Checking the fish population

Jon Grey with the electro gear, two netters and bucket carrier bringing up the rear.

Last week RWF volunteers and Aire Rivers Trust staff electro-fished at five locations on the river, they were led by Prof. Jon Grey of the Wild Trout Trust. This was a repeat of the session held last year which we talked about in a previous blog. Electro-fishing involves passing an electric current through the water to very briefly stun the fish which are netted, measured and then released unharmed. We do this to check the population and to get an understanding of how the various weirs on the river affect the distribution.

​The result showed little change from last year, the number of brown trout (60) was a slight increase on last year, and there was a slight decrease in the number of bullheads. We are concerned that for the second year running we did not find any grayling. Anglers have reported  catching them regularly in previous years, so where have they gone?

Fish ready for counting and measuring

​Most of the time we were electro-fishing there was a hatch of mayfly coming off the water, with fish rising to them. One of our volunteers had a rod with him so decided to try for one, watched by the rest of us (always a bit disconcerting), he landed a fine 33cm brown trout. He tended to lose interest in the electro-fishing after that and we didn't see so much of him!

We also watched a family of ducklings jump off Malcolm's weir, also no one fell in.

The duck family before the great leap forward!