Trout and Grayling Strategy
2014 Newsletter
Despite the weather the day was a great success, with 19 attendees treated to demonstrations of techniques including pleaching (hinging) of hazel / alder / willow / hawthorn trees alongside the riverbank and also the introduction of brushwood structures to margins of river. All techniques had the aim of creating dense cover for juvenile fish species and also doubled as soft revetment bank protection. Brushwood arising from nearby coppicing work plus storm damage was also utilised, whilst fixing methods included stakes and wire for bundles and also pinning trees with metal bars so they don’t dislodge form the riverbed.

The work will help to trap silt and clean the gravel to provide improved trout spawning habitat.
Brushwood is placed and secured in between the stakes protecting the bank and acting as cover for juvenile fish.

Conserving and improving wild trout by habitat creation
Candover River Restoration
We have used money generated from rod licence sales to restore this small but beautiful chalk stream through simple river restoration techniques in the upper Itchen catchment. We make every pound go further by working collaboratively with the Wild Trout Trust (@WildTroutTrust) and Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (@Gameandwildlife).
On our most recent restoration the river channel was narrowed by two metres re-creating habitat far more suitable for brown trout spawning and juvenile habitat.
A pool was created and live willow trunks were placed over the top with the root ball dug into a bank so they continue to grow, to give cover from herons and cormorants. Rooted willow saplings were planted at intervals along both banks of the site which in time will provide overhead cover and shade to create cool refuges as our climate continues to change. The enhanced site was temporarily fenced to exclude livestock to enable bank side herbaceous vegetation, willow, and in river weed to establish itself to provide cover for the juvenile brown trout and a wider fish community.
Monitoring has shown the work to have been successful - 39 brown trout were caught in a recent survey, ranging in size from 80-215mm in length. This compares well to 23 brown trout, size 81-123mm, caught in a pre-enhancement work survey. The larger trout were predominantly caught in the deeper water that had been created during the work.

Candover Stream near Alresford, Hampshire
Link to video:
http://www.wildtrout.org/content/upper-itchen
Link to Flickr: for photos of the most recent restoration see here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/environment-agency/sets/72157636622582376/
Conserving and improving wild trout by improving access

River Glaven - Bayfield Hall
The Bayfield Hall Project has created a new, 1.2-km long, naturalised river channel re-connecting reaches of the River Glaven that were previously interrupted by an estate lake and an enclosed, brick culvert. The meandering course of the new channel has over thirty gravel riffles suitable for fish spawning and a similar number of deep pools, providing excellent habitat. The project took several years to plan and seven weeks to construct and was completed in September 2014.
New channel
Further details can be found here:
http://www.wildtrout.org/content/bayfield-project-river-glaven
Research round up

Environment Agency funded research project at Stirling University provides new information about triploid trout.
We have been funding Andrew Preston to study various aspects of triploid trout, including production methods and behaviour. Producing triploid trout on fish farms requires specialised techniques, which Andrew has refined through his research so that trout farms can now improve the quality of the triploids they produced.
Andrew also studied the feeding behaviour of triploid trout. It was thought that triploid trout were reluctant to feed from the surface, and also that they would 'bully' native diploid brown trout. The results from Andrews' experiments demonstrated that it was, in fact, the triploid trout that were bullied by the diploid trout, and the triploid trout did feed at the surface. The triploid trout did this by adopting a 'sneak' feeding strategy where they took the surface food whilst the diploid trout was distracted.
The results from Andrews work will result in better quality triploid trout being available from trout farms that adopt the improved production methods, and the work on behaviour will add to our evidence base on triploid trout.
Conserving and improving wild trout by switching to triploid stocking

One element of the Environment Agency Strategy is to discontinue the stocking of fertile farm strain (diploid) brown trout into rivers and other unenclosed waters by 2014. From 1st January 2015, stocking must be with non-fertile (female triploid) farm reared brown trout or the progeny of local brood-stock reared under a suitable regime.

We have been analysing the trends in stocking over the last eight years. Our stocking records show that there has been a gradual reduction in trout stocked into rivers. In conjunction with this decrease in diploid stocking there has been an overall increase in the proportion of triploids being stocked.
Please note that from 1st January 2015, to protect stocks of wild trout, you will only be allowed to stock infertile all female triploid trout into rivers.
There are a number of informative videos, and case studies, available on the Wild Trout Trust website:
http://www.wildtrout.org/content/trout-stocking
The Environment Agency works with a variety of partner organisations to improve fish populations. Several examples from this year are highlighted in this newsletter. If you would like further details on any of the projects mentioned, please email trout@environment-agency.gov.uk .
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
Trout stocked into rivers 2006-2014
Diploid
Triploid
Grand Total