Another hot day with rising river temperatures again not that it will bother some it seems. Thunderstorm may affect us later with the possibility of some significant rain, patchy though it may be.

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Saw this on another Forum today - the one where a certain Mr Bradshaw keeps off anyone who disagrees with or wishes to argue the toss with WUF. to the extent that some of us, myself included are denied a right of reply.  The author of the below, one Stephen Marsh Smith of course knows this;/

"Funny that's the same website I get when I press whingeingoldgit.com in my favourites. As one, who with fishing friends and tenants, is frequently, if not criticised daily for even fishing at all, he is so transparently two faced. Certain other beats near the bottom never gets criticised, no matter how hot and how many are flogging it, or how many fish are held out of the water to be photographed.

To get to your other perfectly fair criticism: no, that fish could have been held in the water, in the net and then released, ideally, but that's a matter of education and explanation.....who better that the Guru of Despair himself?

Finally the endangered miracle would possibly not be there if owners and anglers hadn't stumped up essential core funding to restore the river with schemes such as net buy offs, habitat restoration, headwater liming, fish passes etc. Pragmatic I suppose, but what's the use of doing nothing and letting the salmon die out but standing proud with a clear conscience saying: "I never fished for them" when they are gone and lost for ever.....


NK"

Whilst I am of course deeply humbled at being on his list of 'favourite'  sites he rarely gets his facts right, not that that's bothered him during his long tenancy at WUF either come to that.

The first paragraph is patently untrue so won't even address it.

As for the second that fish was taken in a pool called never Say Die on the Nyth beat - he knows it well.  A fast water spout pool set in slate like bedrock, seriously dangerous when wet and NO ONE wades in there.  Being an old git himself now I doubt even he would attempt it never mind younger less experienced anglers and a young lady to boot.  The fish was netted, laid on the rock to remove the hook, to do otherwise would have meant taking it a considerable distance from the water, and it was then held to recover and released.

Finally a good many of us have used our time voluntarily, and our money to help revive this river, despite direct opposition from WUF.  We paid out a big proportion of RWGA funds to supposedly buy out the putcher rank  which, like many of WUF schemes turned out to be not quite what it seemed.  With the benefit of past experience and hindsight he may well be able to

bullshit a good proportion of people with interests in our river but he can't bullshit the actaul, local anglers.

Apart from the net buyout which surely did have an effect which is still ongoing I see next to nothing on the river that has actually improved one jot.  Just take the claims of improved water quality and then go fish in the brown sludge of the bottom river.   Putting up fences and cutting down trees, oh and then putting them back again, and then forgetting to do any maintanance so its worse than before, then taking out 'blockages' then seeing the effects thinking  'oh, perhaps we shouldn't have done that etc.etc ' Fry and Parr results are dire, signal crayfish are in our tributaries and almost certainly the main river too but what the hell, where is the money for our next project, where can we get the cash to sustain all our staff.  Only a couple of seasons ago at the annual Meeting Mr Marsh Smith said  they had done nearly all they could on the Wye and sea survival was the crucial factor.

I won't go on otherwise it would take me a month. Problem is I know him and his Foundation rather too well and he knows it A short time after the foundation was formed I came to the conclusion he was not the man for the job and left it on the basis that it was being run on an agenda  not entirely in the interests of the fishermen. I have seen nothing since to change my mind basing it on what I see and experience first hand and not what others would like me to believe.

Good that he reads the blog though, at least he gets some actual facts not fantasies!!!

Wouldn't it be nice too to see a photo of a fish from the 'local angler' on the Rectory -purely for verification purposes you understand.

Gosh, he's read it already,
 "PS I spotted ......"I wont go on...." in the latest whingeathon. Fingers crossed!"

Of Dear -I have a long memory Mr SMS -enough to seriously embarrass you with perhaps so 'fingers crossed' might just be appropriate.