin experimenting with breeding gammarus. There are a a few things to tie up first before I say much about this, but if all goes to plan I should have the first nursery set up by the weekend.

I will report later on the invertebrate results.

It really is a day to skip work and go fishing!

Ian

20 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:54:00 +0100

Despite the lousy weather and a river that was aggressive and refused to cooperate seven of us spent an informative, enjoyable and rewarding day revising our riverfly monitoring skills yesterday. Dai Roberts proved to be a good tutor and gave us a thorough testing in our sampling methods and ability to identify the results. I certainly came a way having learnt much that was new, with confidence that I can contribute to the national programme and that we can all meet the rigorous monitoring standards set by the EA.

We also made a valuable contact at the EA since Daniel Atkinson was present throughout the day and he and I have arranged to share information which will prove beneficial to the Ribble and our fishery.

My main conclusion from the day is that we are doing all the right things as a club to encourage the recruitment of invertebrates. There are one or two additional (and simple) things we may well try such as a return to fly boards for olives and barley straw bundles for gammarus, but on the whole there is a sufficient food source in the river to enable our wild trout to recruit to provide very good quality fishing. The main thing we all need to remember when going after them is to use tiny flies with sparse dressings unless the water is dark and on the flood. There is nothing new in this. A hundred and fifty years ago Stewart was adamant that this was the only way to fish northern rivers. The flies we saw hatching yesterday would need a 20 or 24 hook.

Here is a photo of some of our enthusiastic young scientists hard at work identifying bugs.

As I was in the pavilion all day I missed seeing Crayfish Paul who was running a course at the Tarn, but he dropped in to see Sheila and reports that our native crayfish population is continuing to thrive. He now believes that this is one of the most healthy and flourishing populations in the UK. We will aim to keep it that way.

Finally, I have arranged to stock the Tarn on Tuesday so be prepared for a little disruption around that day.

Ian

18 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:29:00 +0100

The plan today is to set up for the two courses that are running tomorrow. Paul will be up later to put in the traps so that the crayfish can be checked by his students tomorrow and Dai Roberts should arrive this afternoon to set up in the pavilion for the invertebrate monitoring course. With plenty of water in the river the latter course should find plenty to sort and identify by New Inn bridge so hopefully we can have a very worthwhile discussion about the implications for the fishery of the volume and variety of what we find and what we can do to help our riverflies to recruit naturally. I will report results over the weekend.

It's still wet here with a moderate westerly breeze and it shows little sign of letting up. Very much a day for wet weather gear.

Ian

16 July 2008

Ian Fleming — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:10:00 +0100

It's less wet this morning, but still windy and overcast. I had a call from Crayfish Paul yesterday to tell me that he will be running his annual crayfish handling course over this coming weekend so expect to find a number of traps in the Tarn on Friday and a large group of students in Tarn Pasture on Saturday morning.

It's good that these courses run as it ensures that our native crayfish get a regular health check from the leading expert in the UK. The annual trapping and recording provides a profile of the population over time and indicates whether the creatures are continuing to thrive and recruit at a constant rate. By examining the individuals in the trap we can monitor for any evidence of sickness such as plague and take whatever steps are required to ensure that ailments are eliminated.

Paul tells me that he will be running two further courses, one in August and one in September so our crayfish will get a thorough going over this year.

Fingers crossed that there are no evident problems.

Ian