These are the latest River Reports submitted by visitors to the site.
Subject: Mid Summer and Half Way Through The Season
Date: 20/06/2011
River/Beat: Monnow
Your Name: Rob Denny
Your Report: Our rivers are flat lining at their lowest levels but remain in good heart, with plenty of fish happy to take flies in the, thankfully, cool and clean water. Much of this is to do with the abundance of aquatic invertebrates that are present in our rivers, which is a very good sign. A hot, dry summer, with low water will be another matter. Any rain that we have had in the catchment has been steady but not prolonged enough to make much difference to the water levels. A good flush through would be much appreciated. The great news is that the mink and Himalayan Balsam control is going very well indeed. A widespread resurvey of the mink rafts is, so far, showing that we remain a "mink free" catchment, which will be some good news for the water voles. And the HB treatment is continuing apace, with us exceeding all targets of river bank sprayed for this year. Fishing wise we are moving into the time when early and late and small flies fished fine and far off will be the more effective methods, whilst low clear water and warm sunny weather persists at least.
Subject: I Can't Answer That..............
Date: 09/05/2011
River/Beat: Everywhere
Your Name: Rob Denny
Your Report: But whole heartedly agree with you! It is just not necessary, the river is stuffed with fish and enough, for those that want to, to kill a few for the table. To happier things - the mayfly are hatching and the fish have latched onto this annual supersized ready meal. So make the most of it, especially now we have had a flush of fresh water.
Subject: Wilful vandalism or plain ignorance?
Date: 05/05/2011
River/Beat: Above Llangua
Your Name: Ling
Your Report: I'd like to thank the owners of beats above ours for stocking a ludicrous amount of fish with blue spots on their bellies into a river that is already shrunken to its bones but I can't! They are already infesting the river as far down as the Church driving the numersous 6-8 inch naturalised fish out of their holding areas into territory where they can easily be predated upon. Why does anyone need to stock a river which can sustain itself with so many aliens of that size and why would anyone do it in such conditions?
Subject: Vole Surveys
Date: 21/04/2011
River/Beat: Dore and Mainstem around Llangua
Your Name: Rob Denny
Your Report: The 2011 vole survey has been completed over the last 3 days, thanks to Jonathon Reynolds of the GWCT, Ben and Owen Rodgers, George Woodward, Neil Marfell and Patrick Lloyd who waded and poked about on the whole length of the Dore and other areas to establish the extent of vole activity. Intitial findings are that voles are generally present and correct and that they have expanded their territories onto the main river, near Llangua, which is great news and huge credit to all that monitor the mink rafts throughout our catchment so that we can maintain our mink free status and see the benefits to our wildlife. I will post the full results as soon as we have them. In the meantime do report any sightings of voles and mink to us. If you would like to monitor a raft let me know. The rivers are low but, thankfully cool. Insect hatches are building, notably Large Brook Duns and Olive Uprights are beginning to appear and with them the chances for some serious fishing in the evenings. We have fully mapped all of the Giant Hogweed sites and will treat these next week. The week after, the first in May, we are going to start the spraying of Himalayan Balsam from Alt yr Ynnis down stream, intially to Llangua bridge. The first signs of regrowth (or lack of it) of HB on the 21kms completed last year are very encouraging and that is down to the hard work put in by the paid and volunteer spray and pulling teams done last year.
Subject: Sweet but low down
Date: 18/04/2011
River/Beat: Above Llangua
Your Name: Ling
Your Report: Seems like a smorgesboard of insects about and more minnows than i can remember. Can anyone else remember our beloved river so low at this time of year? Surprising number of good fish about and small ones to think happily about future. There's an otter and family working up above the bridge!
Subject: Awake!
Date: 15/04/2011
River/Beat: The Monnow Catchment
Your Name: Rob Denny
Your Report: Grannon have been and gone. Hawthorn next and the major hatches of Brook duns and olives begin to arrive as we slip into May. Other creatures are also stirring on our rivers: Water voles are active in their old haunts and there are clear signs that they have spread onto other parts of the catchment, away from the Dore, their release site. We will be doing the annual survey next week so will get a full picture of how they have done over the last year. Fingers crossed that the harsh winter has not had too bad an effect. Dippers are nesting and have chicks. Stephanie has been out and about ringing the broods. There seem to be lots of Mandarin Ducks about. We all need rain though!
Subject: Wake up call!!
Date: 27/03/2011
River/Beat: Devils Bridge
Your Name: Frank Williams
Your Report: Time to kick this season off, the river is finally starting to wake up. Began fishing around 10am on Wednesday and had a few fish to the dry in a couple of hours. Happy days.