Stocking hope – Torridge Hatchery

The Hatchery Project: has been a great success this year with about 33,000 swim-up fry  stocked out in selected sites in the headwaters during late March. The association were able to trap their broodstock from the fish pass at Monkokehampton Weir with relative ease at the end of November and by mid-December all five hens had been stripped and the eggs fertilised. The alevin started to hatch at the end of January and have grown on steadily with very limited mortality. The weather has helped: it has been a colder winter than average with the water temperature only once going above 10C.

Many thanks to Alex Rowson who kindly sent the images below showing the transfer of swim up fry from Torridge Hatchery to a tributary of the River Torridge.

 

 

Looking back through my many images I discovered to my amazement that the hatchery has now been running since at least 2008. It is still very difficult to assess its success but it has given hope to Torridge River Association and as each salmon is so valuable it is likely that it has helped the river cling on to its dwindling salmon population. The project works in line with other efforts to protect and enhance the complex river environment.

Since posting this I have spoken with Paul Carter who informed me that next years is the hatcheries 20th season and an average of 30,000 swim up fry have been into the Torridge system a total of 600000. This has surely helped the salmon maintain a foothold in the river.

Paul Carter with hatchery swim up fry from 2008.
Paul Carter stocks out swim up fry in 2008

 

THE TEIGN BOOK – A REVIEW

THE TEIGN BOOK

THE STORY OF THE RIVER TEIGN RESTORATION PROJECT AND OTHER ASPECTS OF THE CATCHMENT

NEIL YEANDLE with photographs by Mike Rego

            Rivers inspire with their unique histories as they flow through our green and pleasant lands and it is anglers who are amongst those with the deepest connection and passion. This is evident throughout the pages of the Teign book written by Neil Yeandle who has produced a very comprehensive and informative book on this fascinating and beguiling river.

            Neil is a lifelong angler whose connection with the Teign commenced when he moved to the West Country in 1988. He became a member of the Lower Teign Fishing Association in 2001.

            ‘As a keen sea trout angler, he soon fell in love with the Teign, although night time angling and work were never a great combination. After setting up a business Partnership, and later his own company in 1988, he was fortunate enough to be able to retire in 2011, leaving him more time to pursue his passion for angling. Neil has served on the Lower Teign Fishing Association for many years and as secretary of the Teign Angling and Conservation Association since 2013. He volunteered to write a book as part of the River Teign restoration Project and this is the fruits of his labour.’

            Passion and dedication to the river Teign the environment and of course its fish are apparent throughout the pages of this book. I was encouraged to write a review of this book by Roger Furniss, Chairman of The Teign Angling and Conservation  Association. I feel honoured to have been given this opportunity and as an avid collector of fishing books it was a task I relished.

            The Teign book is far more than a fishing book for it delights and informs readers with an evocative story of the river and its tributaries.  The full life and extraordinary  cycle of salmon and sea trout is explained in detail and enhanced with the colourful illustrations of Robin Ade . The fascinating natural history and man-kinds impact over the centuries is fully documented as the Teign plunges from the rugged heights of Dartmoor to the estuary at Teignmouth.

            The book contains a wealth of photographs taken by Mike Rego and many others donated by many interested parties. These images are a valuable addition to a rich and informative text.

            I have yet to fish the River Teign though I have developed a close interest in the river after reading of its fish in several books and articles over the years. My wife and I have also walked the banks of the Upper Teign as it flows through the deep wooded gorge below Castle Drogo and stayed close to the river during a short break at Chagford during the summer of 2024. I glimpsed good sized trout lurking in the sunlit waters that had that beer stained colour that always adds a sense of depth and mystery.

The steep and wooded gorge below Castle Drogo

I also enjoyed some success whilst fishing at Fernworthy Reservoir at the head of the South Teign.

            I have long held the belief that each river has a distinct and unique character undoubtedly influenced by its history and geological location. This belief was fully endorsed as I devoured the contents of this comprehensive account of the Teign. The stories and accounts of angling trips entwined with folklore and superstition add an entertaining and intriguing dimension to the book.

The fact that a rivers life spans millions of years is told within the pages and it becomes increasingly apparent how mankind’s hand has impacted in recent history. The key purpose of  the Teign Restoration project is to raise awareness and engagement with the public in regard to the catastrophic decline of salmon and sea trout.

            The sad story of salmon decline in the book is one that is replicated across the West Country and the Teign’s anglers have certainly shown determination to do all that they can to try and reverse this decline. The gathering of vital data over several years via walkover surveys, redd surveys, electro fishing surveys, river fly surveys, tagging projects, piscivorous bird surveys, in river works and temperature logging has provided an in depth knowledge of the rivers vital habitats and interconnected eco system. This data is used to channel effort into habitat improvement ensuring that work is invested wisely.

            In addition to all of this work a salmon play, Our River Poetry competition and an exhibition at Castle Drogo have helped to engage with an audience far beyond the angling community.

https://www.medtheatre.co.uk/projects/river-teign-restoration-project/

 

            The book is a celebration of hope for the future and how anglers and conservation bodies can work together. The Teign is a beautiful river its journey from source to sea through a vibrant landscape deserves to be told and this book gives a fascinating insight into a river as a living part of the land in which we live. After reading the book I am inspired to explore the rivers valley and maybe even search for those stunning fish that haunt its mysterious shaded pools.

Protect the Spurdog fishery – A Message from John McMaster

Pat Smith Database.

Message from John McMaster

We first brought your attention to the need to protect the breeding stock of the Spurdog fishery (the older and larger females) early last year. 

Since then we have been working along with others to keep the socioeconomic benefit of this fishery to the recreational angling sector uppermost in Defra’s mind.

Our persistence has led Defra to ask Cefas to run an online workshop to explore the importance of Spurdog as a target species to the recreational sector, including charter vessel operators.

This workshop is not just an opportunity for the recreational angling sector to protect the Spurdog fishery but equally importantly to position itself as a sport which delivers significant social and economic value and be recognised as a full partner in marine conservation decisions which can potentially affect your business.

The link to register for this meeting which on Wednesday 15th January 2025 at 7pm is below. 

When 180 charter skippers signed a letter to the Minister in 2020, she reversed her decision not to allow recreational sea angling for Bluefin so don’t underestimate the collective power of charter skippers and anglers when they come together.

You can dial in even if you don’t fish for Spurdog and your anglers can also dial in. The more of us who join this workshop the more seriously we will be taken. If you want any more information please get back to me.

Thanks again for your continued support – Pat Smith Database

https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c3e2427f-c36e-42b5-90cf-a248f326ed6e@7247e80e-4267-4086-a593-a3045dd9e505

Wild Swimming – Don’t swallow the lumpy bits

Many thanks to Richard Wilson ( Fish Rise) for once again sharing his thoughts with North Devon Angling News. Follow link below for more of Richards wisdom….

Wild Swimming

Don’t swallow the lumpy bits

All too often there’s conflict between wild swimmers and other river users, such as boats and fisherfolk, but not me. The swimmers seem a decent enough bunch of people, mostly of my generation, or thereabouts, and with whom I could comfortably share a mug of tea and some friendly chatter. Male and female, they are as polite as I aspire to be (that’s a compliment). Socialising would be much easier were they not wracked by uncontrollable shivering.

And given that these days there’s rarely a salmon to be seen, let alone caught, there’s no harm in letting a swimmer in. Rocks, dogs and wild swimmers can all stir up the fish and breathe life into a slumbering pool. For the swimmers, so far so good. I’m sympatico.

Where this gets really discombobulating is that word ‘wild’. There’s nothing remotely ‘wild’ about Britain’s rivers. Mostly they are little better than open sewers that allow farmers, our water companies and the few remaining factories to move, at zero cost, huge volumes of human and animal shit from source to sea – and after years of inadequate investment there’s a lot being shifted. So the only thing ‘green’ about our rivers and lakes is organic phosphate pollution and the vivid algal blooms that choke the redds with slime and suck the oxygen out of the water. And, depending on the type of algae, kill animals, fish and make people very sick. Wild swimmers, when clumping, talk about this and compare notes on who got ill, when and where. They’re all unwelcome notches on their back-to-nature experience of life in the ‘wild’. Which seems a counter-intuitive reaction to me. I’d just stay out of the water because it’s toxic.

This phosphate pollution is a global phenomenon. Eutrophication is killing lakes and rivers from Windemere in the Lake District to Chesapeake Bay in the US and back the long way round. It’s a universal by-product of humanity. Just about everybody everywhere can point to local examples.

The various habitués of our rivers respond to this in different ways. Salmon, for example, have mostly given up. They like cold, clean water so there’s a double whammy: pollution and climate change. In the UK, they’re now a Red List endangered species and while I’m doing my best to kick the decision down the road, I think my salmon fishing days are over. Here, and perhaps everywhere.

Thankfully, fishing humans have some watery advantages over salmon and wild swimmers. I approach a river in a rubberised hazmat suit, of sorts, that lacks only the helmet and gloves. Chest waders, waterproof jacket, decorative neckerchief that makes me daddy-cool and so on. And for at least a decade I have been very careful not to get my fingers anywhere near my mouth while in or near the water. I am mindful of the pensioner who recently went down with sepsis after falling into the ‘pristine’ chalk stream I grew up on.

So what can we do? How do we make a difference? Some of this is easy: I donate to non-profits that fight pollution and support research into catchment management and the such like. This does some good. Over the past 4 decades, I have also written scores of articles and filed dozens of TV reports on the increasingly dire state of our rivers. I repeat: the increasingly dire state of our rivers. Except for an occasional break-out story, reporting rarely has a discernable impact and it all goes from bad to worse. So I’ll keep writing the cheques.

Not all the news is bad and there have even been some improvements. Remember acid rain? Nobody frets much about the acidification of our upland streams anymore, mostly because the heavy industry that caused it has collapsed into a land of uniformly bland shopping centres, car parks, cinemas and junk-food outlets where the grotesquely obese wobble short distances from car to sugar fix. Gimme a ‘shake with double sprinkles, syrup and chocolate sauce. And cake.

Meanwhile, back in the hills, there’s a winner and the insect life in our headwaters is recovering. So, provided they’re nowhere near over-stocked cattle or a village, there are aquatic insects and fry for their dependent birds, the dippers and kingfishers, to hunt. Ah … did someone say climate change? Well, you can’t have everything.

Here’s the grown-up bit: It’s important to understand that the high and mighty in politics and industry who decide the fate of our rivers don’t see them in the same way as us mortals. To them rivers are economic entities carrying trade, providing water and getting very expensive when they flood. It is entirely predictable that floods always happen before adequate (for which read ‘expensive’) defences have been planned, approved and constructed. Ideally, this would be done by restoring the wetlands upstream. Unfortunately, this memo has not reached the management. So our rivers remain part-asset, part-liability, wrapped in concrete and always an economic opportunity (bargain-basement waste disposal, for example).

I have heard this best explained, reductio ad absurdum, by a small-cog employee in the big wheel of water management. Early in my time as the BBC’s Environment Correspondent I was asked by a pollution control officer if I knew how drinking water from the many reservoirs in Wales, in the wet west, reached taps in towns in the drier east of England. There is no pipeline, no shared catchment and no visible way for plentiful Welsh water to get from wet A to needy B. The answer, he said with a twinkle, is that people in Birmingham drink a glass of water and then flush their toilets. Birmingham drinks Welsh water and drains eastwards, via decrepit sewage works. Like all good stories, this stuck in my mind for the ludicrous nature of its central proposition and the awful realisation that it could easily be true (it is). I wonder how many millions of gallons of waste-water the 4.3m people of Birmingham and its surroundings generate every day.

The times they are a’changing and, I fear, not for the better. I like being on rivers, but not nearly enough to swim in most of them. Meanwhile, they need all the friends they can get from the most humble of anglers and wild swimmers to the rich and politically powerful. And as for the Salmon? I wish I knew, but I fear the worst.

 

March for The Torridge

   

 On October 26th  I Joined representatives from several local  angling clubs at a March For The Torridge. Over sixty from various organisations gathered to demonstrate their support for efforts to work together for the long term health of North Devon’s rivers. It is very apparent that there is a great deal of passion for our rivers with many working to get the issues that are impacting upon their health higher onto the political agenda. The Taw and Torridge Estuary Forum work with the North Devon Biosphere on a catchment based approach. It is essential that all parties put aside their differences and unite in the interest of the rivers that are the vital arteries of the land.

       I was asked to say a few words and told of how I had witnessed the dramatic decline of salmon in the Torridge a river that a few decades ago saw catches in the hundreds. This years total rod catch is less than a dozen. Surely a symptom of a wider ecological issue?

 

 

http://www.ilfracombeaquarium.co.uk

March For Clean Water

Dear Angling Trust Members & Supporters,

We are calling on you to join us at the upcoming March for Clean Water on Sunday, November 3rd in London. This is a great opportunity for anglers to make their voices heard on the urgent need for clean, healthy rivers and waterways, and we need as many of you as possible to join us.

We’ve already shared a video featuring our ambassador, Paul Whitehouse, alongside Bob Mortimer, encouraging support, now we’re asking you to be there with us in person. This march is about showing the strength of the angling community and the passion we have for protecting our waters.

Event details:

  • Date: Sunday, November 3rd.
  • Time: Assemble from 11:00 AM, march starts at 11:45 AM.
  • Location: Albert Embankment, London, SE1. Zones C-D, look for signs on the lamp posts & the Anglers Against Pollution banners.
  • Rally: The event will conclude with a rally at Parliament Square from 1.30 PM finishing around 3:00 PM.
  • Speakers: Penny Gane from Fish Legal and Angling Trust ambassador Feargal Sharkey

We’re asking everyone to wear blue as a show of solidarity, if you want to carry an old rod, or make up your own Anglers Against Pollution placard to show that the angling community stands united in the fight for cleaner, healthier waters. Your presence at the march will send a powerful message.

If you can’t attend, you can still support by sharing our social media posts to help spread the word.

This is our chance to make a difference, and we need you with us. We hope to see you there!

For updates see here.