Sun tans and thunder storms!
July 6, 2009
A very interesting and diverse week was had by the trust last week, and that doesn’t include the weather!! The Land Drainage consents finally came through to allow us to proceed with the next lot of off stream spawning channels, this meant that Stephen was flat out organising contractors and talking to land owners, for the best part of the week. I had to try and continue to take advantage of the excellent electro fishing conditions and so concentrated on trying to get some more site under my belt.
Monday was an absolute scorcher and we started on the head waters of the Brun (Calder Catchment) what a beautiful area, and seemingly stuffed full of trout! We managed 4 sites on the Brun before moving onto the Calder above Burnley. During our Brun sites we bumped into Linda the United Utilities Ranger for that area. It was nice to put a face to the name and have a good old moan about the midgies that nearly drove us from one survey site! We were also treated to a few pleasant finds on the Brun. The first was catching site of a true mayfly (Ephemera) on the wing, as I stood up to enjoy it fully, I pointed it out to Brad an before he could catch site of it a Finch came and plucked if from the air, I was both disappointed and thrilled. This was soon discussed with the Landowners wife who brought us a glass of coke with ice (many thanks!!). We also discovered at another site (location undisclosed) a colony of mussels, not the pearl kind, but another of our freshwater mussels, what was incredible was the size 114mm (or 4.5 inches!!).
On the Calder we had a site that produce more fry in 5 minutes than any quantitative site during the whole of last year, I was taken back and am a little bemused by the sudden and substantial improvement! Lower down we peered over a wall to watch a shoal of feeding trout varying from 130mm to 300mm feeding happily, and when the flash on my camera went off they didn’t bat an eye!! (pictures to be added soon).
Tuesday we had a team of us to do a quantitative site on the Brun, this site produced a trout with a missing lower jaw last year. I suspected that he wouldn’t last the winter, and much to my astonishment, not only did he survive but we caught him again!! We were also blessed by the presence of a family of dippers, with mum showing young dipper how to go about the underwater walk! What a treat. Oh a slight aside, on Tuesday night I had made my mind up that I needed a few spey casting lesson, as although I can get out a line on the single hander my spey casting left a lot to be desired. So I treated myself to a lesson with Jim Ferne. Jim was absolutely brilliant, and the lesson turned into a two hour session which had me by the end putting out a line that I felt wouldn’t embarrass any salmon! We covered 5 different casts, and Jim teaching style was brilliant and very useful even to those of a more advanced level (so one of our trustee who came along told me!). If you want a session with Jim his number is 07875174294. I am also pleased to report that Mark Rudd a Fisheries Officer for the EA, appeared half way through the lesson to check our licences! I can’t recommend him enough, if you are someone who is a complete beginner with no kit, he has everything to teach you with and will also help to recommend the right kit for the budget you have. If you are also fairly proficient and want to learn a few more casts and/or polish up your existing one, Jim can fix it (oh dear did I really make that joke?! Sorry Jim).
Wednesday I got out and electro fished until my Skin couldn’t take the sun any more, (about 15:00) at which point we headed for Sabden to check out the just finished spawning channel there. Looks great, and fingers crossed will hold some spawning fish in around 6 months!
Thursday was another important day, as we undertook another equipment check for our electro eradication of signal crayfish. For the first time the equipment held true and was still working by the end of the day. We were also able to put out a significant amount of power with what seemed to be the best results so far. Our next step is a full trial with De-watering and hand picking to determine the over all effectiveness of the method. Visually we had some great results, and seemingly an effective kill rate. What we next need to do is get a figure of effectiveness. Oh and can I say the horseflies and cleggs of the dales were… shall we say slightly less than enjoyable!
Friday we undertook a fish rescue on the Calder at Townley end for Bovis Lend Lease, who have undertaken a channel diversion to create a new entrance to a college. The new channel actually improve the aesthetics and the habitat by adding a meander to an unnaturally straight section of river. The rescue was successful, however we had a real job as near the end a torrential down pour occured and thunder and lightening were making us more than a little nervous. We did however complete the rescue before the down pour turned the river a tan/orange colour and release the fish in two location, once upstream and one down stream. Once this was done, we hung round until the dams were in place to make sure that as the old channel dried up we were on hand for any fish we may have missed. After this we headed back to the office to dry off and unload before collapsing into a chair with a hot sweet cuppa!!
I can only imagine what interesting events this week will bring!
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