Life on a
Chalkstream
20th
December 2024
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The Victory of Hope over Expectation
Do triploid trout rise as well as wild trout?
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The benefit of Storm Darragh
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Going Live & Holiday Opening Hours
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Christmas Quiz with a prize!
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Greetings!
Here at the
Hampshire Otter Feeding Centre, formerly known as Nether Wallop
Mill, the rainbow trout are in full spawning colours.
Daily they compete
at the inflow and outflow of the trout lake, or above the spring
heads around the edge of the lake, to secure a supply of the
coldest and most pure water adjacent to which they dig the redds
where they will lay their eggs. They are totally relentless about it,
scouring out many inches of compacted gravel to expose the white
chalk beneath.
It is, of course, a
victory of hope over expectation for they are, naturally, oblivious
to the fact that they are all, being triploid trout, infertile. In
many respects it is sad to see them going through the whole
evolutionary driven process, even to the extent of producing eggs, as
in the end it comes to naught. The process by which they are rendered
infertile known as pressure shocking, happens soon after the
eggs are fertilised in the fish farm. The eggs are placed in a tank
similar to a divers’ oxygen bottle, where they are subjected to
extreme pressure which splits one of the two sex chromosomes in half
changing the resultant adult trout from being diploid (two
chromosomes) of one or other sex into to an always female but
infertile triploid (three chromosomes).
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Redds at the
lake outflow
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This technique was
first pioneered in the 1980’s for rainbow trout and later adopted in
the early 2000’s when the Environment Agency directed that all
stocked trout, be they brown or rainbow, were to be triploid.
Research around that time indicated that triploiding was 100%
effective in preventing 'female' triploids producing viable eggs and
what interaction there was between wild and triploid fish in rivers
would have no negative impacts one on the other.
Two decades on I do not think there is any reason to
doubt most of the conclusions of the 2003 research though with our
rivers under greater stress the conclusion that “triploids are less
able to cope with low oxygen levels and high water temperatures than
diploid fish” does not bode well for the future.
I suppose for those
of us with long fishing memories who were on stocked rivers before
the introduction of triploids the question needs to be asked is the
fishing better with or without them or much the same. As far as I am
aware, there is no research as such, so inevitably what follows is
more anecdotal than evidential.
If I am asked what
has changed most in my fishing lifetime my answer is always rising
fish; or rather the lack of them. Now memory is a dangerous ally in
any debate, the summers always being warmer, the beer sweeter and the
girls (or boys) prettier. All that said I am sure I am right about
this – finding consistently rising fish seems to be increasingly
hard. So, the question is, with so many things going on with our
rivers and ecology in general, can we point the finger of blame at
triploids?
Being both my home
and office, I inevitably spend a great deal of time observing the
trout, both brown, rainbow and exotics, in our well stocked lake. The
truth is that judged by their propensity to freely take both surface
naturals and imitations, sometimes to the exclusion of sub-surface
offerings, being a triploid makes no difference to the way they feed
or how, more certainly, the otters feed on them!
But, as I say this
is only an opinion, so if you take time to mull it over during the
holidays I would welcome any thoughts of both the habits of triploids
and the historic propensity of fish to rise.
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The benefit of
Storm Darragh
All through the
autumn I have a morning routine to keep the Wallop Brook at bay as it
flows by, around and under The Mill.
For those of you
who may not have visited Nether Wallop Mill we are essentially moated
with the Brook splitting in three – imagine it as is looking at a
rugby ball with the building the laces. The Brooks flows to the north
and the south around the curved edges, whilst the channel dug a
thousand years ago to power the water wheel, flows straight down the
middle under the laces/building. There is in addition, just to
make life more complicated an offshoot to the south leg that feeds
the lake. Now all these, for various reasons have either hatches,
gates or grilles that have to be cared for.
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Weed rack
against the mill and a side gate to right
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Firstly, the lake
has grilles at the inflow and outflow to prevent the trout
escaping. These have to be cleared of leaves and detritus daily.
Secondly, the mill channel has a weed rack to prevent anything
entering the wheel mechanism. This has to be cleared of leaves and
detritus daily. Additionally, the gate in the mill race has to be
adjusted according to the water height based on what rain has fallen,
is falling or is anticipated to fall in the next 24 hours. Thirdly,
the hatch that regulates the flow around and under the north side of
the building has to be cleared and adjusted based on the same rain
expectations as for the mill race. To make life even more complicated
none of these work in isolation. For instance, if you close the mill
race gate too much it backs up the flow creating the potential for
calamity elsewhere.
All this water
regulation is pretty easy in the spring and summer but it becomes
especially problematic from October to December when every day the
grilles and racks become blocked with autumn detritus. Really fancy
fish farms or other places such as sewage works who have to contend
with regular blockages have mechanical solutions to clear the debris
24/7 but here at Nether Wallop Mill it is me with a rake once or
twice a day lifting clear leaves, twigs, branches and sometimes
really quite substantial logs, not to mention a daily array of tennis
balls. Where do they all come from?
So, why was I so
pleased by the arrival Storm Darragh? Well, it finally stripped the
trees of the remaining leaves so my daily chores are much reduced for
another nine months.
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The mill
race and control gate
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Watch my guided tour of the mill streams and
all mentioned above
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Going live & Christmas opening times
Firstly, before I
get into our Christmas Quiz, I would just like to say from us all
here at Fishing Breaks (and the fish too!) thank you for all your
support and encouragement in the past year and wish everyone the very
best for a Happy Christmas and a joyous New Year.
Just by way
of a change, having bought the signed Matt cartoon for our
Christmas card, we are giving the original away as a prize for our
Christmas Quiz.
As of 5pm today
(Friday) the office will be closed until we reopen on Monday 30th
December. However, all the 2025 diaries are now live for online bookings and you may order a gift voucher for email delivery as late as you like. Believe it or
not, gift orders come in on Christmas morning!
Emails will be
checked most mornings over the holiday period, with the notable
exception of Christmas and Boxing Day, so feel free to send any
questions or requests my way.
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Happy
Christmas & New Year
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Not your normal
random collection of questions inspired by the date, events or
topics in the Newsletter but rather a carefully curated set of
questions with a signed Matt cartoon the carrot on the stick.
Answers on
email by 31st December to info@fishingbreaks.co.uk. Include a tie breaker by completing the sentence
based on the Matt cartoon: I think the angler is indicating
that he has seen ....... The most amusing, or thought
provoking word or phrase wins.
Angling literature
1) Who wrote A River Runs Through It?
2) Which innovative saltwater angler won a Nobel
Prize for Literature?
3) Who wrote Fly Fishing (1899) but was also
Foreign Secretary at the start of World War one?
4) The Compleat Angler was first published in what year?
5) Who wrote the poem The Brook that begins,
“I come from haunts of coot and hern, ….”
Fish names
What is the English name for the following
freshwater fish:
6) Salmo salar
7) Esox Lucius
8) Cyprinus carpio
9) Thymallus thymallus
10) Gasterosteidae
Fishing personalities
11) Who are the stars of the Gone Fishing BBC
TV series?
12) Which rock and roll legend caught the biggest
Icelandic salmon of summer 2017?
13) Which member of Pink Floyd owns a house on the
banks of the River Test?
14) Who was the most recent US President to fish the
English chalkstreams?
15) What is the nationality of water campaigner
Feargal Sharkey?
Where in Britain
16) Which is the longest river in the British
Isles?
17) Which is the largest lake (by surface area) in
the British Isles?
18) Which is the longest road in the British
Isles?
19) What species of tree is the oldest in the UK?
20) How long is
the UK coastline? A) 5,073 miles B) 7,073 miles C)
9,073 miles D) 11,073 miles
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Livvy, who looks after all things fishing cabin,
with the signed Matt original
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Happy Christmas!
Best wishes,
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TIME IS
PRECIOUS. USE IT FISHING
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The Mill,
Heathman Street, Nether Wallop,
Stockbridge,
England SO20 8EW United Kingdom
01264 781988
www.fishingbreaks.co.uk
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