The Wild Trout Trust has teamed up with professional film-makers, Fish On, to create a series of short ‘how to’ videos. The aim is use video to capture the key information that the WTT Conservation Officers pass on to groups during Practical Visits.
Scroll down to find videos on the topics below.
Clean, loose gravel, close to good juvenile habitat is vital for successful spawning but is often in short supply. This especially in true chalk streams and limestone rivers where gravel can become compacted with calcium deposits and full of silt. In this video, Andy Thomas explains where trout spawn and how to manage gravels for improving spawning success.
See also our habitat management advice sheet ‘Gravel Cleaning ‘: click here
Secure ‘tree kicker’ installation (8:35)
Secure installation of felled tree-crowns or whole trees can provide vital habitat for many fish species. They can also be used to improve the variety of different micro-habitats for a whole host of plant and invertebrate species (by promoting some marginal/riverbank sediment accumulation as well as local riverbed scour on the stream-ward side).
This video illustrates some ways that these valuable structures could be securely installed — but as always, the appropriate legal permissions and consents as well as any other required site-specific guidance must be obtained before carrying out such works.
Tree Management (9:24)
Achieving a balance of light and shade through coppicing; using deciduous and coniferous brash to capture sediment and provide cover; replacing conifer plantation with native woodland; the importance of retaining root structure for bank stability.
See also our habitat management advice sheet ‘Managing Trees’ : click here
Log pinning (8:54)
Positioning and fixing log flow defectors to create scour pools and clean gravel.
River Wandle Case Study (13:38)
Creating flow deflectors; weirs and ‘notching’ weirs; managing bankside vegetation; using ‘mini logs’ to create variation in the river bed; installing brash cover.
Permissions (7:51)
Landowner and tenant permission; access to the site; a step by step guide to getting permission from the Environment Agency carry out habitat work.
Safe working (16:29)
Techniques for safely using : re-bar for pinning woody debris; chain saws in a working party situation; winches; fencing wire. Planning for incidents and first aid.
Risk Assessment (3:40)
Typical topics for a risk assessment for a river habitat working party.
Improved Trout Stock Management
There are many more instances than are widely recognised to turn to habitat improvement and catch and release fishing for wild fish. The Wild Trout Trust will help you to find and use those opportunities.
DISCLAIMER:
These videos are produced for initial and general guidance only; they do not and cannot consider the individual circumstances of any particular project or site; they should not be used as a substitute for proper professional advice or services. Accordingly, no liability or responsibility for any loss or damage whatsoever and to whomsoever can be accepted by the Wild Trout Trust (or anyone involved in the creation of the video) as a result of any person, company or organisation acting, or refraining from acting, upon the guidance contained in these videos.
