River still high and very coloured.   Obviously nothing to report.

However you might like to read the below -part of a persons reply to the NRW anti stocking 'consultation'.
Some food for thought there alright.

" Having read the Wye and Usk Foundation submission I would like to point out a few places where facts have been allowed to blend into rhetoric. I see that NRW claim to be a fact based organisation with an emphasis on returning the rivers to their natural state as if untouched by man.

A reasonable comparison can be drawn between the Usk and the Wye, WUF have drawn this comparison so I would like to take it up.
The paper written by K Young (The balancing act of captive breeding programmes:
salmon stocking and angler catch statistics. K . A . YOUNG. Natural Resources Wales, Cardiff, UK.) states that only 3 of the years between 1995 and 2009, saw salmon stocking on the Usk (it also states that only 4 of these years saw stocking on the Wye but that is another matter).

It would be fair to assume that stocking stopped on the Usk in 1999.

The most recent NRW report on the state of the Usk (Sophie Gott , Report TM/SE_A&R/14/18) on page 16 i choose the following excerpts

In broad terms, the juvenile salmon populations in the Usk have increased since surveying began in 1986 (Figures 11a and b) with a statistically significant overall juvenile upward trend (P = 0.9966); this upward trend is primarily fuelled by a statistically significant increase in salmon fry numbers (P = 1.0); the parr densities have shown no evidence of an upward trend, rather a slight decline (P = 0.3841).

and

In the short term dataset, the trend is not as promising, indicating a strong downwards trend (P = 0.0466) in juvenile salmon densities since 2002 (Figure 11c). Again, this is more pronounced in the parr populations (P = 0.0364) than in the fry (P = 0.2665). This is also evident in the non-linear analysis, which shows a dipping of the trend in recent years (Figure 11b).

Of course there is conjecture as to the reasons for this post stocking decline. Early migration of parr is one suggested but as a 'fact based organisation' I can see no facts that would lead you to support that hypothesis.

In conclusion it appears to me that the salmon numbers in the Usk have declined since the stocking stopped and whilst the habitat work has been taking place.
Additionally the cost of this decline in the Usk numbers, post stocking, can be expressed in terms of cost per hectare per year and an interesting comparison made to the work carried out on the Wye as follows.





In the same document mentioned above the Wye and Usk Foundation go on to publish some graphs on page 4 in an attempt to prove their own effectiveness. (http://www.wyeuskfoundation.org/down...d=2956&sf=true)

1. The graph entitled 'salmon over 20lbs' does not include a caveat pointing out that most of these weights are guesses made by inexperienced anglers with no gillie or experienced angler present. This is not data and yet is presented as such it is in fact salesmanship and guesswork at its worst. It certainly does not fall into any category associated with 'a fact based organisation'.

2. The graph entitled 'Rolling Wye 5yr average salmon rod catch' is presented on a favourable axis but contains no data as to the reasons for the improvements. The years covered by this graph have included:

Removal of Greenland drift nets
Removal of Irish drift nets
Removal of putchers in the estuary
100% Catch and Release
Method restrictions
Change of season
Better and more complete catch reporting
Kelts reported as fresh fish by inexperienced rods
etc

What is the percentage of the improvements attributable to the above and to habitat work and to stocking?

Food for thought is this comparison between a few random rivers using the EA / EAW/ NRW rod catches and the wetted area from the compliance assessments.