All Clear

I was amazed to see how clear the water was at Share Farm on Wednesday, partly due to the unseasonably low level (20cm), but even so the top end of the beat was like a Chalk Stream. It'll be horrible and murky again by now, but give it time and a dry spell and it may return.

You may be wondering why I was at Share Farm when it's out of bounds now that the Trout Season has finished, but the Workparty season is well under way and we had unfinished business there. If you refer back to the item on October 18th, you can see what a great job they did on the big pool half way down 2B. Unforunately, a few days later, two more huge boughs dropped into that pool, so the guys were back cutting and dragging and adding even more branches to there impressive Berm upstream. Well worth admiring next seson.

Meanwhile, the rest of us went back to the jungly section below the very big deep pool, and removed a whole lot more of the willlows making it a very decent swim now. Not quite totally clear perhaps, but a heck of a lot better than it was.

In case you're wondering what happened to all the stuff we cut down, it was all hauled up the slippery bank, along the path downstream, down to the little stream, then up the other side, and then stashed neatly under a huge old fallen willow. This was at the request of the Share Farm owners, but it'll doubtless be to the benefit of lots of wildlife there as it's made what was described as an 'awesome' habitat pile. It is much bigger than it looks in this pic, but you'll have to examine it for yourselves, next April, by which time it'll be a home for a lot of creatures.

The workparty was so popular, despite the weather, that we ran out of doughnuts, but Andy, Chris, John, Keith, Paul, Peter, Mat, Nigel and myself, still enjoyed Nigel's great coffee, and the satisfaction of a job well done. I just hope the winter surges won't undo too much of it, but there are plenty more workparties to come, and an increasing range of members are finding out how enjoyable it really is. Don't forget to contact Nigel when you decide to join us.

See you at the AGM on Thursday perhaps, but do have a look at the blog on Wednesday when I plan to publish the season's Catch Return stats.

Cheers

PeterB