Written By: Dr Stephen Marsh Smith
On Date: 1/11/2010
Despite a few frosts, water temperatures remain sufficiently high to encourage fish to continue taking. Barbel are still being caught and, as might be expected, grayling and chub are doing really quite well. Ok, leaves can be a nuisance, particularly if the water rises for fly fishers. Prospects depend on weather: Rain will concentrate activity on upstream beats of Wye and Irfon (Grayling) while steadier flows will allow fishing on the main river, especially the upper Wye where fly fishers will relish the clearer water. Coarse fishing including barbel looks set to continue while temperature hold.
River work transfers from fish pass construction to coppicing at this time of year but it has been a great year for the latter largely due to the very low water conditions. In total some 26 sites have benefitted from either a full fish pass – Arrow: four sites, plus easements such as provided by the Agency on three lower Lugg weirs and Honddu (Usk) to simple lowering of obstructions such as on the Pinsley. We are in the process of analysing the Electrofishing data kindly provided by the Agency. This year’s fishing shows the success of 2009 spawning and the survival of 2008 fry. We shall report on the website. Many thanks to all those who came to the recent meeting in Hereford. The four presentations set out what we felt was the current situation, our progress and reasons for the current level of returning salmon. We will try and get the information out either as a newsletter or website addition in due course. More new beats will be available now and before the New Year. Full details will appear in the next email. We have listened carefully to your advice on the need for bank clearance in some places, much of which we hope to put in place before next season. Please also make a note of the date of our next river walk: Sunday 28th November. Please contact the office if you would like to come: There is some pressure for places. Finally thank you all for your support, interesting ideas and suggestions. It’s been a tough year for water and fish. All the best from the Wye & Usk Foundation. http://www.wyeuskfoundation.org/fishing/booking_office/ 01982560788 http://www.wyeuskfoundation.org/fishing/feedback.php Anglers reports
Wye and Usk Foundation Update