Trout in the Town Blog
24/12/2011 - 14:20
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/Greentree landscaping (Kit donation/use, around 100 hours of voluntary time contributed for free in 2011 along with 20% of proceeds from any Sheffield Council contracted knotweed eradication works carried out as a partnership between SPRITE and Greentree)
John Tyack Flyfishing/Fish On productions (£550 donation split 70:30 between SPRITE and the Wild Trout Trust from an auction lot that included 1 to 2 days' free time donation of four people whose daily rates range between £200 and probably £5000+ per day)
Fish On productions (£310 donation from sales of urban flyfishing DVD filmed on SPRITE water plus Free provision of promotional DVD/web video extra valued at around £2000)
We have been able to achieve a great deal more for the river, its fish, wildlife and plant ecology through these partnerships. Many thanks for taking the responsibility to reduce earnings and donate money as well as time from your businesses in these tough economic times.
The donation of what you can give (whether it is time, effort or funding support) makes you all legends.
02/11/2011 - 18:59
I'm using this as a dry run of embedding "Vimeo" clips...but here is a reminder where the Sheffield branch of Trout in the Town came from.
24/10/2011 - 12:50
As regular readers will know, there is a long-running collaboration between the Wild Trout Trust (most recently via the Trout in the Town project) and the Wandle Trust. This September I had the honour of doing some further consultancy on how best to carry out parts of their ongoing in-stream habitat restoration project.
The programme of in-channel works on the Carshalton arm was initiated as part of the WTT Practical visit in February 2011 and is also part of the overall strategy for this section of the river. The strategy was driven by the findings of numerous site visits technical guidance documents that the WTT prepared for the Wandle Trust for use in negotiations with the local Environment Agency representatives. Through this process the E.A. and the Wandle Trust were able to lower/remove a number of weirs as well as to fit a fish pass to a weir that could not be removed. The fish pass and its installation were generously paid for and carried out by the Environment Agency. The strategy documents and the attendant detailed technical guidance notes allowed, following a very long negotiation process of around 24 months, the quality of the habitat between the sites of the previous barriers to be enhanced. It is the unenviable job of Bella Davies (Wandle Trust director) to understand and address all of the priority issues affecting the Wandle at the catchment scale. Consequently, Bella has translated the WTT technical advise into actions on the ground by securing funding and using her extensive conservation biology expertise to organise the works for the whole of the Wandle.
Practical Visit works revisited
The first order of business during the September consultation was to assess how well the previously installed structures are performing. My guide for this was Tim Longstaff who has been responsible for driving forward the amazing programme of works that the Wandle Trust have completed since February.
Tim Longstaff and I assess how this upstream V has scoured clean gravels next to accumulated sediment and coarse woody/leaf material. Good varied habitat for a range of species. This area was previously uniformly dominated with sand and silt
Although water levels are cripplingly low following a record dry summer, the cover logs would still act to provide overhead refuge for fish. The birds also quite like them!
Consulting on the next in-channel works
The next step was to complement the bold and brilliant channel narrowing, planting, extensive gravel introduction and weir lowering recently carried out by the Wandle Trust. My aim here was to advise on how best to locate and orientate flow deflecting log structures in order to preserve a varied "hump and hollow" streambed in the introduced gravels. Following a day's walkover of the full reach (which is now a fully connected length of 1-km of river; a stark contrast to the previous series of 100 to 300m sections that were penned in between the series of weirs), myself and Tim agreed on a plan for log placements to be installed during the working party the next day.
An example of logs placed by volunteers under direction from myself and Tim during the working party. Here, the newly narrowed channel and introduced gravels are being used to generate focused mid-channel flow that will preserve variety in depth and flow. The excellent planting scheme will also develop to provide good marginal cover for juvenile fish
Reverse Angle view of the installed logs (and introduced gravel) as they are laid in place prior to pinning to the stream bed
An area lacking variety in cross-sectional depth and flow identified during the walk over day
The Wandle Trust Volunteers swing into action to increase diversity of flow and depth on the working party
Further works have been (and will continue to be) carried out to increase the amount of "brashy" cover available for juvenile trout throughout this 1-km section of river. In addition, variety in the size of river bed substrate particles will be added by incorporating more cobble-sized to breeze block-sized material scattered amongst the gravels. We will also seek to create some additional deeper scour holes (with nearby overhead cover) to make adult trout feel at home. This then leads us on to the strategy for re-introducing genuinely wild juvenile trout (but more of this strategy in future posts....).
For now I just have to say massive thanks for all the great works undertaken by the Wandle Trust - and particular thanks for being receptive to the more radical thinking required to make progress in this heavily urbanised river. I look forward to the next steps towards thriving self-sustaining trout populations.
The shockingly low water levels of 2011 summer
The programme of in-channel works on the Carshalton arm was initiated as part of the WTT Practical visit in February 2011 and is also part of the overall strategy for this section of the river. The strategy was driven by the findings of numerous site visits technical guidance documents that the WTT prepared for the Wandle Trust for use in negotiations with the local Environment Agency representatives. Through this process the E.A. and the Wandle Trust were able to lower/remove a number of weirs as well as to fit a fish pass to a weir that could not be removed. The fish pass and its installation were generously paid for and carried out by the Environment Agency. The strategy documents and the attendant detailed technical guidance notes allowed, following a very long negotiation process of around 24 months, the quality of the habitat between the sites of the previous barriers to be enhanced. It is the unenviable job of Bella Davies (Wandle Trust director) to understand and address all of the priority issues affecting the Wandle at the catchment scale. Consequently, Bella has translated the WTT technical advise into actions on the ground by securing funding and using her extensive conservation biology expertise to organise the works for the whole of the Wandle.
Practical Visit works revisited
The first order of business during the September consultation was to assess how well the previously installed structures are performing. My guide for this was Tim Longstaff who has been responsible for driving forward the amazing programme of works that the Wandle Trust have completed since February.
Tim Longstaff and I assess how this upstream V has scoured clean gravels next to accumulated sediment and coarse woody/leaf material. Good varied habitat for a range of species. This area was previously uniformly dominated with sand and silt
Although water levels are cripplingly low following a record dry summer, the cover logs would still act to provide overhead refuge for fish. The birds also quite like them!Consulting on the next in-channel works
The next step was to complement the bold and brilliant channel narrowing, planting, extensive gravel introduction and weir lowering recently carried out by the Wandle Trust. My aim here was to advise on how best to locate and orientate flow deflecting log structures in order to preserve a varied "hump and hollow" streambed in the introduced gravels. Following a day's walkover of the full reach (which is now a fully connected length of 1-km of river; a stark contrast to the previous series of 100 to 300m sections that were penned in between the series of weirs), myself and Tim agreed on a plan for log placements to be installed during the working party the next day.
An example of logs placed by volunteers under direction from myself and Tim during the working party. Here, the newly narrowed channel and introduced gravels are being used to generate focused mid-channel flow that will preserve variety in depth and flow. The excellent planting scheme will also develop to provide good marginal cover for juvenile fish
Reverse Angle view of the installed logs (and introduced gravel) as they are laid in place prior to pinning to the stream bed 
An area lacking variety in cross-sectional depth and flow identified during the walk over day
The Wandle Trust Volunteers swing into action to increase diversity of flow and depth on the working partyFurther works have been (and will continue to be) carried out to increase the amount of "brashy" cover available for juvenile trout throughout this 1-km section of river. In addition, variety in the size of river bed substrate particles will be added by incorporating more cobble-sized to breeze block-sized material scattered amongst the gravels. We will also seek to create some additional deeper scour holes (with nearby overhead cover) to make adult trout feel at home. This then leads us on to the strategy for re-introducing genuinely wild juvenile trout (but more of this strategy in future posts....).
For now I just have to say massive thanks for all the great works undertaken by the Wandle Trust - and particular thanks for being receptive to the more radical thinking required to make progress in this heavily urbanised river. I look forward to the next steps towards thriving self-sustaining trout populations.
The shockingly low water levels of 2011 summer
04/10/2011 - 18:03
I had a really lovely trip up to East Lancashire to meet with Graham Counsell (who had kindly sourced some very useful pieces of metalwork for driving rebar pins into submerged logs; thanks Graham). We took the opportunity to fish up along the section of river that the Trout in the Town branch run out of Colne Water Angling Club have been restoring and protecting over the last few years Colne Habitat restoration video.
I am really glad that I did because we were privileged to encounter a large number of super-healthy, totally wild brownies from tight up against the superb overhead cover provided by the log and brash bank revetments. These soft revetments are structures that the club have installed to slow the "too rapid" rate of erosion in grazed sections of their river. The brashy margins have re-vegetated really well, providing additional bugs for the trout to feed on. Not only that, the trout have a plethora of new and very secure lies beneath the bankside logs and shaggy vegetation.
Sadly, I could only manage about an hour and a half of actual fishing before returning home to the office. However, in that time I contacted 24 fish (landing 14 of them - and practicing some unintentionally slightly premature catch and release on 10 fish!). The best of the session came from hard up against the revetment installed by the angling club working parties following the initial Wild Trout Trust practical training day. All in all, fantastic proof that the wild fish populations here are booming.
This is all the more gratifying because of the re-negotiation of a scheme that would have raised a downstream weir to impound much of the section that we fished through. Inputs from WTT and the Angling Trust as well as Colne Water Angling club helped to find alternative water sources to preserve a valuable lake and wetland habitat adjacent to the river - but without degrading the river habitat. Well done to everyone involved in that campaign.
Lovely wild fish that took the fly 6" from the edge of the log and brash revetments visible in the background
I am really glad that I did because we were privileged to encounter a large number of super-healthy, totally wild brownies from tight up against the superb overhead cover provided by the log and brash bank revetments. These soft revetments are structures that the club have installed to slow the "too rapid" rate of erosion in grazed sections of their river. The brashy margins have re-vegetated really well, providing additional bugs for the trout to feed on. Not only that, the trout have a plethora of new and very secure lies beneath the bankside logs and shaggy vegetation.
Sadly, I could only manage about an hour and a half of actual fishing before returning home to the office. However, in that time I contacted 24 fish (landing 14 of them - and practicing some unintentionally slightly premature catch and release on 10 fish!). The best of the session came from hard up against the revetment installed by the angling club working parties following the initial Wild Trout Trust practical training day. All in all, fantastic proof that the wild fish populations here are booming.
This is all the more gratifying because of the re-negotiation of a scheme that would have raised a downstream weir to impound much of the section that we fished through. Inputs from WTT and the Angling Trust as well as Colne Water Angling club helped to find alternative water sources to preserve a valuable lake and wetland habitat adjacent to the river - but without degrading the river habitat. Well done to everyone involved in that campaign.
Lovely wild fish that took the fly 6" from the edge of the log and brash revetments visible in the background
19/09/2011 - 22:22
Hi everyone,
I have a few dates for your diaries for some of the SPRITE winter work schedule.
2nd Oct 2011– wild flower and grass seeding
This is a really important job for a number of reasons. The root structure of grasses and plants stabilises soil banks reducing erosion, so preventing silt entering the water course. It also greatly increases diversity of the riparian habitat which will have a knock on benefit for all flora and fauna. I particularly want to try some seeding in the areas where the EA has previously stem injected the Japanese Knotweed. These bankside areas may well be vulnerable to winter floods, so it is vital that we stabilise these areas.
Meet 9.30 – 12.30 by the Farfield Hotel, town end of Club Mill Roa.
30th Oct – general litter pick,
The first of this winter's litter clean ups.
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE NOW Meet 9.30 – 12.30 AT LIVESEY STREET BRIDGE.
27th Nov – bird & bat box painting and installation
We still have a number of bird and bat boxes constructed and donated by Middlewood School. After the last attempt where most of the boxes were vandalised, we need to be a bit more canny about where we site the boxes. A bit of camouflage painting (with water based paints of course) should help.
Meet 9.30 – 12.30 Livesey Street bridge
4th December - Planned friendly fly angling match: details to be finalised and information from p.gaskell8@googlemail.com
11th Dec – litter pick, site to be finalised
If you are on the river and see an area that is in need of our attention, please don’t hesitate to contact me and we will endeavour to sort it out.
In all cases, tea / coffee / refreshments will be provided. As always, some of us will be fishing afterwards so for those members that are unfamiliar with the river, or are new to fly fishing, you are more then welcome to join us for the afternoon. If you haven’t attended one of our working sessions before, what better way in. Help out with our valuable habitat improvement work, and learn a bit about the river and fly fishing, all in the best of company, of course.
I look forward to seeing you all on 2nd Oct.
Cheers SPRITE (Sheffield's "Trout in the Town" project)
I have a few dates for your diaries for some of the SPRITE winter work schedule.
2nd Oct 2011– wild flower and grass seeding
This is a really important job for a number of reasons. The root structure of grasses and plants stabilises soil banks reducing erosion, so preventing silt entering the water course. It also greatly increases diversity of the riparian habitat which will have a knock on benefit for all flora and fauna. I particularly want to try some seeding in the areas where the EA has previously stem injected the Japanese Knotweed. These bankside areas may well be vulnerable to winter floods, so it is vital that we stabilise these areas.
Meet 9.30 – 12.30 by the Farfield Hotel, town end of Club Mill Roa.
30th Oct – general litter pick,
The first of this winter's litter clean ups.
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE NOW Meet 9.30 – 12.30 AT LIVESEY STREET BRIDGE.
27th Nov – bird & bat box painting and installation
We still have a number of bird and bat boxes constructed and donated by Middlewood School. After the last attempt where most of the boxes were vandalised, we need to be a bit more canny about where we site the boxes. A bit of camouflage painting (with water based paints of course) should help.
Meet 9.30 – 12.30 Livesey Street bridge
4th December - Planned friendly fly angling match: details to be finalised and information from p.gaskell8@googlemail.com
11th Dec – litter pick, site to be finalised
If you are on the river and see an area that is in need of our attention, please don’t hesitate to contact me and we will endeavour to sort it out.
In all cases, tea / coffee / refreshments will be provided. As always, some of us will be fishing afterwards so for those members that are unfamiliar with the river, or are new to fly fishing, you are more then welcome to join us for the afternoon. If you haven’t attended one of our working sessions before, what better way in. Help out with our valuable habitat improvement work, and learn a bit about the river and fly fishing, all in the best of company, of course.
I look forward to seeing you all on 2nd Oct.
Cheers SPRITE (Sheffield's "Trout in the Town" project)
12/09/2011 - 15:10
Two of the new attendees at our "urban conclave" in February this year invited me back to their own urban river recently. The purpose of the visit was two-fold; first of all to do some "mayfly in the classroom" training and also to do a revisit to the site that I had provided a habitat report on last winter. As well as exploring opportunities for access to spawning tributaries, my hosts also kindly allowed me to fish their privately owned section. Sadly this piece of river suffers serious pollution spills every few years. These have included incidents that have wiped out all fish - including thousands of eels. In fact, the only fish to survive one such incident in 2009 were the handful of eels that managed to CLIMB OUT ONTO THE RIVERBANK and ball up in tree roots. Therefore, it was more an act of defiance to make our way up the river with fully rigged fly rods casting into numerous likely-looking spots in the vain hope of proving the water chemistry data wrong. And let's be clear here; there was absolutely no shortage of fantastic looking holding water in the quarter mile or so that we fished. It is a classic upland trout stream that has sadly been allowed to comfortably wear its label of degraded/polluted/lifeless for far too many generations now. My hosts, though, have the ambition that within the next 5 to 10 years there can be progress made to ensure the presence of wild, self-sustaining trout populations here - and I applaud them for it.
It was with a heavy heart, therefore, that I reached the last feature at the upstream boundary - being as we were fishless. Based on the appearance of the habitat, we should have been some 20 fish to the good at that point. The final feature in question was a riffle feeding into a lovely scour pool on the outside of a bend. It even included some great tangled tree root and sedge grass cover. In fact, it had merited special mention during my original habitat visit in the depths of last winter. And so when the leader's progress down the pool halted momentarily, I lifted the rod realising that I'd generously made another sacrificial offering of a weighted nymph to the tree root gods. Except that, in this case, the "snag" proved to be quite mobile. Explosively so. Positively livid in fact. What had I connected with? A shout downstream to the others that they might at least witness the rod bending into a fish. As they splashed their way upstream I glimpsed something momentous. Well - two momentous somethings actually. First of all; the fish was very large. Second of all; this large fish had spots on it......
"*$$*ing hell", "don't lose it", "£%*&ing, *%£*" etc. for the ensuing tense minutes.... As you can see below, I did get it into the net and it did pose for a couple of pictures.
But lets be totally straight here - that fish is large because it has somehow avoided the ignominious fate of all its brethren and, consequently, has almost no competition for resources. The operation of human industry in this area have given this fish no chance of survival and every chance of extermination. And yet there it was - probably having dropped downstream from the cleaner reaches upstream (or perhaps finding refuge in a side stream during the various pollution blights it would have endured in the main river during its lifespan). Surely we can do better to make sure that fish like this can thrive here?
It was with a heavy heart, therefore, that I reached the last feature at the upstream boundary - being as we were fishless. Based on the appearance of the habitat, we should have been some 20 fish to the good at that point. The final feature in question was a riffle feeding into a lovely scour pool on the outside of a bend. It even included some great tangled tree root and sedge grass cover. In fact, it had merited special mention during my original habitat visit in the depths of last winter. And so when the leader's progress down the pool halted momentarily, I lifted the rod realising that I'd generously made another sacrificial offering of a weighted nymph to the tree root gods. Except that, in this case, the "snag" proved to be quite mobile. Explosively so. Positively livid in fact. What had I connected with? A shout downstream to the others that they might at least witness the rod bending into a fish. As they splashed their way upstream I glimpsed something momentous. Well - two momentous somethings actually. First of all; the fish was very large. Second of all; this large fish had spots on it......
"*$$*ing hell", "don't lose it", "£%*&ing, *%£*" etc. for the ensuing tense minutes.... As you can see below, I did get it into the net and it did pose for a couple of pictures.
But lets be totally straight here - that fish is large because it has somehow avoided the ignominious fate of all its brethren and, consequently, has almost no competition for resources. The operation of human industry in this area have given this fish no chance of survival and every chance of extermination. And yet there it was - probably having dropped downstream from the cleaner reaches upstream (or perhaps finding refuge in a side stream during the various pollution blights it would have endured in the main river during its lifespan). Surely we can do better to make sure that fish like this can thrive here?
