WTT Blog

Deep dive into the complex issue of sewage in rivers compiled by Dr Paul Gaskell

As he approaches retirement, Andy Thomas describes his role as WTT Conservation Officer for the South and South-East of England.

With the trout fishing season now (largely) open, many wild trout anglers will be out on the river or lake hoping for some early season action after a long and very wet winter. This blog post aims to give a timely reminder on best practice for handling our precious wild trout so that they are released unharmed. 

In this blog post, WTT volunteer Denise Ashton attempts to summarise some of the various campaigns, media coverage and plans to address the issue of sewage pollution in our rivers since our last blog post on this topic in May 2023,

Just over a year ago, we posted news of a project, Love for Lothersdale Beck, which was shaping up in the home village of our Research & Conservation Officer, Jonny Grey. With most works complete, read about the progress of this holistic project

This article first appeared in one of our newsletters, but as it is spawning time again we thought it was worth repeating!

We've added this wonderful video from the Ness Fisheries Board (below). It is well documented for both salmon and sea trout that small young males (called 'precocious parr') will sneak in and fertilise the eggs of hen fish whilst the large adult males are busy fighting each other away. 

Duncan Philpott describes his MSc research project which he aligned to WTT habitat work carried out by Research and Conservation Officer, Professor Jon Grey. Duncan is now living in Sweden and working on research connected with trout health. 

We’ve just uploaded a new batch of recent Advisory Visit reports in the Advice & Help section of our website, showing where some of our Conservation Officers have been out and about in the last few months.

Our northern urban river correspondent, Andrew Griffiths, tells a remarkable tale from a recovering upper tributary of the Ribble…

The discovery of a lone dead fish may seem an inauspicious beginning for a fruitful relationship with a conservation charity that has the beating heart of a trout at its core, but that was the case for Skelmersdale’s Mike Flaherty on his local River Tawd.

WTT’s Conservation Officer Rob Mungovan has recently been hard at work on the River Mel in Cambridgeshire. 

This partnership project, in and around the village of Melbourn, has included adding 200 tonnes of gravel and chalk, to restore a healthy river bed with lots of flow diversity, which in turn will create a range of habitats for different species in this well-loved small chalk stream.

Andrew Griffiths introduces one of our newest Trout in the Town chapters...

“For quite a while we’ve just been pulling rubbish out of the river, really!”

Research & Conservation Officer, Jonny Grey, is thinking laterally with a new project on the Upper Aire, funded via the Yorkshire Water Biodiversity Enhancement Programme, the local branch of Salmon & Trout Conservation, and the Upper Aire Project