River conditions are pretty good now on the upper/middle river leading to a few more stale fish being caught. A couple from Spreadagle, two from Glanwye and one from Wyesham and abernant over the weekend plus one from the upper Wye at Crych Du.
the rain forecast has not arrived yet but may do so overnight.

See below for a great summing up of the NRWs anti stocking fiasco.

I find it strange that you are not aware of the success of hatcheries on rivers across the UK. 

In Wales the Taff is a notable success having taken a polluted river and returned it to a salmon and sea trout fishery due to the stocking that has taken place.  The imposition of total catch and release is more to do with the calculation of conservation limits and the methods used to calculate these, the improved parr densities do not seem to support the theory that the river is failing.  If the Taff had not been stocked it would not be a salmon or sea trout fishery.  I am not familiar with the Rheidol but from what Moc told me without the hatchery (to mitigate for the loss of spawning grounds) there would be no fish in the river.

  The hatchery run by the New Dovey Fishery Association clearly demonstrates the benefit to fisheries on the Dovey which is a premium angling river in Wales for both salmon and sea trout.  Our own small scale stocking program on the Conwy is, after 15 years, seeing improved runs of fish with no evidence of RRS.  The problems on the Conwy are due to water quality on the Upper reaches of the Lledr, the main spawning area for salmon (prior to the opening up of the upper Conwy with the construction of the Conwy falls fish pass).  The catch returns from the Conwy show that on average 30% of the angler caught salmon have been fin clipped demonstrating that SNR ponds work.  Please note the time it has taken to recover the Conwy i.e. it takes at least 3 spawning cycles (10 to 15 years) before results are seen, once a natural run is established socking can cease – we stopped using the SNR ponds on the upper Conwy 6 years ago.

 The catch returns of hatchery fish on the Taff was, I am told, between 25% and 40%, there is some concern as to how the figure of 0.2% was derived, once I have received the data I have asked NRW for all should become clear.  The failure of the mitigation scheme on the Dee is due to the operation of the Llyn Tegid sluices and the water regulation control on Afon Tryweryn from Llyn Celyn dam.  Rather than identify the problem NRW chooses to close the hatchery claiming it is ineffective (a steering group has been set up to investigate – this needs hatchery fish!)

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Out side Wales the success of stocking is well documented on the Ribble and Lune.  Habitat improvements on feeder streams on both the Ribble and Lune by the EA on the upper reaches did not attract any salmon and it was only when the fisheries associations took over and planted out fry from hatcheries that salmon returned to these streams, the Ribble and Lune are now significant salmon fisheries.  There has been successful stocking of the Trent with good runs of salmon now entering the River Dove this is not yet open to salmon fishing but once it is it will be a good river if the salmon I observed spawning are anything to go by.  The same applies to the Mersey with salmon spawning just below the A6 road bridge in the centre of Stockport (outside an office I was working in) and salmon returning to the Irwell and other tributaries. 

The most successful recovery of a salmon fishery has to be the Girvan in Scotland.  The Girvan along with many other rivers (including the Wear now claimed as one of the rivers not at risk), was affected by pollution from coal mines once collieries where closed.  Following a protracted battle for compensation (by the ACA!) a mitigation hatchery was built by the Girvan Association.  Initially fish were stripped at the river side and eggs were taken to feeder streams and placed into artificial redds whilst this was successful more success was achieved once the hatchery was available with fish being stripped and eggs being held in the hatchery until they were at the eyed ova stage.  The eggs were then ‘shocked’ before they were taken and transplanted into artificial redds in feeder streams, the rod caught salmon catch is now circa 1000 fish a year.  The Galloway Rivers Trust (http://www.gallowayfisheriestrust.org/ ) have followed this example and although it is early days they are also seeing success in planting out eyed ova into artificial redds.  There is far more evidence of successful stocking than there is that harm is done or that stocking is ineffective.  The problem is that these do not suit NRW who appear to have an ‘anti angling agenda’ and little concern for the aquatic environment which they consider a resource to be used for recreation purposes – other than angling.

Finally the experience in Iceland of stocking has been dramatic it was interesting to here Harry Legg-Burke tell the NRW Board that he fishes the Ranga but he stopped short of explaining that without stocking this river would have no salmon due to the loss of the spawning grounds following a volcanic eruption which effectively created a dam on the river.   Of course explaining the success of the Icelandic rivers stocking program  would have defeated the argument to close the NRW hatcheries

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The arrival of Kyle Young into EA(W) set the agenda for the anti stocking lobby.  I first met Kyle Young in 2010 (I think but it may have been earlier) at a meeting in Chester set up by John Stoner (Chair of The Rivers Trust) where Kyle expounded his anti stocking theories and the use of environmental techniques.  Whilst the theories put forward by Kyle are interesting they are all based on experiences from the USA on much larger river systems which are mainly meandering rivers across plains, I pointed out that these techniques would not work on North Wales spate rivers.  It was interesting to listen to him at the Glasgow conference trying to convince the audience that his paper, which dealt with steelhead in USA rivers could be equated to Atlantic salmon in UK rivers.

There is ample evidence of successful stocking programs but there is no evidence of harm from stocking salmon in UK waters, most rivers in the UK have at sometime been stocked.  Have a good meeting with NRW I wont hold my breath for a successful outcome!