2019 Season Review

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Although the Summer was not the prolonged heatwave we experienced in 2018, it did have a considerable effect on River flows by July. All the weedcuts were as light as possible, mainly to keep Ribbon weed in check but also to help push the ever decreasing supply of  water to some of the Carriers. Rannunculus did well early on, helped by the lack of Swans, but by August most of it was choked by Blanket weed.

There were a few Hawthorn flies and Large Dark Olives to kick things off and although the Mayfly was not the most exciting on record there were enough to get the fish up and a lot were caught, mainly late afternoon and evening. The Iron Blue hatches were notable by their absence this year, even on the cold, overcast days when you would have expected to see them .

As the water warmed up the fish became harder to tempt and as usual the main activity was late evening when most of the fishermen had given up and gone home to nurse their sunburn.

There were several good returns of BWO Spinners but not enough to rely on and a nice lot of different Sedges. Once again the September and October fishing was outstanding mainly to Pale Wateries and Medium Olives.

 We have relaxed the nymph rules to allow them to be used from 1st May, this gives an option if the conditions conspire to make fishing a dry impossible. Generally this has been well received and most anglers still try to get fish off the top if they can.

It was encouraging to see the impact of the in-stream woody material that was used to narrow an over-wide reach two years ago . Even with minimal flows the stretch was still holding fish and weedgrowth was much improved on what it used to be. Some of the smaller projects had a beneficial effect , creating scours and fish lies and we will be carrying out more of the same this Winter.

There will be a bigger Restoration Project undertaken in collaboration with the E.A this November. It will create a series of meanders on a straight,