Some of you have mentioned the fact there is no Wye Report in this months edition of Trout and Salmon.   Fact is I missed the deadline by a few days and it was unable to be included.
In case you are interested this is what I sent in;

RIVER WYE REPORT DECEMBER  2014.

River conditions were pretty good on the whole during late November and early December with temperatures on the mild side with just the odd frost.  Fish should have been able to access most areas for spawning though on the whole things seemed pretty quiet.

A good spate hit the catchment around the 11^th of the month with heights over 4 metres at Hereford which may have caused some redd damage on the main stem.  Surprisingly the WUF director discounts redd washout as a myth and believes the fish know where to lay their eggs safely. Let’s just say he doesn’t get out on the river much then does he.  He also discounts any of the Wye stocking although he did plenty, and also the fact that the Tyne hatchery had no part to play in the Tyne’s recovery.  Its expedient to go along with current thinking by the researchers or the edicts from the EA?NRW as you can plainly see.  I saw a telling quote the other day which went ‘Copying a person’s work is plagiarism, copying many people’s work is called ‘research’.  Seems very apt under the present circumstances.

NRW have still not yet been able to satisfactorily say how they are going to mitigate for the loss of the Elan valley dams at the top of the Wye system.  So far they have mentioned only things which should be their day job and which have been done on the Wye for the past 18 years.  A couple of meetings are planned in the hope of clearing this up but no doubt we shall ge the usual platitude such as we are consulting with stakeholders, setting up a working party, needs more research etc.etc.

Most are hoping that the recent spate might bring a few more late fish particularly for the upper river where one would hope most might spawn .Report from the Arrow tributary suggest a good number of redds , strangely a river that was well stocked with juveniles by WUF who now say it was a waste of  time.  Wish I knew which it was.

Owners remain tight lipped regarding the result of their postal vote to members regarding a protest or not  to NRW regarding the suspension of stocking though a did hear that many of the owners had in fact declined to vote at all so no doubt the Committee will prevail.  They have an EMG in February so let’s hope someone has the guts to stand up and get the whole rotten business sorted out.

I suppose it will be January when you read this and we shall be looking forward to the new season with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation in equal measure.  I sincerely hope it’s not as bad as last season

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and best wishes for the New Year and if you have any news, views or catches to report contact me on;

uskside1@tiscali.co.uk

geoff @rwga.co.uk  or tele  01497 821889