River Frome | Frome, Piddle & West Dorset Fisheries Association

Archive of posts filed under the River Frome category.

Blue Bridge flow deflector project

6 August 2010, 6:24 pm

Blue Bridge flow deflector project Dorchester Fishing Club
Funded by the FP&WDFA

Ten years ago the Dorchester Fishing Club devised a plan to improve the habitat and the fishing on one of their beats just north of Dorchester. The reach was devoid of any fish holding structure, very limited cover, and totally uniform in flow and depth.

The plan was hatched and consent obtained from the Environment Agency (National Rivers Authority back then).

Six upstream flow deflectors were constructed using Hazel and Willow bundle’s, upstream facing to push the flow into the middle of the river, washing and scouring gravel on the bed of the river, giving it the energy required to create a much needed variation in depth and flow. Equally important, slowing the flow down along the banks, allowing for a certain amount of silt build up and in turn a huge increase in marginal vegetation and habitat.

This picture shows the Dorchester Fishing Club working hard on their flow deflectors over ten years ago.

As the years crept on, the in stream, marginal, and bank side vegetation increased as did the wildlife, and as a result of this the fishing improved. There is also proof of Salmonid spawning in this area, observed in our annual redd count, and a massive increase in all year classes of fish, visually observed when wading and recorded when we electric fish.

All habitat improvement work needs looking after and from time to time re instating; well we identified this as a worthwhile and very affordable project to fund, the stretch had become fairly overgrown and the flow deflectors need some attention. Consent was obtained from the Environment Agency and works were carried out over the first week in August to complete some tree trimming and re building of the flow deflectors using all the willow on site.

Re building the flow deflectors using live Willow, just laid from the bank and wired to posts driven into the bed of the river.

Nothing more rewarding than working with natural products knowing your doing a huge amount to help the entire aquatic echo system.

Anyone who would like to chat about this and other projects, or would like a site visit please contact me.
john@riverworks.co.uk

Filed under River Frome, River Work.

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River report May 2010

26 May 2010, 9:44 pm

We are now approaching the end of May and at last things are warming up, and the fishing is on the up every day.

April and early May were terribly slow, cold, and not hugely rewarding for those who braved fishing in gusty, quiet often biting northerly winds.

We are suffering from a lack of in channel weed both on the Frome and the Piddle, I feel as a result of those July spates we encountered last year just as all our Ranunculus Aquatilis finished flowering!

Regarding our Frome Swan population, I have had a long chat with an aquatic biologist from the CEH (www.ceh.ac.uk), a large percentage are Frome Swans, i.e. ringed on the river, a very small number from Christchurch but no swans with swannery leg rings, more info on my next report.

The early season Grannom hatches were sparse but the medium and large Olive’s have been rather good and I am very confident that the Mayfly this year will be every bit as good as last year.

I have heard of a number of wild three pound fish already this season, and the largest wild Brown Trout reported to me last season was a few ounces the right side of seven pounds, and I saw the photographs!
Your committee have been attending endless meetings regarding the welfare of our Dorset Rivers and working hard to safeguard their futures, there is a huge amount of work that goes on behind the scenes so that we can all cast a line into clean water when we get the time.

Regarding on the ground work or rather in the water work, all the in stream restoration work that has happened over the last few years, particularly on the Frome has been seen as a great success, we recently carried out a detailed electric fishing survey for clients on the Frome, one beat having had works done, the other had not, and as we hoped the fish population on the improved stretch was impressive not only for Salmonids but also for the important coarse fish population on the Frome.

A stunning salmon was reported on Dr Mike Ladles website (see last post) earlier this month, another species of fish on the Frome that deserves recognition (other than our British record Grayling) is the Roach, their numbers down slightly over the years but this strain of Frome Roach I am sure is again something special and needs looking after, huge fish to well over that magical three pound mark were caught on the lower Frome this winter.

Our rivers are very special to us all; if you would like to add a little to my next report please drop me an e mail john@riverworks.co.uk

Filed under Admin, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, River Frome, River Piddle.

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42” hen salmon

17 May 2010, 7:05 pm

Hi There,

I thought that you may be interested in a 42” hen salmon I caught on the fly last week on a beat above Wareham – please see the link below to Mike Ladles website detailing the capture with pictures.