A few more fish from yesterday;

Rectory, 10lbs to Grant Holmes on a Sunray.
Boatside 10lbs for Joe Gooch on fly.
Ingeston  three 6-7-9 fresh fish
Two from Glanwye previous evening both 11lbs  No names
Wyesham  10lbs Joe Cobley.
Three from Sheepwash. Two to Richard Knowles 5 and 11lbs -see pics below. and 9lbs to Bob Mason on fly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irfon still running black with peat

  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEE BELOW A PROJECT WORTH GETTING INVOLVED WITH. PLEASE VOLUNTEER IF YOU CAN.
IF NOTHING ELSE THIS WILL BE ALMOST THE FIRST OCCASION THAT AN INDEPENDENT BODY CAN ACTUALLY MONITOR ONE OF THE WUF PROJECTS TO SEE IF IT ACTUALLY DELIVERS WHAT IT SAYS IT DOES

If you or your club, school or organisation are interested in supporting this very worthwhile activity or would like to discuss the matter we invite you to contact WSA at enquiries@wyesalmon.com or by phone at 07789133263.

The River Elan runs from the Elan Valley Reservoirs and joins the Wye 1½ miles south of Rhayader. The Wye is renowned for its Salmon fishing with the Salmon reaching the upper parts of the Wye and its tributaries including the Elan to spawn towards the end of the year.

Having been impounded for Birmingham's water supply since 1901, the River Elan progressively lost its supply of bed stone and gravels, floods and the passage of time washed gravel out of the river and the barriers created by the Elan Valley dams prevented any replacement. Salmon require a gravel river bed to spawn successfully. Low flows resulting from the impoundment further allowed what spawning beds remained  to become compacted and unusable, These two problems confined salmon spawning in the Elan to very few remaining areas losing some 4km of very valuable breeding grounds.

Famous Wye Angler J A Hutton commented in his book 'Spawning Grounds of the Wye', published in 1932 "When I paid my first visit to the Upper Wye spawning grounds, over 20 years ago, there was quite a lot of gravel below the dam, and a good deal of spawning took place there; but most of the gravel has gradually been washed away and no more can come over the dam to take its place."

Wye and Usk Foundation [WUF], in a project funded by Dwr Cymru Welsh Water [DCWW] and WUF donations, have obtained approvals to take gravel from feeder streams upstream of the reservoirs and deposit in the 4km of river immediately below the dam. Sites where compaction is limiting spawning will be loosened with techniques successfully pioneered by WUF in 1994. To maintain these spawning grounds it is expect to need to replace a portion of this gravel lost each year. WUF have been requested by Elan Valley Trust and DCWW to do it in Sept to minimise disturbance to visitors, and  are working to this timeline, which will be in time for the 2016 spawning run.  

In order to evaluate the performance of this process of regraveling, Wye Salmon Association [WSA], in agreement with WUF and NRW are planning to monitor the three key parameters of spawning activity, juvenile production & survival and food supply during late 2016 and early 2017. This monitoring will take the form of;

Redd Counting. In late autumn and early winter, salmon spawn in favoured locations in rivers and streams. Females bury their eggs in nests created in stream gravel. The resulting disturbances can be seen on the streambed. These are commonly known as ‘redds’ and, with a trained eye, they can be located and counted, water conditions permiting. Redd counting is widely used by river managers as a method of assessing local abundance of spawners each year. The counting of redds is often carried out as part of a routine seasonal occupation to indicate stock abundance and distribution.

Electro Fishing. Uses direct current electricity flowing between a submerged cathode and anode. This affects the movement of the fish so that they swim towards the anode where they can be caught. Electrofishing is a common scientific survey method used to sample juvenile fish populations to determine abundance, density, and species composition. When performed correctly, electrofishing results in no permanent harm to fish, which return to their natural state in as little as two minutes after being caught. Usually carried out at frequencies during March to August.

Kick Sampling. a simple monitoring technique used to monitor the biological water quality of the river, kick sampling is a widely used method to sample benthic invertebrates in a stream, river, lake or pond. Benthic invertebrates are those that dwell at the bottom of a given body of water. Kicking the substrate for a given standardised time whist holding a mesh net in the direction of flow allows the invertebrates to be disturbed and collected in the net. The invertebrates collected can be identified ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​, counted and recorded. Usually carried out at frequencies summer months.

WSA wish to encourage local and angling communities’ engagement in this task and are seeking the involvement of angling clubs, schools, youth groups and our members and supporters. For clubs and individuals in the angling community, participation could provide a valuable assessment of a key project and strengthen engagement in the future of their river.

Building on our schools fly fishing courses, participation by schools and youth groups could foster a longer term enthusiasm for fish and river ecology. It could provide teachers with an educational tool that meets with some of the Key Stage requirements of the National Curriculum in England and Wales and can be integrated into them as well as providing an interesting extra curricula activity in the form of field studies.  Activities such as redd counting and kick sampling although requiring supervision and structure to gather meaningful datasets are well within the capability of junior schoolchildren.

If you or your club, school or organisation are interested in supporting this very worthwhile activity or would like to discuss the matter we invite you to contact WSA at enquiries@wyesalmon.com or by phone at 07789133263.