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News
Wednesday, 16th May 2018
The Haddon Estate, through its Peacock Fly Fishing Club, has kindly offered its fisheries on 14 & 15 July this year, as a fundraising weekend for WTT. This is an excellent opportunity to fish for wild browns, wild rainbows and grayling across four rivers including areas usually only open to the Peacock Fly Fishing Club members.
The Estate ceased stocking on the Wye, Lathkill and Bradford in 2004 and since then, has operated a thriving, catch & release wild fishery with strictly bankside, dry-fly only fishing. Nymph fishing and wading are permitted on the River Derwent section. If required, advice will be available from local guides to help you get the best out of your day. To find out more about the Peacock Fly Fishing Club, how the Estate’s fisheries are managed and what they offer, you are invited to join the river keepers for a BBQ at lunchtime (at no extra cost).
A limited number of rods are available at £50 per rod per day so do book soon. Contact Christina in the WTT office via: office@wildtrout.org / 023 9257 0985.
This offer is open to Wild Trout Trust members only. Click here to join.
Monday, 14th May 2018
A big thank you to Richard Fieldhouse of Barbless Flies for a donation of £500 to the Wild Trout Trust - and to all of his customers who chose the ‘minimum packaging’ option which results in 50p per order going to the WTT. This is a real win for the environment – less plastic, easier catch and release and funds for habitat improvement!
Barbless flies have just launched a new website to help you select the right fly in the right place at the right time. GEO-Intelligent Fly Selection is a new FREE web service: www.which-fly.co.uk
We've all been there - you get to the water’s edge and just tie on the same fly which worked the last time you were out - hoping that the fish will still be interested. Well, how about using a little bit of modern technology to help you decide which fly to use?
With that exact scenario in mind, Barbless Flies have been working on a project for the last 8 months and after extensive user testing, it's finally ready to release. It's a website (accessible on any device) which shows you which flies should be hatching on your river (or stillwater) based on your location, date and time of day. It retrieves all of these details automatically from your phone/tablet/computer and then references them against a database behind the scenes, to display:
- Insects which should be hatching at that time of day, for that month, in your location (for both rivers and stillwaters)
- For each insect it gives you details of the fly imitation to use, including hook sizes and photos
- You even get the option to have the results emailed to you
The website is being launched with the support of the Wild Trout Trust, as Barbless Flies assist with best practice catch and release. The service covers England, Scotland, Wales, Northern & Southern Ireland, and best of all, it's free of charge (with no annoying adverts)!
Using your phone, tablet or computer, just access www.which-fly.co.uk this will take you to the website (if asked to share your location, please accept - don't worry, no personal or location details are stored and your location is only used to reference which flies will be hatching in your local area).
Thursday, 3rd May 2018
WTT attended a seminar by S&TC Cymru in Builth Wells in early April which highlighted issues around mega-dairy units in west Wales and intensive poultry rearing towards the east of the country. The impacts on Wales’ rivers and their really important trout stocks is headlined in official data on the number of pollutions reported: around 1.5 significant events per week and a Category 1 or 2 event (the most serious episodes, killing fish) about every other week.
The number of sanctions imposed by Natural Resources Wales suggests that the desperately under-resourced regulator is doing little effective regulation.
The Brecon and Radnor branch of The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) has set up a petition to try to encourage a debate in the Senedd. A target of 5000 signatures is sought by 22 May; the petition is open to those non-resident in Wales but who care for its environment, including its precious rivers and their trout.
More information here http://www.brecon-and-radnor-cprw.wales/ with the petition here http://brecon-and-radnor-cprw.wales/ipu-petition
Thursday, 3rd May 2018
The Environment Agency’s Heb Leman has just circulated an update of river restoration work with fisheries on the Test and Itchen. It’s an excellent read, including tales from an 800m restoration project at Bossington and removal of some hatches on the Test at a site impounded possibly since the 15th century, revealing some extraordinary archaeology.
Click here to read the newsletter.
Friday, 27th April 2018
WWF, the Angling Trust and the Rivers Trust have launched a new report called ‘Saving the Earth’ which highlights the damage being done to soil by farming. We are losing soil from the land at ten times the rate it is being replaced and too much soil is ending up in our rivers, causing huge damage to wildlife. The report highlights the need to focus both payments to farmers and enforcement efforts on preserving our soils to ensure future food production and healthy rivers.
Tony Juniper said:
'Healthy soil is vital for our national security, yet we continue to cause immense damage to it, not only threatening our long term food supply but also harming our rivers and wildlife. None of this is inevitable though. We could have a farming system that restores soils and wildlife, while at the same time stopping agricultural run-off polluting our rivers. To do this we need not only the right legislation, however, but also robust enforcement and proper advice for farmers, otherwise new policies simply won’t work. The good news is that this will cost only about 10 million pounds a year.'
Friday, 27th April 2018
Side Stream Reflections. Further Meanderings of a Chalk Stream River Keeper by the late Ron Holloway is now available to buy on eBay. Price £9.99 plus £2.90 postage.
This is a book of the collected writings of Ron Holloway, one of the inspirational founding fathers of the Wild Trout Trust. Ron was a leading thinker and practitioner of fishing and trout management who influenced a generation of river keepers and fishery owners. This book is published posthumously by his good friend, David Hamnett. Profits from the sale of the book (approx. £5 per book) are donated to the Wild Trout Trust.
David says:
'It is my great privilege to bring Ron Holloway’s manuscript to publication. He was perhaps the wisest, best-informed and most insightful fisherman I have ever had the pleasure to spend time with in or out of the water. The text I present to you here is replete with good counsel on a great many matters relevant to the preservation of our waterways and the fish that inhabit them – and is the meanderings of a skilled and thoughtful fisherman, which may just help you secure that catch of a lifetime. I recommend it you.'
Thursday, 26th April 2018
Many congratulations to the group of chaps who were crowned River Champions 2018 at last night’s River Restoration Conference dinner, among them close friends of WTT, Stephen Frye, George MacIntosh and Glenn Smithson. Well done you all and thank you for your champion work for our rivers and their trout.
Photos below: Glenn Smithson and his River Champion award, at the RRC Conference dinner in Nottingham and in his more usual habitat, on the River Lark in Suffolk with his mate, Tim Taylor
Thursday, 26th April 2018
The 2018 WTT annual gathering beckons, running over the weekend of 19 & 20 May 2018, based around the village of Gargrave, near Skipton in N Yorks. It’s a really excellent chance to meet and chat with like-minded trouty types, listen to some inspiring talks on work in the patch and even fish some of Yorkshire’s finest trout rivers.
Early arrivers will meet for a pint in Lothersdale at the Hare & Hounds (Jonny Grey’s local) on the Friday evening, 18 May; if you’re staying over in Gargrave, we’ll try to arrange group taxis from Lothersdale back to Gargrave. Saturday will see a day of doubtless brilliant talks, in the village hall at Gargrave (programme here), followed by a walk along the River Aire, guided by WTT Conservation Officers, to see issues impacting the river and some of the work that is being done by WTT, the Environment Agency, Aire Rivers Trust, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Hull International Fisheries Institute, and local angling clubs.
On Saturday evening, we’ll enjoy a second pint and perhaps a curry in Gargrave before waking to fish fantastic local club water (with many thanks) on the Aire, Ribble and Wharfe.
Please do join us. £10 will cover lunch, tea and coffee, booked either by returning this booking form to Christina in the WTT office (office@wildtrout.org) or calling on 02392 570985. Details of the fishing will be arranged once you’ve booked in. If at all possible, please book by Friday 4 May; thank you.
We very much look forward to seeing you.
Photos from previous years:
A few drinks and a chat before dinner
Shaun introduces Malcolm Greeenhalgh
Tuesday, 24th April 2018
The best place to start, of course, is the Wild Trout Trust auction but you may not want to wait until the next auction in March 2019!
If you are looking for club or syndicate to join, check this list.
This list was updated 24/4/18 with new fishing on 'The Carrier' at Easton (Itchen carrier upstream of WInchester) and more fishing on the Itchen at Easton and one of the headwater streams, along with the rivers Test and Teise from the Sussex Piscatorial Society.
Tuesday, 24th April 2018
Several of the water companies have Water Resource Management Plans out for consultation at the moment, with the first of those closing very soon. These plans lay out how the companies intend to find water for, in many areas, burgeoning human populations, then dispose of our waste. This should be critically important to those of us in the water-starved south and east of England, perhaps most pointedly to those of us who fish, love our rivers and value wildlife conservation.
The Angling Trust has produced an excellent response to the Thames Water consultation (closing 29 April), with links to the other companies’ consultations: www.anglingtrust.net
A famous chalkstream, the Chess in Bucks, missing one vital element. Photo courtesy of Paul Jennings]
