Tuesday, December 01, 2009

New Honorary Secretary

Many thanks for all those who attended the AGM held in the Kings Arms, Dorchester, it was good to see so many of you there. It was also the night that Richard Miller was appointed as the new Honorary Secretary, Richard is an outstanding replacement and will I’m sure steer the Club safely for a many years to come.

John Grindle, Peter Leatherdale and the new Honorary Secretary Richard Miller
It has been a great honour to have been secretary to what I believe is the best & oldest chalk stream fly fishing clubs in the country. I would like to thank the Chairman, Officers, Committee Members (past & present) and of course John Aplin for his support & curries over the last thirteen years – its now time for me to go fishing!! I have not retired completely and will still be looking after the Membership waiting list and maintaining this and the Club’s website.

You will soon be receiving your subscription reminder via email or by Royal Mail and I will also be contacting those on the waiting list to fill any vacancies for the 2010 season.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Rivers on the Edge

Rivers on the Edge is a short film commissioned by WWF and produced by Charles Rangeley-Wilson (past member of the Club), well known presenter of TV series The Accidental Angler.

The film focuses on what Charles refers to as “the ultimate rivers” – English chalk streams.

These vital rivers – which are unique to southern Britain and northern France – are under threat from today's increased demands for water and the growing impacts of climate change.

The film, and the WWF campaign of the same name, reminds everyone that simple steps to reduce our water use in the home can help save these unique rivers – along with the abundance of native wildlife they support.

As Charles says, these rivers are ours to look after – they’re our rainforest, our glaciers.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Clean gravel

Now that we have had a little rain, the difference our various flow deflectors have made on the Stinsford is quiet amazing, scouring out lots of nice clean gravel to help with spawning, and at the same time creating a nice deep pool to hold a fish or two next season.


We have also seen a handfull of Trout exploring these new features, and we are looking forward to doing our Salmon redd count this winter, which reminds me the EA have now removed a structure that was preventing the Salmon running up the Cerne, so we will be keeping an eye out up there too.


I spent a morning up on the Wrackle with the DWT looking at the possibility of some habitat improvement work for next year, we have several spots in mind for various riffles and islands, I will keep you informed to any developments.

On our travels we came across some tracks from a very young Otter, all good stuff!


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Friday, October 30, 2009

In Stream works

We have now completed our in stream works for this season, the dead line for these works is the 1st November, so thanks to our lovely pre longed summer and obviously low flows, we have achieved a huge amount on the Frome this autumn.

Lots of woody debris added to our flow deflectors on the Stinsford carrier
 

The six flow deflectors in this carrier are already making a difference, shifting the gravel, and scouring out nice holes in the river bed, we saw a good Trout lying just off one yesterday, in very fast water!

The sun is setting a little earlier now....


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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Bad Weather

It's a good day to walk along the river and check out all the improvements John has completed in the past month and with the extra water in the river, you can see them all starting to take effect.
New island at Whitfield Hatches

Islands above the Withy Bed

Flow deflectors on the Top Stinsford