Tag Archives: Wild Trout Trust (WTT)

WEST YORKSHIRE

22 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in West Yorkshire

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A founder member of the Wild Trout Society, I remain a devotee in its, now,  more tax efficient charitable status as the Wild Trout Trust, and bid for several lots in this year’s auction.

Securing Lot # 171 in March,  I  welcomed the opportunity to fish with Paul Gaskell,

of whom more later, in June, because this might have enabled me to fish and ’net’ South Yorkshire. But before this means was even a possible, I was already there, as My Readers will know! [see  April 2011]

But a note to Paul enquiring whether I could parlay his guiding in the South Riding, to some time in West Yorkshire, produced a positive response for which I was grateful, and entirely, it seemed, within the spirit of how we fly fishers behave.

Paul is one the small full time team of five (now, six) which does the work of which we are all proud, and testified to, by the enormous sum which was generated from members in this year’s Auction, and was of the order of £50000. He, is a passionate outdoorsman and intellect, and the WTT, and therefore, we too as members , are lucky to have him. A PhD, and father to a handsome young son with his PhD-ed partner , he/they (and their energetic greyhound!) live a lovely life together, and I wish them happiness…he is great company, and our chatting during the  ride to Huddersfield was illuminated by his love for his work and his care for the environment. Some conversations of this type can veer toward the negative, the concern voiced in dire terms…but his tone was positive, but realistic, and constructive…he is a ‘builder’, and  I was energised by his enthusiasm.

The WTT Newsletters chronicle the activities it conducts….if you are not a member, please JOIN…and you will find there is fishing to be found which remains ‘free’, and of this, much is in urban areas, where programmes have been devised to seek to improve the water quality by the removal of detritus,

and more, to encourage the next generation, to understanding the value and vitality of our streams. The early work of the Wandle Trust is to some, an example of what can be achieved. And it is working, and the WTT’s ‘Trout in the Town’ shows just how well, but so much more has to be done. But without wishing to sound negative, no one, reading of the joy of finding trout fry in Carshalton earlier this year, cannot have felt pride for the efforts of Theo Pike and Will Tall, and their group. And all of they who are so committed to such programmes, share their learnings and give of their time, as does Paul…but it’s tough. Just how many tyres and supermarket trolleys are there subsurface in trout waters? Far too many is the answer, and we saw them this day on our first river –

August 2011 – the Colne, then the Holme.

My ‘quest’ has taken me to lovely places. I have discovered that wild trout can be found throughout England. Many of my days have been spent in tiny rural streams, and there are more trout in these, because there are more of them, than in the rivers which are written up in the fishing press, which one imagines are because these are more easily accessed. Overlooked, are the streams which flow through busy places.

And I understand this. We fishers enjoy solitude, for all the benefits which counterbalance our busy lives. So who wants to fish in sight of a bus garage, anyway?  [see Greater London!] But…and this closes the loop, so to speak, as to why the WTT focuses its education programmes in towns where it can, hopefully, influence more effectively, at least as far as numbers are concerned.

Whatever my first thoughts about the river flowing through Huddersfield were, after observing the obligatory traffic cone or two, I was thrilled to see the spreading rings of rising fish. And in the heat of an August afternoon, and in its brightness, I knew with Paul’s thoughtful guiding, it should be possible to net another county. And if my first fish, caught on his rod, rigged with two weighted nymphs, cast to run along a fast run only a couple of feet deep, produced snags and misses then a grayling, I registered the key point about the grayling need for good water!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So whilst traffic cones are artistically disgusting in trout streams, presumably they are not contaminants! A wade back to the town bridge, under which we had seen a golloping rise earlier, produced, after just two casts, a lovely trout of ten ounces or so, to a CdC olive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forget the ‘county’, or rather my ‘netting’ of another…this trout was a tribute to cleanliness, and to the efforts of all those who believe in restoration of our wonderful waters. And especially to Beth Allcock and her team at Greenstreams who have achieved so much in improving the Huddersfield rivers.

We walked upstream awhile, and cast into a tributary of the Colne, almost alliteratively named, the Holme

and, together, caught half a dozen or so wild trout, and right up to Bridge Street, and even if the felt sole of my left wading boot did fall off, (and all credit and thanks to Orvis for replacing them very quickly!)my memories of a lovely afternoon with Paul, live on. For me four trout from urban streams…all of them on dry fly. The rather pale worm on a hook at the end of a static line tied to a stick wedged between rocks sometime ago, opposite an old mill…just reminded me…I am not sure, of what. But this is an urban stream!

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NORTH YORKSHIRE

28 Saturday May 2011

Posted by in North Yorkshire

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I have fished, successfully, the Wharfe and the Laver, and sometime before 2008, and unsuccessfully, the Lidd and the Swale, but I had written nothing about these visits, so felt I had to take on the challenge of North Yorkshire again. And in communicating and launching my blog on FlyForums  to fellow anglers, I was delighted to receive a response from the ‘nom de plume’ Grayson, who wrote – “What a lovely prospect- if you need any Yorkshire venues do email me- would be happy to offer you a day or two on some very good and very private river”. There followed an exchange, off Blog, and Grayson turned out to be, one John Aston,

and his notes promised – “I can offer you a day on the Rye.End of May is good – will need to be mid week as in mayfly time weekends are guest free. Very pretty- upper river throungh wooded valleys . lower is gentler but with ranunculus and very big wild fish. Upper river fish are smaller but more numerous and run to 1-8 +; lower river  browns are often 3+”

On the appointed day I left my hotel near Northallerton and drove to Helmsley via the lovely market town of Thirsk. [Note – does any other County have as many race courses as Yorkshire – Redcar, Ripon, York, Beverly, Wetherby, Thirsk, plus, plus…?], and then onto the North Yorkshire Moors National Park via Sutton Bank up a 25% incline, the A170, where advisories told all motorists and all drivers, not once, but many times via ugly illuminated digital signs which would not be out of place in Las Vegas, that 132 blockages have occurred in the past year, involving HGVs unable to cope with the steep slope, even presumably in lowest gear, in which state it was recommended that all vehicles were driven…all of which seems to me, to beg a rather obvious question of the Yorkshire Constabulary, n’est-ce pas, Mon Brave?  Notwithstanding all this, the views from near the top were truly splendid, and once prompted Wordsworth to proclaim them, “the best in England”

On driving into Helmsley, I was concerned to note the low level of the water in the river below the town bridge, easily viewed from my elevated seat in Tonka Too. And I met up with John who explained that flowing over limestone, his river disappeared into the windy pits (pot holes, to you and me!) in this location so much of it flows underground at this point.

May 2011 – the Rye

A super injunction has been taken out, and this prevents me from revealing where we fished. Neither does the description accorded to Lot 150 in this year’s WTT Auction, generously donated by John (as was Lot 213), reveal the ‘where’, and whilst it may be the same water, only the angler making the winning bid, and my goodself know where, but you, Dear Reader, will never know!

Let me describe the Rye.

Firstly, I had never heard or read about it.

In parts it has special protected status – SPA, SAC, SSSI, as it flows through the most glorious and varied countryside.

“The River Rye rises just south of the Cleveland Hills, east of Osmotherley, and flows through Hawnby, Rievaulx, Helmsley, Nunnington, West and East Ness, Butterwick, Brawby, and Ryton, before joining the River Derwent near Malton.”(Wikipedia)

And also – “At source the River Rye and its tributaries run over Corallian limestone which outcrops on the hills surrounding the Vale of Pickering. In places this major aquifer is exposed in the river bed and water from the river is lost through swallow hole” as explained by John.

Arriving at our first venue in the heart of the Dale, I was struck by the calm and only the sound of birds broke the silence. We stood by an ancient stone bridge and discussed tactics.

Recent days had been punctuated by strong westerly winds and in the absence of fly life and with no fish rising, yet, John’s preferred nymphing set up at the start of the morning is New Zealand style, or as he describes it, “klink and dink”, with a weighted nymph trailing a bushy klinkhammer. As he admitted, in the wind in which we were fishing, the tangles were likely to be horrendous, and there were one or two, but, Boy did this rig work! John encouraged me to cast across current and upstream between overhanging branches of an alder, into a fast-ish run. He estimated the water was no more than eighteen inches deep there, and the first fish to come out was a grayling of 12”, the second a small brown trout,


 

 

 

 

 

 

and the third, a grayling of 1 lb. plus –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and whilst a couple more trout came to net that morning, it was the grayling which surprised. Ten or so came to net, and at least four of them were well over the 1 lb mark, the largest nearer 2lb. Staggering for a small stream, and averaging much larger than in the Avon. And all on his rig!

In the afternoon, we moved downstream some five miles. I always aim to buy my host lunch on days like this, but it was impossible this day because John had brought a picnic of Yorkshire Pasty and Ampleforth Abbey Cider which were graciously consumed, before viewing this lower beat. We could have been in another county…..on another river. For here the river meanders through arable flat land with grassy banks,

over gravelly bottom with curious grey slates in parts, with long flowing weed. The bends in the river have created deep pools but the glides are more Hampshire in character and I am sure there were more fish under the weed than were visible. The wind was gusting but the temperature rose in increasing sunshine and the odd May, along with some olives produced spasmodic rises, and eagerly I switched to a dry fly. Jim, the Keeper, confirmed that just the week before, anglers were catching fish with imitations as May duns went floating by…funny how it’s always ’last week’!

I caught up with John and Jim who were chatting upstream, and learned that John had netted a couple of good fish on mayfly imitation from below the far bank where they were standing. John had to leave at five, so I wandered back downstream to see whether the fish that were rising on my way up were still doing so, but no. And on arriving where John caught I noted a sipping rise across the stream so tied on a spent May, and hooked him with my second cast. He was a doughty fighter and headed into the weed and just as I thought he was lost, he slid through and into my net…about 1 ½ lbs.

Post script –

John….

My  thanks for a super day. You were most generous with your time, your knowledge, lunch, and your passion for angling, and the Yorkshire countryside is obvious. I have bought your book (‘A Dream of Jewelled Fishes’ published by Aurum), and I now understand your ‘Nom de Plume’!

ps 2…I have had many invitations to be LinkedIn, but have declined all of them. I do not ‘tweet’ and am not a ‘twit(terer)’, nor am I on Facebook. But….I connected with John on a Forum, so in one sense, I am a Social Networker, as must you be for reading me, I presume. Good for us…and for me at 63, there is hope….I think!

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

08 Sunday May 2011

Posted by in Cambridgeshire

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Tim Jacklin is a stalwart of the Wild Trout Trust, he is on the Executive Council, is Projects Coordinator, a Conservation Officer, and Editor of ‘Salmo Trutta’…..and, the WTT   website….that’s all!  A complete enthusiast, and a man I would like to meet, both Rob Hartley (see ‘Staffordshire’) and Mark Owen (see ‘Leicestershire’) suggested I contact him for thoughts on ‘where’, in those counties not known for their trout streams…

So I did, and he replied –

“I had heard of your quest from Mark Owen – quite an odyssey you are   undertaking!”

and with ideas for several such counties, but as far as Cambridge is concerned, he put me in touch with Rob Mungovan, a conservationist and another ‘stalwart’ of the WTT, whose work has been written up in Salmo Trutta (2010)…

 “there’s more of them (trout) than people think (in Cambs)”, Rob wrote.

…how enticing is that?

My day with Rob was exciting, instructive, rewarding, relaxed, warm, and so much more.

He is a cracking chap. Brought up in this county, he returned after graduating, and is now an Ecology Officer with South Cambridgeshire District Council, and has therefore managed to combine his career and his passion, and for that he is grateful to his Grandad who introduced him to the gentle art when a fourteen year old. He is a ‘giver’……a rarity today.

And he told me of secret places, and so they must remain!

Our day together started with a walk along the banks of the Shep, a glorious but tiny chalkstream (rarely more than ten feet wide)

which is faring better thanks to the efforts of the ‘Friends of the River Shep’ who have used conventional techniques to promote spawning grounds, encourage weed anchorage, ensure security from predators (at least from most…there are an alarming number of American Signal crayfish here)

and a habitat for the population of wild fish to flourish. And we saw several fish, but they were so alert that our bush craft approach was insufficient to stop them skidaddling, even when we were downstream and fifteen meters away, they saw us.

Then we drove to the headwaters of the Shep which are contained within the RSPB’s Fowlmere Nature Preserve, and with juvenile trout, well used to bird watching walkers (humanoids), it was lovely to spot the most beautiful of small wild fish, fearlessly holding station, and occasionally, coming up to feed off the surface –

This was/is so special….the Friends of the River Shep should feel truly proud of what they are achieving, in the name of restoration, and their clearance program has produced much weed growth and we identified water crowfoot, starwort, burweed, fool’s water cress, water cress, mint, and lesser water parsnip…and there is probably more!

This river may never be a fishery…but it is testament to all Rob believes in making these ancient streams become again, an essential part of the rural scene for the enjoyment and appreciation by all, of our glorious countryside.

Then we went to fish-

May 2011 – the Cam

The disturbing fact about this river, which rises near Linton in Essex, is that flowing through arable land, in this year of an April of the highest temperatures ever recorded, it is being overly abstracted (raped) of its flows. The potato fields are being sprayed by the eccentric arcs of plumes of river water for hours on end which means that river levels are now unusually low and fish stock is vulnerable to cormorants et al. Weed has not grown to give trout the cover and security they need, and aquatic fly form is insufficient in volume to provide them with the food they need, although I did see my first Mays of the year which are at least two weeks earlier than is normal. We watched two good sized trout which were agitated and not by our presence, and it was the arrival of a large pike which reminded us that these trout have more to worry about than aerial predation.

Not too much fly on the beat we fished near Whittlesford,

but when we spotted some movement, and  nymphing using a copper headed bug, tied by Rob, produced my Cantab trout. And shortly afterward, and at about 3 pm., when a hatch got them coming up, another of Rob’s creations, a mosquito yellow klinkhamer, produced another.

It was not easy fishing, though, and accessing the water required slipping down nettle laden banks, which put my felt soled wading boots to test. So much so, that my next purchase will be rubber soled boots, which will, in any case, be needed in July when Fraser and I fish Montana. I predict that felt will disappear (just as have metal studs on golf shoes, albeit, for totally different reasons)

I had to leave Rob for a dinner date in North Norfolk (of which more), but was happy to receive a note from him later that evening, confirming that the fish which eluded us, had been netted by him –

“I went back to “my beat” of the Cam at 8pm. A few fish were rising to hatching sedge by 8:30.   I picked up that larger one near the over hanging willow on a grh.ear cdc emerger which about 11inches.   Then I manged 2 more at about 8inches in an pale deer hare sedge in the faster run where you were waiting for a rise.”

Thanks, Rob, for an inspiring day….and I hope your trip to New York the next day, was as exciting an experience, as you hoped.

LEICESTERSHIRE

23 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by in Leicestershire

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There are few trout streams in Leicestershire, and when an opportunity to fish the Gopsall Flyfishing Club’s water was posted for bids on their 2010 Fishing Auction by the Wild Trout Trust, I spent part of the last evening for online bids, placing and upping mine, but ultimately was unsuccessful by a meager £5!  Thanks to my internet guru, Peter Little, I now know how success is achieved through this system, but am too mean to reveal this until after next year’s event.

Not to be outdone, I connected with the Gopsall Club via their website www.gopsallfishingclub.org.uk suggesting that if they could accommodate me, I would make a donation to the WTT, in the same sum as my bid. And Secretary, Mark Owen responded – “Am sure something can be arranged”

Our first attempt to meet in August was foiled by heavy overnight rains two day before, and new arrangements were agreed by phone and two Mondays later, it was up early and onto the M40/42 to meet Mark.

September 2010 – the Sence

Like in so much of Britain, when you leave the motorways on which we depend, there are interesting places to see. From the road to our assigned meeting place, I could have diverted to Appleby Magna, or to Sheepy Parva, or even to Norton-Juxta-Twycross, and I felt like a Medieaval traveller. This was warring territory for I was not that far from Bosworth, and the site of civil horrors in Cromwellian times. Now all is peaceful except for the trundling of monster tractors and 12-wheelers taking bales of dried grasses to winter storage.

There was a blustery easterly wind about making casting impossible on the first stretch that Mark took me to. But this early part of our encounter enabled me to learn a lot about him. A commodity trader (oil) and committed country man, he is already a major contributor to the Club’s improvement programme, which had begun with assistance from the EA, and grant monies from amongst others’ the WTT. His love for this project led to his taking a course in Environment Management (of waters) at the University of Derby, and then opportunistically, having left the trading world, he was offered a key role in the newly formed, Anglers Trust, as their Environmental Campaigns Manager, with his important role sponsored by the WWF. For his work on the Sence, he has been honoured with the award for Best  Amateur Conservation Project by Orvis/WTT in 2007. Working the riverbank with him is like listening to a walking encyclopaedia, and is completely fascinating. His love for what he is doing is inspiring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His river has a head of wild trout and is stocked with 800 triploid browns each year.

It has a small coarse fish population, too.

We drove to a part of the Club’s 5kms of water where he knew we would be sheltered from the wretched wind. We saw fish for the first time, but they were probably dace or grayling, an introduced species, and another part of the improvement programme. There was no fly life and I was nymphing with a gold headed PTN, but apart from one distinct pull, I was attracting nought, and when it was well past noon, the pub called!

In the afternoon, and whilst the temperature stayed around 17c. the wind was up again and we fished a tight stretch where we were bombarded by leaves and sizeable twigs. Below a small weir, I could attract no interest from the pool and I lost a cast in an overhanging branch. Jerking it free, I found that I had lost my braided leader and had no choice but to tie a new leader around a knot made at the end of the flyline. I reasoned that the folk in Africa had no need for sophisticated Loomis kit, nor perfectly tied polycarbon this and that, and are better fishermen than me without it, so I pressed on. And only minutes later, and casting into a run below a line of rocks angled across the river, below an alder, I felt a tug from only inches of water, and in seconds I netted a little beauty of eight inches or so. I felt humbled….but lucky to have been guided and with success by the expert who is Mark.


We spent the remainder of our time together, just wandering along his river, whilst he gave me a tutorial on bank management technique. The work that has been done by this 35 strong Club is impressive. Nettle beds have been cut back and willow saplings have been planted. Quality fencing has been built to widen the bankside margin and contain cattle invasion, new bridges placed, structures have been installed to narrow channels and speed flows, exposing gravel beds and improving weed growth, and importantly, creating spawning areas.

Mark is also very busy with the Anglers Trust. This new enterprise harnesses the separate influences of eight smaller bodies into a better, bigger body representative of our pastime.

From his explanations, I know from my own experience in the world of Public Affairs, that this is a good move, and it clearly has the ear of DEFRA officials. I hope that Government cutbacks which will be revealed next month, will not be detrimental to their endeavours.

When we parted, and with respect for what the Anglers Trust is doing I gave Mark a cheque for them, and I have sent the WTT a cheque, too…..next year, with my new knowledge, I hope to secure some other interesting rivers to fish in the WTT Auction catalogue !