The first salmon fry of the year….

July 14, 2009

I was lucky last week to have been invited to fish the River Nith for two days on Thursday and Friday, so a shortened week meant I needed to try and get as many surveys in as possible on Monday to Wednesday.  Monday started perfectly with 10 surveys done in one day (this is a record for us!) covering from just above Padiham weir to Sabden Brook.  Many of the sites were better than expected as per usual this year, however the first site of that day due to poor netting skills – by myself – will not be able to use as “statistically viable”.  It was nice to find trout in some incredibly small streams such a Simonstone and Catlow, but the treat of the day was to get into Sabden brook to find our first salmon fry of the year.  We finished however on a slightly bum note, as we surveyed a beck called Sykeside (nr Altham) which we had not visited before.  The water looked gin clear, which raised my suspicions immediately, as there was no Algae of vegetation in stream at all.  We turned a few stones to find absolutely zip!  There was no invertebrate life, and the electro fishing revealed only 1 stone loach and 5 eels.  This beck is a significantly sized beck and should be perfect for salmonids, especially Salmon as it flows in below Padiham.  So there is going to be more investigation by ourselves and the EA.

Tuesday was a tough day as we did a full quantitative survey on Sabden brook, which with the numbers of fish present means it takes a long time!  That said there was a clear decline in the Salmon fry population from last year.  With the rain in the afternoon and over night, the decision was taken to spend Wednesday in the Office catching up on correspondence and paperwork.

I was really irrate at lunch time (not just due to paperwork!) but because we had a call from a volunteer to say that the becks had changed very little over night, so we could have got out and surveyed!  It is amazing what paper work there is for us though, from letters of Objection to discharge of part treated waste water (Sewage!), land drainage consents for river work projects, Invoices and reports for Fish Rescues, sending out info on the Catch and Release Badges, chasing up reported pollution incidents, and analysing volunteer kick samples!

I can never claim this job isn’t varied!!

Posted by Charles Edward Poate | Filed Under Uncategorized 

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