News

Tenders are invited for design of fish passage improvement on the River Erewash, Derbyshire. Please see this document for more details.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your support of WTT through 2020. We’ve been touched and humbled by your warm words and generosity in the auction just when Covid hit us in the Spring, then when so many of you renewed your membership and now again with our autumn raffle which has just raised a record amount of £7997.I am also indebted to my colleagues for their stoicism and the expertise of our trustees across a really bumpy year – we go into the unknown of 2021 in a strong position and with plenty of work to do. We have advisory visits lined up and will jump in leading volunteer groups when things feel a little clearer and trout spawning season has passed; we’re developing some really interesting river improvement projects.

The 2021 WTT auction will run 19-28 March, our annual journal will reach you in early May, we’ll aim for members’ fishing days through the year, our great fun 3-Fly fundraiser is planned for 19 June and (we can only hope), we’ll be able to meet in September for our postponed Annual Get Together. I wish you well for the Christmas period. Take care and stay safe. Shaun LeonardDirector

1st Prize kindly donated by Sage, worth approximately £1000+A Sage Single-Handed Fly Rod of your choice from the range currentat the time of the draw to which will be added an appropriate reel and line.Won by M Chapman of Hope 2nd Prize kindly donated by The Peacock at Rowsley & Haddon Fisheries, worth £470One night’s accommodation in a large double/twin room for 2 peoplewith 3-course dinner and buffet breakfast, plus 2 low-season ticketsto fish the Derbyshire Wye, 2021 season.Won by N Dunn of Emsworth 3rd Prize kindly donated by William Daniel, Famous Fishing, worth £450A day’s fishing for 3 rods on 1½ miles of the Lambourn at Weston.2021 season by arrangement on a Mon, Tue or Wed after 30 June.Won by R Juddery of Tonbridge 4th Prize kindly donated by George & Ann Eaton, worth £120A day for 2 or 3 people (can be parent and child) to watch wildlifefrom a ‘high seat’ in a tree at Rectory Farm (in Bucks)to see badgers, muntjac deer, hare, owls and foxes. Summer 2021.Won by J Body of Chelmsford 5th Prize kindly donated by James Lanfear, Jim’s Lures, worth £80A pair of exquisite, wooden fishing lureshand-crafted in Devon by James Lanfear of Jim’s Lures.Won by J Pepper of Wembley All winners have been contacted.

Wild Trout Trust are seeking tenders to deliver a project to create floodplain habitat alongside the Dunston Beck in Lincolnshire. Details are available in this document. For more information please contact Tim Jacklin tjacklin@wildtrout.org 07876 525457.

Afonydd Cymru, the umbrella body for the rivers trusts of Wales, seeks a new CEO, following the very sad death of Stephen Marsh-Smith. 

The application deadline is 4 January 2021. More details below and on the Afonydd Cymru website.

Chief Executive Part Time: 2 ½ days per week

Pet flea treatments are highly toxic insecticides used on cats and dogs to kill fleas, and recent research shows they are getting into our rivers across England. 

This is worrying for our invertebrate life in rivers, and the fish and birds that depend on them. This issue was highlighted by Buglife three years ago but no action was taken. 

Matt Shardlow of Buglife says:“Three years have passed since we first highlighted the risk to wildlife from flea treatments and no regulatory action has been taken. The massive over-pollution of all waterbodies with fipronil is shocking and there is an urgent need for the government to ban the use of fipronil and imidacloprid as flea treatments.”