WTT Blog

A year has already flown by since we (me at WTT, Pete Turner at EA & Kevin Sunderland at Aire RT) worked in partnership to remove the weir at Coniston Cold on the Aire, North Yorks. I’m currently champing at the bit awaiting a bespoke permit from the EA to tackle another. The funding is in place. The owner has granted permission for full removal having seen the transformation at Coniston Cold. The next weir will present its own challenges… but more on that in another blog.

I wanted to focus on developments at the site formerly known as Coniston Cold Weir....

Gareth Pedley, our Northern Conservation Officer, recently headed even further north to attend a trout workshop in Kinlochewe, hosted by the Skye and Wester Ross Fisheries Trust (SWRFT).

The purpose of the workshop (supported by WTT) was to disseminate the findings from a range of studies undertaken over recent years in the Wester Ross area by Middlesex University staff and students and SWRFT, in addition to other work undertaken by the University of Highlands and Islands in Inverness.

The mayfly is the iconic river fly, loved by trout and anglers, for whom ‘fishing the mayfly’ is shorthand for having a lovely day by the river with fish rising everywhere and catching lots of trout on dry flies.

NoWPaS, the International (formerly Nordic) Workshop for PhD and post-doctoral fellows working on anadromous Salmonids, is an annual workshop which consists almost entirely of early career researchers (ECRs) with a focus on PhD students. The workshop, which is organised by a committee of PhD students, allows a small group ECRs to present their research programme and ideas, along with any results that they might have already collected. WTT Research & Conservation Officer, Jonny Grey, was our man in the thick of it at the NoWPaS 2019 meeting, held at the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE), the University of Glasgow’s field research station.

Flyfishing history has truly been written on England’s chalk streams and limestone rivers, and it’s impossible to fish these waters without feeling that you’re exploring in the footsteps of giants.

From Charles Cotton’s haunts on the River Dove, to Halford’s water at Mottisfont, Plunket Green’s Bourne Rivulet and even the Wilderness fishery on the Kennet where Neil Patterson fished with John Goddard, Peter Lapsley and Brian Clarke – take your pick of historic waters in this year’s Wild Trout Trust Auction.

When our founder Mike Weaver published his book The Pursuit of Wild Trout, he inspired a whole new generation of flyfishers to discover the excellent fishing on Devon’s beautiful little rivers.

These sparkling streams seem perfectly made for holiday adventures, so we’ve included a wide selection in our Auction catalogue. We’re particularly grateful to local guide and Fly Culture editor Pete Tyjas for offering a wild trout safari through some of his own secret spots. But if you prefer exploring on your own, we’ve got that covered for you too.Time to start planning your season of adventures, inspired by the WTT's auction. 8-17 March, on eBay and by post. Click the Lot numbers below for a direct link to the Lot description and thence to eBay.Or click here for all the Lots on eBay,

It’s probably no surprise that many professional ecologists and fisheries scientists are also really good anglers…

Thanks to our generous network of friends, the Wild Trout Trust is proud to offer these amazing opportunities to enjoy a season of adventures on the water with gurus like Kenny Galt, Alan Kettle-White and Jonny Grey – the very best way for you to learn first-hand from the experts!

Most of our supporters know trout don’t just live in obvious or even beautiful places… but it’s sometimes hard to work out what that really means.

Hidden in the pages of our catalogue, here’s our curated selection of trout fishing in some of the most unexpected places in England. For instance, who’d have thought that Andrew Flitcroft, editor of Trout & Salmon, could take you on a wild trout adventure in Rutland? Or that wild trout are living happily in the Great Stour just outside Ashford in Kent?Time to start planning your season of adventures, inspired by the WTT's auction. 8-17 March, on eBay and by post. Click the Lot numbers below for a direct link the Lot description and thence to eBay.

Anglers travel from all over the world to fish England’s chalk streams – and with very good reason. But there are some beats, especially on the celebrated Test and Itchen, where even the best guides and booking services can’t get access.

The Wild Trout Trust is immensely grateful to the owners of some of these beats for making them available for our charity auction, the single most important fundraising event of our year. We’re very privileged to be able to offer them as auction lots for one-off adventures that money truly can’t buy.

Roaming the hills in search of wild trout is one of the quintessential adventures of any fishing season – and this year’s Wild Trout Trust Auction brings you a wide choice of chances to explore lochs, llyns and tarns all over Britain’s uplands.

Take your pick from Lyn Gwiddior or a mountain lake near Bala, tarns in England’s Lake District, or even Assynt’s primordial landscapes in the far north of Scotland – and start getting fit for a summer of long but satisfying hikes!

North Norfolk is still a mystery to many. But so many great anglers live there… that in the end we can’t believe it’s all completely coincidental.

From a unique three river chalk stream safari with Nick Zoll, to a day of adventures in the headwaters of the Wensum with author Terry Lawton, here’s your chance to explore those coincidences and start planning even more time on the water in one of England’s most secretive counties…

Climate change and intensification of land-use are causing fundamental shifts in the ecology of northern lakes with potentially dire consequences for the species they contain and the human populations which depend on them

Back in 2016, WTT was one of the organisations to be awarded funding from Yorkshire Water’s Biodiversity Enhancement Fund as part of their Blueprint for Yorkshire. The idea was to organise a series of workshops around aspects of habitat improvement and tailored to issues found at specific sites, and any angling organisation across Yorkshire could register an interest in hosting one.

Three years downstream and it is possible to reflect on what has been achieved.