All change and Under starters orders.....

The expression "every cloud has a silver lining" sometimes is hard to beleive. True enough at the end of last summer when the rivers were at an all time low. Then the idea of a long wet winter really was very appealing and something we all wished for .  But I reckon even in this drier corner of the country we have had enough now.  In my local beck this is just one of a number of landslips caused by recent rain . The ground is saturated now and every new rainshower just makes the chances of more of these even greater .  You will see that  some of our dedicated club members have already started to shift some of it. Our club is fortunate to have a small group of dedicated individuals that do more than their fair share of graft. Whilst you cant get many of the members to a work party for love nor money.

The run of is dumping more mud and silt into the beck.  A shame as one benefit of all the high water has been the washing away of the deposited leaves and muck from the last few dry years.  We havent had a decent flush through for quite a while  .

One real loser in this watery battle has been Chas Burns of Hooks and Tackle in York.  The devastation caused by the floods and the subsequent loss of his trading premises has sadly meant Chas has closed down the shop.  So Chas and Ted his resident pooch are no longer providing that haven for me when visiting York with the wife,  Its a big loss to the local anglers . But Chas is still intending to operate a web based shop and of course still building fine rods. One of which is an order for me .... Its a sad thought that the real "pop in and have a natter" style of angling shop are becoming an ever rarer thing replaced by the online stores and chain shops. 

Despite the gloom and the mixed fortunes of many months of rain on not very many weeks . Things on the river bank are improving. A weekend walk down by the beck to inspect the damage had a few things that are definate signs of spring,  This clump of snowdrops were stood waiting for summer. 

The catkins hung like so many lambs tails, Even the hawthorn buds are breaking.  The hedgrows were full of bullfinches a treat to see at any time of year.  Not sure about you readers but just been by a well loved stream has a real cathartic effect on me.  often in the high days of mid summer when the early season urgency has dissapated a fishing trip ends up been more of a walk with a rod in my hand,    Well at this time of year I have the walk but just dont bother with the rod.

Even Ruby was inspecting the newly imported gravels and checking for spawning redds.  The truth , I am afraid is that most of the winters spawning redds will have been washed out by the floods.  But at least the gravels have been scoured clean of silt and debris.

This is the same bit of beck last Autumn when the river was on its bones and we imported a load of gravel to improve spawning habitat

My usual invertebrate monitoring site is still under to much water , But soon the weather will change , This month sees club AGMs subscriptions due and my thoughts are starting to turn towards the season again .  It cant come soon enough..