News

1st Prize kindly donated by Sage, worth approximately £1000+A Sage Single-Handed Fly Rod of your choice from the range currentat the time of the draw to which will be added an appropriate reel and line.Won by M Chapman of Hope 2nd Prize kindly donated by The Peacock at Rowsley & Haddon Fisheries, worth £470One night’s accommodation in a large double/twin room for 2 peoplewith 3-course dinner and buffet breakfast, plus 2 low-season ticketsto fish the Derbyshire Wye, 2021 season.Won by N Dunn of Emsworth 3rd Prize kindly donated by William Daniel, Famous Fishing, worth £450A day’s fishing for 3 rods on 1½ miles of the Lambourn at Weston.2021 season by arrangement on a Mon, Tue or Wed after 30 June.Won by R Juddery of Tonbridge 4th Prize kindly donated by George & Ann Eaton, worth £120A day for 2 or 3 people (can be parent and child) to watch wildlifefrom a ‘high seat’ in a tree at Rectory Farm (in Bucks)to see badgers, muntjac deer, hare, owls and foxes. Summer 2021.Won by J Body of Chelmsford 5th Prize kindly donated by James Lanfear, Jim’s Lures, worth £80A pair of exquisite, wooden fishing lureshand-crafted in Devon by James Lanfear of Jim’s Lures.Won by J Pepper of Wembley All winners have been contacted.

Wild Trout Trust are seeking tenders to deliver a project to create floodplain habitat alongside the Dunston Beck in Lincolnshire. Details are available in this document. For more information please contact Tim Jacklin tjacklin@wildtrout.org 07876 525457.

Afonydd Cymru, the umbrella body for the rivers trusts of Wales, seeks a new CEO, following the very sad death of Stephen Marsh-Smith. 

The application deadline is 4 January 2021. More details below and on the Afonydd Cymru website.

Chief Executive Part Time: 2 ½ days per week

Pet flea treatments are highly toxic insecticides used on cats and dogs to kill fleas, and recent research shows they are getting into our rivers across England. 

This is worrying for our invertebrate life in rivers, and the fish and birds that depend on them. This issue was highlighted by Buglife three years ago but no action was taken. 

Matt Shardlow of Buglife says:“Three years have passed since we first highlighted the risk to wildlife from flea treatments and no regulatory action has been taken. The massive over-pollution of all waterbodies with fipronil is shocking and there is an urgent need for the government to ban the use of fipronil and imidacloprid as flea treatments.” 

Another autumn is upon us and trout are undertaking their seasonal migration to find good habitat for spawning. In rivers, this usually means an upstream journey into headwaters and tributaries where the resulting offspring can spend their early lives before colonising the wider river system (or sea, in the case of sea trout). This migration can be over considerable distances (tens of kilometres) – but only if the way is clear. Man-made barriers litter our watercourses, on average one every mile (1.5km) in British rivers, stalling or preventing migration and greatly limiting fish populations.

On the River Ecclesbourne in Derbyshire there are two such barriers and the Wild Trout Trust is working in partnership with the Environment Agency, landowners and others to try and overcome them. Success will make miles of good spawning habitat accessible, not only for trout but also salmon which have been returning via the Rivers Trent and Derwent in recent years, after being absent since the Industrial Revolution. The short film (below) by wildlife cameraman Jack Perks introduces the project.

Watch this space for updates as the project progresses. Contact Tim Jacklin tjacklin@wildtrout.org for further information

The Institute of Fisheries management will be hosting a ZOOM Evening with Eels on Monday 2nd November 2020 at 7.30.

Eels in the Thames; from Domesday to No-Eel Brexit, with Darryl Clifton-Dey of the Environment Agency and Eels in the Azores: Trapping, Tagging and Tracking with Andy Don of the Environment Agency.

WTT Vice President Matthew Wright talks to Jack Perks in this podcast for World Fish Migration Day on 24th October.

Some good discussion about the WTT, the role of anglers in conservation, Matthew's experience of our 'Get Togethers' including our virtual Get Together in September this year, mental health and fishing.

Trout have started spawning in some parts of the country where water temperatures are low.

It is worth remembering that trout will spawn in streams less than a metre wide, and that we need to recognise the importance of these tiny, seemingly insignificant systems which some might (and do) consider drains or ditches.

This tweet from the Ness Fisheries boards shows a video of trout that has moved from a loch to a burn spawn in a burn no more than a metre wide.

We have put some of the material from our Virtual Get Together in September on our YouTube channel. 

Highlights include Paul Procter sampling invertebrates, Jon Beer discussing trout spawning lakes, Trout in the Town with Theo Pike and Paul Gaskell, fly fishing for barbel, Joe Crowley talking to Charles Rangeley Wilson about chalk stream restoration and photographer and film maker Jack Perks on freshwater fish.

Today, 24 September 2020, sees the closing date of an Environment Agency consultation, Challenges & Choices, that seeks views on the challenges our waters face and the choices and changes we all need to make to help tackle those challenges, with the offer to respondents to help shape the management of the water environment.

WTT’s full response is HERE, offering an on-the-ground view from our 1000 or so days out on the river each year, working on hundreds of kilometres of river. What we’ve said in this consultation reiterates what we (and many others) have been saying directly to Government and the regulators for many years.