Back into the groove and fishing well
June 29, 2009
The second week of electro fishing surveys has been unbelievable with 21 surveys completed in the week! The Calder has had some mixed results, but what they mean will really depend on my “calibrating surveys” still yet to be done. Although October seems a long way away, the rate at which we have to survey means it will come round incredibly quickly! It also means keeping in contact with everyone becomes very difficult, an example is that Philip came in first thing Monday for what was the first weekly brief I had had with him in what felt like a long long time!
We were discussing specifically additional points that we wanted to put into the draft River basin Management Plan (dRBMP) which we had to submit that day! After carefully looking at action points of note I penned an email and whizzed it through before the deadline of the consultation! After this we had a brief chat and then Brad and I headed out to get some surveys done.
Tuesday I asked Brad (my electro fishing assitant) to come in a little later as I had to get some office work done and always feel guilty if he hasn’t got much to do. So I got my emails sent and the latest Riverfly partnership survey sites sent to the volunteers (first results now in – Thanks guys!). Then it was down to pick up Brad and head out. Our last survey site of the day put a real downer on what had been a top afternoon. As we dicovered a serious sewage pollution which we reported through to the hotline (0800 80 70 60 – please if you see pollution of any kind or severity get it rung in!), and I will let you know when I can about the results.
Wednesday Brad went off to Lancaster to get his degree results and so I spent the morning sorting the Catch and Release Badge final details and chasing a few bits and pieces, in the afternoon Stephen and I went out and did a survey, it was meant to be several but after and incident involving a style and equipment cable we had to head back to the office for “running repairs”.
Thursday I had been lined up to talk to Radio Lancs about Volunteering, what we do and how people can get involved, so hopefully some of you heard this and decide to get involved! We also managed to get another 5 surveys in – whilst being devoured by midges!!
Friday was a late start, but we got 3 surveys done again the midges were at us but I just keep telling myself lots of midges lots of salmonid food! The first two were on my personal favourite tributary of the Calder and for that matter the whole of the Ribble. We had a fantastic fry result, and were shocked beyond belief when in a small pool of this really small beck we turned out a 1lb brownie followed by a 2lb brownie and missed an even bigger one. These were wild fish!! I can’t reveal their location for their own protection, but needless to say it was a nice result. We also had a meeting on site at our fish rescue job, and finalised the last details. This means that we will get some nice income to help other work!
I hope the Blogs don’t get to samey now that the electro fishing has started – let me know if they do!! I will try and make sure that I just don’t list how many surveys done on each day!
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