Trout in the Town:

Project overview Disley and New Mills Angling Club (DNMAC) secured Environment Agency (EA) funding for habitat work to preserve and encourage wild trout populations on their sections of the River Goyt. The funding was provided following an initial Advisory Visit (AV) from the Wild Trout Trust (WTT) and lead to a Practical Visit (PV) in partnership with the local EA Operations Delivery team. Violent spate flows in the River Goyt mean that many common river restoration practices cannot be adopted (as work would quickly be destroyed). Therefore, an innovative programme of channel enhancement through robust Large Woody Debris (LWD) management was drawn up. Invertebrate community monitoring was also proposed so that DNMAC could protect their river from pollution events and investigate potential biological effects of channel management. Major Goals Generate cover for fish (adult and juvenile) and protect banks from excessive erosion at 26 identified locations using “tree kickers” parallel t...

OK, maybe I should lay off the puns. Who am I kidding, this is about weirs, fish passes (or stair cases if you will) and the River Cray - how can I resist?. Down to business, I've previously posted on this blog about the assessment of water quality and invertebrate communities at specific points along the upper River Cray ( http://urbantrout.blogspot.com/2009/02/this-from-ashe-hurst-river-keeper-on.html and http://urbantrout.blogspot.com/2009/03/bugs-in-cray.html ). Having done that, and combined it with the information I collated in my initial Advisory Visit ( http://www.wildtrout.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=224 ) report - a number of potential sites that could benefit from habitat restoration work were identified. However, another important factor to consider would be how best to target restoration sites such that the maximum benefit could be gleaned when weirs and other barriers start to be made passable. There are EA plans afoot to tack...

On a recent Sunday morning, Andrew organised the good folk of Disley and New Mills AC into a well-oiled machine of river trash removal. TINTT went along to help and captured a few photos between fetching and carrying an eclectic collection of discarded items (including the bottom of a fibreglass sailing boat and a large metal water tank). The vertical hauling team at the top of the wall ready for another load from below: Safely hoisted onto the path: Two mystery figures emerge from the left dragging the submerged water tank from a deep pool with the rope team on the right (New Mills Railway Station is at the top of the slope on the right): Catch of the day at the top of the beat: And the victorious trash busters with the matching collection at the bottom of the beat: Cracking effort to all who took part. There were many members of the public that we chatted to who very much appreciated the actions of the angling club as caretakers of this section of the River Goyt.

John Blewitt (who is in charge of the Free membership angling arm of SPRITE) has circulated the following 2 letters about upcoming events: "E-mail:- blackgnat@blueyonder.co.uk Monday, 06 April 2009 Hi Well, we have finally managed to get things moving on the River Don fishing front. A meeting has been arranged at 7.30 p.m April 20th 2009 at the Hillsborough Hotel. The Hotel is located at Langsett Road/Wood St. Sheffiled6. There is ample parking space on Wood St. The Tram stop is Primrose Hill and a map is attached. It has been agreed if anyone is under 18 they will be admitted (normal licensing rules apply). An agenda has not been formulated, but things to be discussed are. the name of the club the aims and objectives how is it to be funded rules of the fishery. I imagine other questions will arise; hopefully they will be addressed and answered. I am looking forward to meeting you on the evening and if anyone wants to bring any other interested parties, feel free to do so. This i...

A trial of the "Mayfly in the Classroom" apparatus (a very slight modification of Finlay's (2001) system developed in Australia) has produced its first offspring. A proud moment for MITC which is, itself, a child of Trout in the Town. Back in November 2008 a basic set of equipment was assembled from very cheaply available materials (the most expensive item is the air pump at £8). An assembly procedure that is simple enough even for the author to complete (and therefore a doddle for the schoolkids) housed 3 pairs of nymphs for 6 weeks in perfect happiness. These were released back into their native river just before Christmas 2008 and just one of their cohort retained for further work. After continuing to graze on the algae-covered pebbles in her mini-aquarium, Thursday last week heralded the point that the nymph decided it was high time for a major change of lifestyle. As a result, she emerged as the flying sub-imago (or dun). The nymphal "shuck" (or skin) le...

Following on from the water quality data analysis - here is some summarised information that TINTT has pulled together using data kindly supplied by the EA. These data are drawn from sites that are being considered for habitat restoration (with a possible long-term view of restoring native trout populations). First of all, it is apparent that there are examples of a number of invertebrate families that are happily living in the Cray that would not be able to exist in polluted environments. You can particularly see the good populations of Gammarus (freshwater shrimp). These shrimp are a valuable find because they have lifecycles that can take two years or more to complete. In addition, because they can't fly, they are not very good at migrating upstream over weirs to colonise new areas (i.e. they can only really re-colonise from upstream populations if they are wiped out). Taken together - their presence in healthy numbers indicates that water quality tends to be good enough to enab...

Sheffield's own godfather of industry, the river Don, now has a small family of loyal protectors. SPRITE (Sheffield Partnership: Rivers In Town Environments) aims to work alongside local businesses, government, the Don Catchment Rivers Trust and conservation volunteers to protect and rejuvenate the urban river corridors of the city and its suburbs. SPRITE is the Sheffield branch of the Trout in the Town family and is headed up by two figures; local ecologist Dr. Cheri Gibson and lifelong local angler John Blewitt (who was intereviewed along with TINTT by the Walkley Herald about the project): Despite the Don's much improved water quality and the existence of nice habitat patches (with great potential for more), there are still many obstacles to tackle for wildlife in general - and the iconic wild brown trout in particular. Habitat managment and restoration for the benefit of brown trout automatically also benefits the general river corridor wildlife. The trout requires good wat...