Trout in the Town:

It was my great pleasure to travel up to the west coast of Scotland on Sunday (24th June)to meet up with Alan Kettle-White and Daniel Brazier of Argyll Fisheries Trust . Staying over until Tuesday enabled me to get in a habitat survey of the Black Lynn Burn in Oban on the Monday as well as meeting local stakeholders such as businessman Graham MacQueen of MacQueen Brothers who are keen to have local community members discover, re-engage and value their local urban river. Hopping into the river to walk along the riverbed was the best way to get to know the burn. It didn't take long to find signs of life: In fact, away from prying eyes, there was some very good habitat- particularly for juvenile trout (although also a lot of Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed also in evidence!) As long as this small structure does not conceal services (such as sewage/gas pipes or electrical cables) and appropriate permission can be gained, the variety in depth and flow up...

The old adage about pictures and thousands of words probably applies here. The following small selection of moments from a great day out. Many thanks Kris for purchasing the lot and supporting the WTT (yet again!). Click on each picture to view full size. Don't miss the video at the end of the post, and if you'd like to just view the photos as a slideshow - click here: http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee67/Totalpunter/KrisAuction/?albumview=slideshow And if still pictures are worth a thousand, then I'm not sure what those new fangled moving pictures translate to: Mayfly Tenkara: Missed opportunity from Paul Gaskell on Vimeo .

March 12th saw me heading down to Ramsbury, near Marlborough in Wiltshire to meet with “Action for the River Kennet” group (ARK: http://www.riverkennet.org/ ) on the invitation of Jenny Harker who had also organised for Charlotte Hitchmough (ARK director) and Eddie Starr (local river keeper) to attend. Along with able assistance from the young Riverfly Partnership monitoring volunteers ( http://www.riverflies.org/ ) we set about constructing the apparatus in Jenny’s kitchen. After taking an hour or so to go through all of the detailed construction stages from scratch, we headed down the lane to sample some of the local upwing riverflies (Ephemeroptera: http://www.ephemeroptera.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ). On the way we passed the amazing relic on Jenny’s wall which was the fragment of propeller from her great grandfather’s plane – salvaged after he was shot down by the Red Baron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen ) during the first World War. Jenny emailed me a we...

Thanks to great ideas from Martin Kowalski and Danny Gill, SPRITE have now had some handy guidance cards printed up (cheers to Nick James for printing and laminating!) to help reduce the avoidable mortality of fish (particularly grayling) due to poor practice. The guidance cards come with a free disgorger and free packet of hooks on a cord so that all three are to hand when needed. This way, SPRITE members can hand the kits out free on the bank to help anglers in a friendly way and get away from the avoidable losses of all fish from the river. The cards are double sided and cover everything from handling, making sure to return trout (both unfit to eat and also not sustainable to remove wild fish), what to do if a bait is taken deeply and also E.A. phone numbers.

Can "run of river" low head hydropower offset the environmental costs of installation, operation and maintenance? Are investors likely to see a return? Is such an investment beneficial or detrimental to the environment? New video here and website link to further info below: http://waterfeature1.blogspot.com/

Check it out here: http://www.sheffieldsprite.com Please note the Calendar function in the "Events" pages that will keep everyone up to date with upcoming cool stuff. Also note our exciting plans for a new initiative using simplified fly-fishing (Japanese Tenkara) to engage kids and adults with the conservation of their local urban rivers. We will be piloting this in Sheffield and then helping other groups to set up their own projects. Finally, although it is not yet "live" there will be a Donate button so that people who would like to help to protect and restore the urban Don (but who find it difficult to attend working parties) can make discretionary contributions via Paypal. Enjoy and please feel free to comment via p.gaskell8@googlemail.com

Massive thanks to all the volunteers who put themselves forward in some difficult times for myself and, potentially, the group. Here is a short video put together from the few clips I've taken over two recent working parties (when I've remembered my camera!). Of course there have been many more events, and please see my older blog entries for some of these. The raw materials for works towards specific conservation objectives were paid for, in the main, by a grant that the WTT successfully won from the Esmee Fairbairn foundation. Extra special thanks to the volunteers who just put themselves forward to find out what needed to be done to tackle our challenges; a few that stand out are Danny G, Paul H, Roger R, Nick J, Gerry C, Steve W, Simon F, Richard C, Dave W, Kate Q, Craig O, Gareth E - As well as the general supporting membership! Big thanks to those businesses that have taken a hit in order to put something back in to the river that they value so highly: Paul Hughes/Greentr...