© The Journal of The Grayling Society Volume 27 - Number 6 • Winter 2017 © CONTENTS The Official Journal of Editorial Bob Male 2 The Grayling Society 2017 Symposium Review 4 ISSN 1476-0061 Chairman’s Report 7 Free to all our Members in - 2017 Symposium Fishing Day Glyn Williams 9 Australia Lithuania Austria Luxembourg Putting Research Findings into Everyday Angling Practice; Belgium Netherlands Conservation Physiology - Recent Catch Canada New Zealand China Norway and Release Research Les Jervis - GRT Trust 10 Czech Republic Poland Denmark Portugal Grayling Society 41st AGM Eire Scotland and Symposium Weekend Robert W. Milne 14 England Slovenia Finland Sweden 2017 Grayling Society Symposium Mark S. Sharp 16 France Switzerland Germany U. S. A. Important News for all Members Italy Wales - New Membership System Tim Taylor 18 Isle of Man Auction Fishing Report Keith Mallinson 19 Editor - Bob Male Telephone: 01722 503939 A Very Special Pool Peter Lane 20 e-mail: [email protected] Advertising - Rod Calbrade Perdigon Nymph Richard Ellis 22 Subscriptions per annum: Full £28.00, Joint £47.00 Uttoxeter Fair 2017 24 Senior (over 70) £22.00 Junior (under 16) £5.00 Fly Tiers’ Corner Brian Clarke 26 Details available from the Membership Secretary A Day Not to Forget Stuart Johnson 27 Tim Taylor 86 Rushmore Road, London E5 0EX Old Love Never Dies Axel Wessolowski 28 Tel: 0207 2543704 Mob: 07818 427350 Email: [email protected] Eyesight Fading? Assistance Required! Steve Skuce 34 Design and Production Return to Alaska Peter Cockwill 38 Peter Silk Design e-mail: [email protected] AGM Minutes and Report & Accounts 40 Society Web Site www.graylingsociety.net Officers of the Society 44 © The Grayling Society, 2017 Printed by Cambrian Printers The copyright of all material in this edition of ‘Grayling’ remains with the Authors, or the Aberystwyth SY23 3TN 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 “Only five travel companions means a lot of photographs or illustrations are always welcome, but the Society assumes no responsibility stretches of water just for yourself – in case for the safety of contributions, although all reasonable care will be taken. Views expressed you prefer some solitude.” – Axel Wessolowski by contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Grayling Society. All enquiries (See his article “Old love never dies”) about articles in ‘Grayling’ should be addressed to the Editor. Grayling – Winter 2017 1 AGM and Symposium Bob Male To finish on a lighter note, the AGM and GENERAL SECRETARY Editorial Symposium went very well, and I was left with a feeling that the Society is in vigorous WANTED good health. Local Areas are getting more The Society is looking for a new General Secretary. active, our new on-line membership scheme Rod Calbrade joined the GS Committee in 1997, firstly as the Christmas looms again on the horizon, and I Salmon Farming will make life easier for members and for the Society’s Editor and in the last 4 years as its General Secretary. am reflecting on the Symposium. There used to On a broader front, there has been deep new Membership Secretary, Tim Taylor, who He is looking to retire from his General Secretary role next year. be a standing joke about the “curse of the concern for some time over the state of salmon has initiated this bold change. Our Facebook He is happy to carry on in the near future in handling part of the Symposium” that brought down foul weather on farming in Scotland. Recent information obtained pages are popular and reaching new General Secretary’s tasks of helping to organise and run the annual Symposium and thus he will be around at Committee whatever part of the country the Society chose by STCUK about sea-lice infestation in these potential members. Our links with the to host its annual bash. farms, which is known to have devastating meetings to help settle the new person in. Grayling Research Trust are strengthening, So we are looking for someone who can take over the We seemed to have dodged the curse for effects on wild stocks of salmon and sea trout, with a common website now up and running, organising and reporting of the 4 Committee meetings and several years, but 2017 was to see it return with has put the spotlight on a very serious situation. and a very welcome article by Les Jervis in the AGM which take place every year. a vengeance. I am not sure I like the idea of The salmon farming industry has a code of this issue. The Society’s Catalogue and an In recent months we have made great strides in minimizing naming storms, and it is hard to take seriously a practice, and the Scottish Government have set Order form are also included, and please the amount of work that the General Secretary does by re- storm called Brian! Sorry to any and all Brians out regulations for salmon farms, but it seems remember the Society when you choose your structuring the way in which we run the Committee meetings. out there, but I am of the sixties, and the Magic clear that guidelines contained in these codes Christmas presents. Thus it takes much less time for hi m / her to do it, and the Minutes can be distributed much more quickly to the Roundabout still figures in my happier are being flouted with impunity, with some farms All in all, much to celebrate, and may I, on Committee. memories. (Brian, for all you youngsters, was a having sea lice infestations many times the behalf of the Society, wish you all a very talking snail. I did say this was the sixties!) recommended level. The STCUK website will The other duties include looking after the Area Happy Christmas and New Year. Secretaries and general administration. Anyway, storm Brian was indeed serious, and show the awful details, but my own response If you feel that you would like to be involved with the the fishing was a washout unless you were canny was “what can I do about it?” Copy deadline for the Spring Journal is running of the Society in these exciting times, with an enough to bring trotting gear and look around Personally, I have boycotted all farmed salmon Friday 4th May 2018 energetic and enthusiastic Committee, contact Rod on 01706 for fishable spots. Read all about it in the excellent for some time now, and I contacted STCUK to 842890 or email: rod@calbrade .demon.co.uk articles that fellow members have sent in. ask if there were any sources of farmed Scottish I stayed at the hotel on the Sunday, and was salmon that I could buy with a clear conscience . very grateful to Dave Southall for giving an The answer was “no”. impromptu workshop on Italian style casting and the use of ultra-thin lines. We had a great session Trouble for us all? in the windy conditions, and David, who had I don’t fish for salmon, but I do fish for sea trout, experienced key-hole surgery for a heart occasionally in Scotland, and I do not want to see condition just a couple of days before, deserves the splendid wild fisheries that were once that thanks and respect for turning out to do a fine country’s pride damaged or even destroyed by presentation on the Saturday, as well as his industrial food production. This may sound like Sunday morning class. an old song, but we need to pressure My local Wessex rivers are looking very sorry governments and other agencies to change the for themselves just now, after another very dry current management rules. Do please follow up year. Levels and flows are extremely low, and it is on the STCUK links and see for yourselves. I am hard to find fishable spots. It still amazes me afraid that this policy of ignoring and where all the fish go when these contrary suppressing unpalatable environmental facts is conditions overtake them, but they have adapted becoming the norm, and that could spell trouble over many, many years of drought and flood, and for us all. must have their instinctive strategies to cope. The BTW, the latest piece of pseudo-green few grayling that I have caught recently have management is to net large numbers of young been in excellent condition, as have a couple of wrasse from southern coasts and ship them up to OOS trout, and I take this as an encouragement, be placed in the salmon farm cages to eat the but chalk aquifers take a long time to recharge, sea-lice. Why just damage one ecosystem when “The place where small rivers enter the larger one are hot spots. In this case we found a school of grayling and catching so we need rain, rain and more rain. with a bit of ingenuity you can damage two? them was almost too easy…” See more of Axel Wessolowski’s Swedish adventure on page 28. 2 Grayling – Winter 2017 Grayling – Winter 2017 3 2017 Symposium Review Storm Brian is coming! The headlines in the papers and on TV news bulletins were spreading potential bad news during the preceding 3 or 4 days to the Symposium. Rivers were already high much to the annoyance of local anglers but we all arrived at the Ramada full of hope.