|
|
|
Dorchester Fishing Club - Annual Report 2005
The extreme low
rainfall this year has left the River Frome shrunken and desperate for the
winter rains. The amazing growth of watercress and riparian flora did help
the flow by narrowing the channel and fishing was still very productive.
The cold winds and rain were not good conditions for fishing during the
first few months of the season. Mayfly was excellent with some fantastic
fishing caught, especially a twenty & nineteen inch fish.
Fishing the summer evenings at dusk produced plenty of hectic sport with
good falls of BWO spinners. Towards the end of the season, more good fish
were caught on crane fly imitations, including one notable fish of twenty
inches from the Lower Water.
The tree growth along the banks have also been amazing and I am sure John
Aplin will be organising a few tree trimming working parties over the winter
months. (He has plenty of good uses for them, more will be revealed at the
AGM.)
We electro fished the Lower and Middle water in early October. The fish
counts of both trout and grayling (of all sizes) are consistently increasing
each year. This is more evidence that the Clubs river improvement program is
working well.
At last years AGM. Tony Medley from the Frome, Piddle and West Dorset
Fisheries Association spoke about the problems that salmon have ascending
Louds Mill. One of our Members Charles Dutton, decided there and then to do
something about it. The fruits of his labour is the enclosed leaflet
explaining the projects. His goals are fully supported by the Managing
Committee and he has agreed to give a talk on his progress at the AGM.
Another good reason to attend…
The Managing Committee
Keepers Corner
I wrote the last Keepers corner back in May, after a meeting with the Dorset
Wild Life Trust, I remember it, simply because of the number of Mayfly, not
a hatch, a flock, a swarm call it what you like, there were lots, and rising
fish to match.
My formula 1 mower has at last retired to the shed, and I am getting into
winter mode, look out Cormorants, we have Environment Agency consent for a
second Hatchery box to go into the River Wrackle in Popes hatch pool, as
well as the original at Whitfield Hatches, with the three other boxes I
operate for clients below Dorchester, that’s a total of 125.000 Brown Trout
introduced to our catchment over the winter.
We have projects in the pipeline most of them being funded externally, as
you all know these funds do not appear over night I will be talking in more
detail about our projects at the Clubs AGM.
We managed to get some funding again for gravel washing on the Frome; the
consent came at the very last minute due to the very low flow this year,
last year we spent 225 man hours and cleaned 46 sights, my thanks go to the
Environment Agency for the funding, the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology as
project coordinators and Tony and Kelly King for all their hard work.
We also did a lot of Redd counting over the last winter and to watch a pair
of Salmon cutting a Redd on the gravel we cleaned was very very rewarding,
maybe the Frome Salmon do stand a chance.
The fishing this year was very good, the river looked in fine form, I seem
to remember fishing myself this year, I fished with John Colton on a cold
day and caught one from a tricky spot, but John caught TWO!
If you all have enjoyed the Frome as much as I have this year then you’ve
had a good year, my daughter Liberty doesn’t believe me when I say we were
fish not monkeys before we were humans.
John E Aplin
Electro Fishing 2005