Covid Update: All the boys (and girls) are back in town

Updated 8 July

We are delighted to say that the full team of WTT staff are now back at work.  
The Trout in the Town crew - Paul Gaskell and Theo Pike - are just working Mondays for now, but everyone else is back to working their normal hours. All our email addresses and phone numbers are on the Contacts page. 

6 June news: 

We’re delighted to welcome back from furlough two of our Conservation Officers, Jonny Grey in the north and Rob Mungovan in the east, both immediately on the hoof. Jonny is working on a project funded through Yorkshire Water’s Biodiversity Fund to improve tributaries of the Aire, Nidd and Wharfe (the TROUT Project, Tackling Resilience On Underperforming Tributaries). This week, Rob will put 80 tonnes of gravel into the River Mel with some judicious tree felling to let light onto the riverbanks, in partnership with the River Mel Restoration Group, to improve spawning habitat for this Cam tributary’s trout and its water voles.

Jonny and Rob re-join Tim Jacklin in the Midlands and Andy Thomas in the south who’ve stayed throughout at the coal face. Tim’s scoping some large-scale projects in the Derbyshire Derwent catchment and completed an interesting, remote advisory visit on a reservoir in North Wales. Andy has started a rewrite of the Chalkstream Habitat Manual, through the Heritage Lottery-funded Watercress & Winterbournes project and recently completed an advisory visit on the River Nadder.


Other news

At the moment, we are planning to bring back the rest of our staff on 1 July, obviously dependent on circumstances. There’s lots of work lined up in Ireland (North and Republic) and across England, with an application in for funding for work in Scotland.

We had shifted our Annual Get Together from its usual Spring time to September, aiming for the Usk valley, but it doesn’t feel right even then to be pulling people together from around the UK. So, we’re working on a remote Get Together on Saturday 12 September, a day of presentations and films – please pop that date in your diary, with more information to follow.

Our 3-Fly fundraiser, originally planned for June, will now hopefully take place on Saturday 3 October. This is a really fun, sort-of competitive day with friends at Meon Springs Trout Fishery in Hampshire: great breakfast and lunch and good craic, all raising funds for WTT. Tickets cost £100, to include all food & drink, the fishing and the 3-fly patterns you are allowed. Terrific prizes for the top rods, including a Sage trout rod and elegant trophies. More details from the organiser, Neil Mundy: ncmundy@hotmail.co.uk

We still hope to send our annual journal Salmo trutta to all our supporters later in the year. But, if you’d like one now, you can buy it at cost for £5 (inc P&P) through the WTT shop: click HERE

Finally, many thanks to all who’ve renewed their membership for the year ahead – we so value your support. If you’ve yet to renew, we’d be delighted to keep you on board. If you can, encourage your friends to join us too.

Very best wishes from all of us at WTT; stay well.