The below message was sent to USK anglers.  Although Wye fish cannot be taken this is the state of most fish you are fishing for at the moment.   We are our own worst enemies at times are we not.

The next time you catch one of these to polish your ego perhaps you would bear this picture in mind!

Three candidates today at the Nyth, Abernant Pwll-y-Faeda and no doubt more on the upper river next week.

If I can remind you this is what WUF said,

"Salmon anglers sometimes hear that catching fish late in the season is the most dangerous time to do so for the fish. Please be assured that it isn't. The danger time for catching and releasing salmon is when they are fresh in from the sea; when water temperatures are high and when the angler is using a multi-hooked spinner, worm or prawn/shrimp. None of those factors should apply between now and the end of the season."

I have been asked by Jonathan of Black Mountains Smokery regarding late run fish.   So the next time your ego is being  polished bear this picture in mind. And that,s a fresher looking fish than most you will find on the Wye at the moment.

 Could you send this picture out to all members suggesting that it is not
 worth killing fish this late in the season as they are full of eggs or milt
and are inedible even when smoked. I am seeing far too many like this these
 last couple of days.

BELOW AN OPEN LETTER SENT TO THE WYE SALMON FISHERY OWNERS ,MYSELF AND MANY OTHERS..   There are several replies too if you are interested.

15^th October 2014                                                                                                  

Dear Mr Timmis,                                                                                                    

Thank you for your letter dated 3^rd October 2014, received by post to me personally, and by email to (presumably) all WSFOA members, inviting me to the AGM next week. Thank you, but I feel bound to decline the invite. It has no doubt escaped your notice that my membership of WSFOA ceased some time ago, and I haven’t made a financial contribution since. I have also taken the view that my response should be by way of an open letter back to you, to include as many of the people I know,   whose emails I have access to,  some owners, some not, and those who, in my opinion, have the vested interests of this river at heart. Equally I have no intention whatever of re-joining, so the continued correspondence I receive from both you and Seth underlines a certain level of “not up to speed” incompetence which I feel is endemic within this slothful and moribund Association.

.

To continue with the fallacy that WUF are partners to WSFOA is in my view disingenuous. WUF is a very large tail wagging a very small and toothless dog. The only advantage for WUF, as far as I can see, is to continually tap the Owners as useful providers of funds, many of whom it seems are content to throw money in their direction with scant or very little accountability in return.

WUF, aka Stephen Marsh-Smith, has at least made an effort, and a decent effort at times, to redress some of the problems this river has endured over the past 20-30 years, following a catastrophic decline in salmon numbers since the late 80’s, and this is to be applauded. However, SMS has proved to be a divisive and controversial figure at times, and whilst I admire single mindedness and clear direction, some of the claims made by WUF for so called “improvement”, together with the vast amount of cash spent over a decade or more for what seems to me a questionable result, has led to suspicion and mistrust in a huge variety of quarters. There is no point in you calling for unity from the Owners while this atmosphere exists.

When I joined WSFOA ten or so years ago, Patrick Darling, on my first meeting with him, expressed a desire for “new blood” in the Association. Well it didn’t happen. I have to ask then, what exactly does this man stand for? And you too for that matter? The impression I get is one of you just keeping the seat warm until PD has finished his Sherriff duties.

I believe the entire Association, and WUF also for that matter, needs a root and branch clear out, a fresh approach and new people. In essence a major Cabinet reshuffle. Evidence of the need for it was the stupid analogy in the recent WUF report regarding Galileo. The item regarding the Earth revolving around the Sun, and the Sun round the Earth was inane and laughable. Pointless triumphal ridicule, and gets us precisely nowhere.  (see “controversial and divisive” above….oh….and a whiff of arrogance to boot). I really do wonder what planet some of these people are on. (pun intended).

And since WUF brought up the subject of planets, the one this species of ours occupies is in trouble. All the efforts of the EU, high level G7 Climate Change Summits, or any attempt to persuade us to act locally and think globally, won’t make a substantial difference to our future. Geologically we are at the end of a 10,000 year Ice Age. The climate will alter as the Cosmos dictates, and despite whatever the scientists, politicians, or environmental lobbyists say, it will continue. Human beings have done the planet no favours, and that’s a fact, but this planet has only been able to support life (as we know it) for the past 200 million years or so of it’s 4 BILLION + year old existence. ie. So that’s ….er….5% then! It is therefore both illogical and ridiculous to assume that planet Earth will continue to support life indefinitely. It’s a weakness of the human mind, and arrogance on our part to believe, as the politicians tell us, that we can change anything, other than having a minor cosmic impact on events. Life in any form will not necessarily carry on infinitely. It isn’t guaranteed and it’s delusional rubbish to pretend otherwise. Unless of course religion saves us?...... but I ain’t holding my breath.

What is profoundly serious is the way our species has continued to expand exponentially over the past 100 years, (blame the Industrial Revolution maybe, or capitalism, or science, but the human population of this planet is now 6 or7 times what it was in 1890 and now heading towards 7.5 billion), so it comes as no surprise that the pressure on the World’s environment for food production will continue. And this is where the greatest impact has been on this river of ours. More stats? 97% of pasture land along the banks of the Wye (and much of the Severn too) have been ploughed up for food production since the end of the WW2. (Worcs Wildlife Trust told me that). No surprise then that we “stress out” over increased silt and diffuse pollution?  Can we stop it? No.

WUF is right to concentrate (I hope) it’s limited firepower on agricultural practices, but it won’t win out against the farming lobby. They’re in the driving seat, and if the Government of the day direct them to trash wild flower meadows due to an increased demand for turnips, they’ll do it.

Since this is about fish and not turnips, (maybe turnips are endangered?) consider this. Fish are the last wild animal in existence which human beings hunt for food, and the pressure on our seas to continue to produce has dramatically increased. We can’t however continue to treat the Worlds’ oceans as both a larder and a dustbin. Our collective failure to ensure adequate conservation areas in this respect, has led to a booming fish farm industry over the past 30 or 40 years, and this will continue to grow as both the population makes further demand and the quality of our seas decline through pollution and over fishing. (we now get perfect table sized sea bass shipped in from Turkey and Greece. Eh???). Maybe we should be looking carefully at how best we can harness our own natural resources, and revert back to nature by protecting the environment, rather than say breeding salmon diseases in Scottish lochs. Mass production for cheap food will always lead to this. Ask a chicken farmer how much he spends on antibiotics. What happens to the wild salmon which manage to make it to the sea god only knows, I certainly have no idea, but it seems to me we have very little if any control over it once they leave our rivers.

So whilst WUF and NRW and (one hopes) the WSFOA try to do their bit for river improvement by “following the science”, I think we may be in danger of missing the point. There are too many other forces at work here. I would much prefer to see the WSFOA aligning themselves with English Nature, the Wildlife Trusts, (especially the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire ones), and the Marine Conservation Association. (The MCA is on the doorstep in Ross on Wye) and further bringing ALL Wye Owner’s on board. Drop the “SF” from WSFOA forthwith and expand the membership to everyone who has an interest, freehold or leasehold, on this river. This affectation towards “salmon fishery” owners is both discriminatory and non-inclusive. WUF meanwhile should be taking on the Farmer’s Union/Lobby with more confrontational tactics.

And what has all this got to do with the demise of the hatcheries and SNR?  Well finally…… I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear….. I returned yesterday from a 3 week, 4wd, off road trek across the Kalahari and Namibian deserts. This country has hundreds of thousands of square miles of game/conservation reserves which have effectively been “fenced” off.  The Etosha Pan is one of them. Some farsighted individual in the early 1900’s recognised the uniqueness of this area, and the habitat’s ability to support a huge variety of wildlife. (I don’t just mean the big stuff, but insects and plants too). Since the Himba tribes (amongst many others) measure their wealth in goats and cattle, the encroachment and destruction by these animals of the habitat up to these “fences” has been considerable, and provides another example of human consumption first, wildlife habitat second. The wildlife in these reserves are constantly monitored, and when necessary the numbers can be supplemented (artificially) by breeding specific animals like impala, springbok, oryx and so on to counter a sudden and dramatic decline in numbers, perhaps via a new and unheard of disease, poaching, fire, or other unexpected and unforeseen events. It’s a kind of active and pro- active management, and thus they are able to carefully maintain a healthy population. I suspect they don’t worry too much about genetic integrity, but are simply grateful to have the opportunity to both maintain, replace, and protect this most precious of assets.

And that, Mr Timmis, was what I personally hoped SNR might have achieved, thus providing a complement to, rather than an alternative, to the ongoing effort of habitat restoration.

Best of luck with the recruitment drive at the AGM, to which I shouldn’t really be invited should I?

Kind regards

John

J R CRADDOCK

A really BIG kipper from Sweden.

The 127-centimetre fish. Photo: Tobias Jansson/TT