Trout in the Town:

Just back from a swift trip to Glasgow/Lennoxtown and the guys at Campsie. Here is a fantastic river and a great group, which historically had amazing trout fishing. A cumulative effect of changes (probably land use, possibly climate, probably high water abstraction rates) often leave this river very low on water. Conversely, when it does rise; it comes up quick and drops away just as suddenly. A very common scenario in our upland river systems that comes along with intensified pressures on land use/natural resources. Sections of the river have been historically straightened and house continuous runs of relatively uniform depth (OK for juveniles, not so much holding water for adult fish). However, there are a few examples of naturally occurring Large Woody Debris which are providing holding lies for good fish. Unfortunately, this also means that these spots see lots of angling attention Trout in the Town and the guys from Campsie are putting some plans together in order to improve the ...

A quick one to make up for the lack of posts recently (I have been furiously drafting the upcoming "Urban river restoration guidelines" manual for publication this summer......) This one is about weirs (again - see "weirs tha bin?" previous blog post) I've lost count of the number of times that angling club members have been scared to death by the suggestion that a weir is taken down - Understandably - because often the foot of that weir (and the attendant scour hole) forms a weir pool that has the best fishing on that section of river... Thanks so, so much to Theo and the Wandle piscators/Wandle Trust for having the faith in our advice - it is by weir lowering or removal that the single good fishing spot BELOW a weir can be transformed into tens (hundreds?) of good fishing spots above the weir! All of that current velocity that is killed behind the structure (causing silt to gather) is re-invigorated throughout the whole reach. This will clear away the silt, ex...

The figures from Saturday's friendly grayling match show that the very strong year class of fish avoided being badly impacted by floodwaters around the 07 period... There are also decent numbers of juveniles around and just one or two older fish. Hopefully the very strong class of 25 to 27 cm fish will produce decent numbers of fish surviving to 3 and 4 years old over the next couple of years.....

Those splendid chaps up on the Lancs. Colne have been busy again over the winter since our initial Practical Visit. Here they are finding a good green use for the whole of the local council's dumped Xmas tree collection: Completing their brash bank revetments to protect the single line of mature trees that are clinging on in the grazed surrounding fields (these are on the opposite bank to the first set of works). How did you work off your festive season surplus calories?? :)

12 anglers (brave and true) met on a frosty Sunday morning this weekend. Their purpose? To seek out, catch and record the grayling living between Hillfoot Bridge and Winn Gardens on the urban river Don...The stakes were (not) high (£5) the rewards great (£40 for most fish and a tenner for the biggest fish). Oh - and we hoped to meet new angling friends as well as provide accurate records of the presence of different age-classes of game fish (in a section of river that is not monitored in conventional ways). They came from far and near - with 3 raiding nomads heading down from East Lancashire to challenge the locals (in the event, fairness was ensured by fishing the event as pairs - one local paired with each visitor). The proof that local Trout in the Town Group "SPRITE" are justified in their passion for clearing up and protecting their local urban river can be seen in the results: 102 grayling between 14 and 35cm in length were caught - with by far the most numerous categor...

Both the Sheffield Trout in the Town project (SPRITE) and the River Erewash Foundation have now received a 4-piece SAGE VPS rod each (9ft #5 for SPRITE and 9ft #6 for Erewash. These rods are the result of a strong history of SAGE sponsorship support for the WTT through the "Rods For Conservation" programme. The way this works is simple: The rods are kindly donated to the WTT from the manufacturer and these can then be offered as raffle prizes or auction lots to generate funding for River Habitat Conservation Projects. In this way, the fishing tackle manufacturers - such as SAGE - have a concrete way to put something into the rivers that are cared for by dedicated local groups. To get hold of tickets - please contact John Blewitt for SPRITE via email on blackgnat@blueyonder.co.uk and see the rest of the great raffle prizes that John has amassed! on the SPRITE web pages: http://www.spanglefish.com/sprite-southyorks/news.asp Similarly - for River Erewash Foundation tickets, plea...

Stop press - we had a full day of work on the Colne PV today and not a single drop of rain. This despite all the surrounding counties and particularly neighbouring North Western areas of England and South Western Scotland getting batterd by torrential rain. Here is hoping that the weather holds for Friday too. The meeting place is still the same (see post below). There will be a small white "Colne Water AC river work" sign on a sandwich board style holder just outside Mr. Driver's house. The house is called "Eastfield" and the name is displayed on both the red brick pillars at the end of the drive. Please park either on the opposite side of the main road or on Kingsley street. We will be down the field by the river. Please see the works in progress today in the photo on http://www.flyforums.co.uk/general-fly-fishing-discussion/52931-who-would-interested-habitat-work-training-4.html