News

We're pleased to share that the Wild Trout Trust team has grown a little more, with the addition of Sophie Evingar - our new Marketing & Fundraising Manager - read more.

While we’re waiting for the Court of Appeal’s judgement on the UK government’s decision to continue contesting the Pickering Fishery Association’s Costa Beck case, our friends at Angling Trust and Fish Legal have reminded us of this petition, created by Fish Legal’s Penny Gane.

Many people’s votes in last year’s General Election may have been swayed by the prospect of more environmentally-friendly initiatives from a new administration – a hope which thousands also expressed at the March for Clean Water in London on 3 November 2024.

There has already been widespread disappointment that the new Secretary of State, Steve Reed, decided to carry on fighting the Costa Beck case, which Fish Legal originally brought against the policies of the previous Conservative government.

Last night’s BBC Countryfile focused on the rivers of Shropshire’s hills and the landscapes around them, and the first part of the programme featured our new Conservation Officer Ed Noyes, talking about salmon ecology and migration.

Ed is in the process of completing his PhD (funded by Bournemouth University and Severn Rivers Trust) on salmon and trout conservation ecology, and he spoke to Sammi Kinghorn about salmon migration, water quality, extreme conditions associated with climate change, and research techniques including smolt tagging and acoustic tracking.

In case you missed it, or if you’d like to watch it again, Sunday’s Countryfile programme is available on BBC iPlayer HERE.

Many Wild Trout Trust members will have enjoyed beautiful days fishing on Ireland’s Great Western Lakes whose trout face a range of challenges, including exploitation from anglers.

Inland Fisheries Ireland has opened a consultation on a change to the local byelaws on Lough Arrow (including the Unshin River) to reduce the daily bag limit from four fish to two, and increase the takeable size from 12” to 14”. 

We at WTT will be responding broadly in support of the proposals, but pushing too for mandatory catch and release of all trout as a fishery conservation measure. WTT members might be keen to respond to the consultation, with further details HERE.

Neil Patterson is well known to many WTT members as an inventive fly-tyer and the author of two classic fishing books (Chalkstream Chronicle and Flyfisher’s Chronicle), as well as more than 200 editions of his regular Wild Trout’s Wish List column in Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine.

This year we were honoured to have him as our guest speaker at our Christmas Zoom Get-Together and Raffle, telling us his best fish tales about wild things that have happened to him because he’s a trout fisher (including bandits, parrots, icebergs and of course wild trout).

The film of Neil's whole talk is now available HERE to watch on WTT’s YouTube channel: we hope you enjoy it!

One of the links established between academia and WTT via our Prof In Practice, Jonny Grey, has just borne fruit in the form of a new paper. Abbie Read (née Nye) undertook her MSc Aquatic Ecology at Queen Mary University of London. She wanted to learn more about stable isotope analyses via Jonny's co-supervision of a project on Norfolk sea trout populations coordinated by the Zoological Society of London. Samples were collected from the rivers Stiffkey and Glaven, the latter which received plenty of TLC from Conservation Officer, Tim Jacklin, back in the day which is mentioned in the paper. Abbie is continuing in the sector, having recently just taken up a position in the Restoration team at Norfolk Rivers Trust.

Migration patterns, habitat use and genetic origins of sea trout (Salmo trutta) in Norfolk chalk streams: implications for management of a mixed stock fishery can be downloaded via open access at: https://link.springer.com/arti...

Over the past couple of years, our Conservation Officer Gareth Pedley has spent quite a lot of time in Ireland, including around the River Deele in Co. Donegal, with the Deele Community Anglers’ Association (DCAA).

Following Gareth’s initial Advisory Visit in 2021 (which identified a number of major issues such as weirs and historic dredging – see the report HERE), WTT advised the Anglers’ Association on developing effective habitat enhancement projects on other stretches of the Deele, while solutions for the bigger challenges are still being considered.

Some of these ideas were implemented in summer 2024, when Gareth visited Convoy again to lead a Practical Visit with members of DCAA, helpfully organised and coordinated by Frog CIC. This included installing brash bank protection to help stabilise an area of erosion and rebuild the bank, with the anglers and Loughs Agency, and then installing fencing and cattle drinkers to save the river banks from further trampling by livestock.

Back in 2019, Jonny Grey started putting together an application to the Biodiversity Enhancement Programme, an open competition for funding from Yorkshire Water. TRoUT was ‘spawned’, to Tackle Resilience on Underperforming Tributaries. It was a five year programme to improve reaches on nine separate watercourses, primarily to boost trout spawning and fry habitat, using numbers of Young-of-Year trout as a measure of success (or otherwise).