The Rivers Lugg and Arrow Fisheries Association
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Rivers Lugg and Arrow DUFFERS LAFA Fundraising for the Rivers Lugg and Arrow Fisheries Association Spring 2011 Number 12 2011 EVENTS ANOTHER YEAR OF PROGRESS With many thanks for the wonderful support provided by th LAFA, we are continuing with other projects including • Dawn Chorus Walk Saturday 30 April weed eradication. If you spot Giant Hogweed or Japanese David Forbes, Chairman of LAFA. Knotweed please let us know. I found a “new” stand of JK 4.30 am at Leenfields, Pembridge, HR6 9HN. exactly on the border at Presteigne recently. LAFA is now in its eighth year of operation, still going £10 including farmhouse breakfast. strong and raising funds for habitat works, fish passes and Your chairman highlights the issue of pollution. This is of Chris Bowen’s 2010 Cricket Competition winning team educational initiatives. Our confidence is such that we have very great concern as pollution in the Lugg or Arrow seems • decided to extend our responsibility for the Lugg Mayfly Sunday Sunday 1st May set to get worse. We are currently engaged in a project to downstream from its confluence with the Arrow to the discover how long term funding might be found to mitigate Lots of activities for the young, based around the THE GREAT ARROW FLOOD OF 2010 junction with the Wye at Hereford. the damage. The two water companies, (Severn Trent and River Arrow on Pembridge Village Green. River th Welsh Water), EA, NE, WUF and the Association of Rivers dipping to try and identify the river flies. Casting On the 4 October the monitoring station at Titley Mill on As reported last year, improving fish passes for up river Trusts are meeting with local farmers and farm businesses demonstrations and lessons. Fly tying. Cooking the Arrow recorded the highest flood level in recent times, spawning was one of our main objectives. The results at to tease out solutions. In the West Country, for example, and tasting trout cooked over a fire lit by with a rise of over 1.5 metres in the afternoon, peaking at the end of last season were mixed, with a fairly clear run on investment into farm infrastructure aimed at reducing flintstone. a height of 2.09 metres early the same evening the Lugg to above Presteigne; but with fish still getting held diffuse pollution upstream of reservoirs has proved very £5 including light refreshments. up on the Arrow at Staunton with only a few of the more energetic fish making any further progress. cost effective in reducing water treatment costs. The th th investment comes from the water companies. • L&A Fishing Camp Fri 27 May-Sun29 May We can report another good year for fund raising for the various projects but with the caveat that this will become We are using funds from Defra, EA and LARA (Sita landfill) The Bank holiday weekend fishing camp. Arriving more and more difficult in the present financial climate with to make a start on diffuse pollution sites in the Holly and Friday evening for two nights camping in the Loden. Caroline Sherrott is leading the charge! Lara has Mowley Valley and three days fishing on the some of our more loyal backers having difficulty in justifying also funded coppicing and fencing on the Lime Brook. beautiful River Arrow. Breakfast and BBQ their sponsorship. provided, together with free membership of LAFA We had hoped to bring the Minister for Environment and for one year. The Passport Scheme is still a great success and provides very good value for money for a day out fishing our Fisheries, Richard Benyon to the Lugg and Arrow, but the extra distance and tight schedule meant a visit lower down £100 (inc a deposit of £25 please) beautiful rivers. Having participated in the roving voucher scheme for four years I am happy to say that fish stocks on the Wye. However, having seen the River Garren, he was th our beat are holding up and the revenue generated enables left in no doubt as to the seriousness of the problem across • Cricket Competition and Church Fete Sat 9 river maintenance, with grant assistance from the HARP Herefordshire. July project. This is done on an annual basis and leaves monies still available to reinvest. I would like to encourage, Six a side tournament at Downton House, New where possible, riparian owners on these schemes to follow SALMON REDDS ON THE ARROW IN 2010 Radnor, LD8 2RD. Why not enter a team, or if this formula. you prefer, join one of our teams . In 2009 it was difficult to make any sense at all of the count MEMBERSHIP OF THE LUGG AND ARROW Pollution is an on going problem, more so on the Lugg than because of a continuous period of high, dirty water during £125 a team or £25 per player FISHERIES ASSOCIATION (LAFA) the Arrow, and you will see in this newsletter, Tony Norman November. But at the end of last year it was a totally has organized a Litter Pick initiative, in which we urge as different picture, with a very high flood in early October and To reserve your spot contact [email protected] We now have over 100 members who make regular many of you as possible to participate. then a period of eight weeks with little rainfall and very clear or call 01544 388510… or arrive early to the events! donations to LAFA or Gift Aid via The Wye and Usk water. Foundation. If you are interested in becoming a member, All in aid of LAFA and The Wye & Usk Foundation, or learning more about the Association, please get in Registered Charity No 1080319 Conservation for the NEWS FROM THE WYE AND USK FOUNDATION touch with The Membership Secretary, Rod Symondson Rivers Arrow and Lugg, Wye and Usk. If you can’t come at Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith, Executive Director of WUF along to any of these events, but would like to make a The Hotchpotch contribution towards the fundraising then please go on Husseys Lane Much of our news can be found in our recent newsletter line to http://www.justgiving.com/lafa Kington (please contact [email protected] if one hasn’t Herefordshire HR5 3FF arrived) but we are pleased to add that further funding has These are the events confirmed so far for this year, but 01544 231998 arrived to continue our fish pass work up to and beyond the hopefully there will be one or two more later in the year. [email protected] “Great Divide” – the powers that be have decided the rivers And we always need raffle and auction prizes. So, you Lugg and Arrow are best served by Midlands EA and the might own a bit of fishing, a holiday cottage, a bit of THE LAFA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Welsh organization operating separately. shooting, some tackle, some vintage bottles of wine or port, signed books or simply be able to teach or guide Fish pass plans include the Lugg at Dayhouse, Presteigne, someone for a day...if so get in touch. The AGM will be held at The Riverside Inn at Aymestry at th and on the Hindwell, while we are negotiating for sites on 6.30 pm on Tuesday April 5 at 6.30pm. Our Guest speaker will be Simon Evans, Deputy Director of WUF the Arrow as well as sites on the principal tributaries. I And finally we are very grateful to those that have given and his subject will be “The Two Rivers. What has been dream of the day when this issue is complete and we have so generously in the past. Thank You and keep up the achieved and what is still to be done” a catchment free from obstructions to travelling fish. good work for 2011! The prolonged clear water enabled several miles of the The Board still has a drainage responsibility and At such times the smaller, meandering Lugg and Arrow in ANOTHER PREDATOR, THE KILLER SHRIMP Arrow and a mile of the Curl Brook to be explored. A watercourse management is inevitable - too many the gentler landscape of north Herefordshire can often, in number of groups of people were shown what was people now live under risk of flooding within the Board’s my experience, be kinder to the angler A new severe threat was found last September in happening and it was particularly pleasing to show a District for that to be stopped. But watercourse .. Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire. This was the Amphipod class from Pembridge school a hen salmon cutting a management is not necessarily harmful, so hopefully Certainly blank days come often enough to teach some Dikerogammarus villosus known as the “killer shrimp” as redd just above the bridge at Pembridge. the Board’s drainage operations can help to achieve humility and it is probably unreasonable to expect the it attacks and kills every other small water creature it some national and local conservation targets while still kind of catches which can be had in autumn. But those comes across, including small fish. Tony Norman made a habit of walking the dog down to fulfilling its other remit. deep holes under alder trees do contain the odd superb . New Mills weir each morning to watch the salmon and grayling, and I can’t think where I would rather be by the trout attempting to get over. On one morning, over snow-drop time of very early spring than in one of these about 15 minutes, he saw no less than 15 salmon have THE PASSPORT SCHEME delightful valleys. a go at the weir and some were very strong 12lb-14lb fish, amongst a lot of smaller fish and brown trout.