Of the Grayling Society
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© The Journal of The Grayling Society Volume 27 - Number 2 • Summer 2016 © CONTENTS The Official Journal of Editorial Bob Male 2 The Grayling Society Notice of the AGM 3 ISSN 1476-0061 News 4 Free to all our Members in - Australia Lithuania 40th Symposium Update 7 Austria Luxembourg Belgium Netherlands Grayling Nirvana Kris Kent 10 Canada New Zealand China Norway Denmark Poland Some Thoughts on the Availability of Shrimps Eire Portugal for Grayling Stanislaw Cios 15 England Scotland Finland Slovenia 17 France Sweden Obituary - Thomas Todd Alan Ayre Germany Switzerland Italy U. S. A. Sight Fishing for Grayling (& Trout) Dave Southall 18 Isle of Man Wales Should We Still Kill Grayling? 22 Editor - Bob Male Telephone: 01722 503939 Spotting Dottiness Vincenzo Penteriani 23 e-mail: [email protected] Advertising - Rod Calbrade Riverfly Monitoring Workshop Paul Deaville 27 Subscriptions per annum: Full £28.00, Joint £47.00 Grayling Fishing in New Zealand A. Wessiowski 30 Senior (over 70) £22.00 Junior (under 16) £5.00 Details available from the Poet’s Corner 32 Membership Secretary Mike Tebbs Area 14 Fishing Day Steven Kavanagh 32 Telephone: 01985 841192 e-mail: [email protected] Book Reviews 34 Design and Production Peter Silk Design 36 e-mail: [email protected] Officers of the Society Society Web Site www.graylingsociety.net © The Grayling Society, 2016 Printed by Cambrian Printers Aberystwyth SY23 3TN The copyright of all material in this edition of ‘Grayling’ remains with the Authors, or the Grayling Society, and may not be reproduced, by any means whatsoever, without the copyright holders written permission. The Grayling Society and members of the Executive Committee accept no responsibility for the accuracy of any article or advertisement herein Cover Illustration and no guarantee is given for any product or service being offered. Contributions, including “Grayling” By Rob Olsen photographs or illustrations are always welcome, but the Society assumes no responsibility for the safety of contributions, although all reasonable care will be taken. Views expressed www.thefineartoffishing.com by contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Grayling Society. All enquiries about articles in ‘Grayling’ should be addressed to the Editor. Grayling – Summer 2016 1 Editorial Bob Male Spring has not sprung down here in Wiltshire; around our base at Marwell. There is a Booking it has crawled, dithered and hesitated. We have Form included in this mailing, in case you lost abundant water, thank goodness, but a month of the first one! cold winds and dull overcast has slowed Please note: everything down along the rivers. It’s English If you haven’t yet applied to come, please send weather, what can one say? Some “little graylings” your Booking Form to Rod Calbrade, not to Steve came up to my parachute black gnat earlier this Skuce as it says on the form. Just a change in week, and very welcome they were, even if admin to speed things up. technically out of season, all in fine condition for Rod’s address is: the time of year. The “brownlings” are hiding 19 Sherwood Way, High Crompton, Shaw, away and waiting for times to get easier. Oldham, OL2 7LX I hear on the digital grapevine that some of the I look forward to a record-breaking Symposium, rivers that suffered such massive flooding last and some great fishing in October. See you there! year are showing good signs of recovery. The Early May on the River Wylye resilience of these systems is always an Society Officers’ updates inspiration, and I hope that all of you who fish Area 2 has a new Secretary, Alex Adams. We New Trade member Cover Illustration them will find them in good fettle this season. Anyone who ties flies will know of Veniards. welcome Alex and look forward to hearing from By way of a change - and a They have been distributing and supplying If you do not subscribe to Trout and Salmon him about life in the sunny South. His contact rather nice one - this issue’s quality materials and equipment for many years cover feature s an illustration by magazine, you may not have seen the letter details are: published in the January edition, which now, and we welcome them as a new Trade fishing artist Rob Olsen. More of 62 Cressex Road, High Wycombe, advocated the killing of grayling to protect Member. Find their very informative website at Rob’s work can be found on Bucks HP12 4TY salmon stocks. The “reasoning” was that Veniards.com www.thefineartoffishing.com [email protected] grayling eat salmon eggs, and so must be Mob: 07730 203382 Home Tel: 01494 521801 responsible for the disastrous fall in salmon numbers in Scottish and English rivers. Barry Davidson, Area 7 Secretary, has a new Notice of Annual General Meeting Our distinguished officers, Steve Skuce and email address: [email protected] Rod Calbrade, penned a very calm and reasoned Our much-valued Secretaries in Spain and the of The Grayling Society response, which you can read in this edition. USA have asked to have their details updated: The 40th Annual General Meeting of the Grayling Society This serves as a reminder, I think, that the battles that the Society thought were won may not yet Dr. Vincenzo Penteriani, will be held at 4.00 pm on Saturday the 29th October 2016, be so, and that ignorance is still our greatest Research Unit of Biodiversity - UMIB, at the Marwell Hotel near Winchester Edificio de Investigación – 5th floor, enemy when seeking to find rational and Please note the following: hand to Steve in person not later than 12 noon C. Gonzalo Gutiérrez Quirós s/n, sustainable ways to manage our fisheries. on Saturday 10th October 2015. 33600 Mieres (Asturias), Spain 1. All Committee Members are due for re- Please indicate the position for which you Email: [email protected] election at the AGM. Anyone wishing to be AGM and Symposium wish to be considered. considered as a candidate for a position on Chris Terry We are back on my “home turf” again this year, the Committee should forward their name and 2. Anyone wishing to propose a motion for 5237 E. 41 Ave, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA and I hope to be there and share a great brief biography to Steve Skuce, General consideration at the AGM must submit that in weekend with as many members as possible. Tel: 907-764-6044 Secretary, The Grayling Society, Rosemary writing to Steve Skuce, The Grayling Society, If you haven’t decided yet, please have a look [email protected] Cottage, Fore Street, Wylye, Warminster, Rosemary Cottage, Fore Street, Wylye, at Rod Calbrade’s article in this edition to find Wiltshire BA12 0RQ or [email protected] Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 0RQ or Copy deadline for the Autumn Newsletter is out who our speakers and guests will be, and by 12 noon Thursday 8th October 2015, or [email protected] by 31st August 2015. some more about the other attractions available Friday August 19th BOB - New dates please 2 Grayling – Summer 2016 Grayling – Summer 2016 3 above all, the means to apply and enforce them. invertebrates demonstrate different Wider news Good science, reliable evidence, whether from tolerances to the various forms of stress professional researchers or from “Citizen Science” from pollution. Traditional and less Angling Trust Grants like the ARMI, is surely the way forward to bring exacting methods of analysing water Those of us that are members of the Angling about these much needed policy changes. quality frequently struggle to capture the Trust and Fish Legal will probably already know Please take a look at the STCUK’s website for often combined impacts of nutrients, that money from the National Rod Licence is more information, (link below). sediment and subtle organic enrichment available as grants to clubs and associations to on invertebrate life in our rivers. promote awareness and participation in angling. English riverfly survey reveals the abysmal state of our once gin clear chalkstreams The study was carried out by The Trust is running workshops to help interested ecological consultants Aquascience For the first time our once pristine, gin-clear people apply for these grants. There are also free Consultancy Ltd, on 120 sites in seven English chalkstreams and rivers have been put workshops on fishery protection, with advice from rain-fed rivers and five chalkstreams under the microscope in a national survey to the Trust, and form other informed and across the country. For the first time, the compare and investigate whether they are as responsible agencies. If you wish to know more, investigation used ground-breaking healthy as they should be. And the results are contact Angling Trust on their website. research and chemical analysis to truly shocking. accurately identify the problem. The health of our rivers The 2015 Riverfly Census, undertaken by Salmon Dr Nick Everall from Aquascience This October, many of us will be fishing on the & Trout Conservation UK (S&TCUK) has identified Consultancy said, “The national river beautiful chalk streams of Wiltshire and that there were only 14 pristine, unimpacted sites Hampshire, some of us, perhaps, for the first time. out of a total of 120 sites sampled in the survey on survey showed a mixture of improving, What are our expectations? Clear cool water, rivers across England. stable and all too many sadly declining riffles and pools over clean gravel, abundant fly life According to fisheries charity, Salmon & Trout reaches in terms of overall ecological and well-fed fish? There are rivers that will still Conservation UK, the threat to our rivers has condition, environmental stresses and fulfill those expectations, but the state of moved from industrial pollution to a range of riverfly life in particular.