River Ribble

[stommo]

Hi. New member of the forum. I thought I would start a Ribble thread as that is my local river. I fish at Walton le Dale and the middle reaches. Is there any one out there that fishes the Ribble? I,ve not heard so much yet this season, good run of sea trout apparently but very quiet on the salmo front. Anybody got any info?

[wilbert]

I fish the Ribble but higher up than you (Clitheroe area) and the reports that I am getting are the opposite to yours. Sea trout fishing is slow, there were a few salmon caught during May but many anglers don't bother fishing until 16th June and the main salmon runs don't start until July/August depending on the water levels. Its good to hear from a fellow Ribble fisherman and I look forward to any reports that you may have. Have there been good sightings or catches of Sea trout on the lower Ribble?? if so they are yet to make it this far up.

[stommo]

Just arrived back from vacation. Wot? Nobody else fishing the Ribble then? Aparrently lots of sea trout seen bouncing thru Ribchester. Slow on the Salar front in the middle reaches. Anybody any info?

[wilbert]

There has been a major pollution incident on the Ribble which has resulted in lots of dead fish. Some TW*T has deliberately emptied a tanker into a surface water drain 3 times in the last 2 weeks and last 2 times have resulted in totally wiping out one of the spawning becks from where the drain empties to where it joins the main river. The pollution is slowly moving down the main river between Gringleton and Brungerly but it is not diluting and is continuing to kill fish. The EA are on site and have been for the last 2 days bu they are struggling to remove some of the pollution and get the oxygen levels up. Here is a link to the BBC news
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/5228994.stm

I hope they catch this b*stard and hang him by his balls, this is the biggest pollution incident on the Ribble for 30 years or more.

[wilbert]

Just got word of the number of fish that the EA have found dead on Sunday 2 days after the second incident.

3 eels

457 brown trout(2lb to 5 oz)-majority at breeding age.

102 sea trout(majority 4-8lb but some 14lb)

16 salmon (12-14lb)

129 salmon parr

15 grayling( 1-1.5lb)


These figures are only for the fish found so the real number is probably double this figure or even higher. All this because of the action of some thoughtless tosser that did it to save a few quid!!!

[wilbert]

This is a report of the pollution incident that is going in T&S

Two major pollution incidents occurred in the river Ribble and one of its main spawning tributaries over the last week in July. A large quantity of used cooking oil, raw batter, and a detergent was deliberately disposed of down the same surface water drain off the A59 near Sawley. This substance then ran down the drains, into a ditch and then on into Swanside beck before dispersing very slowly down the main river for over five miles, killing many fish.


With the river already suffering from low flows and oxygen levels it could not have come at a worst time. This substance removed most of the oxygen left in the water.The pollution slug was contained in Brungerley deeps where the E.A. installed five large pumps to try to increase the oxygen levels, these pumps were working continually night and day until the oxygen levels reached over 75% . The total number of dead fish counted was 1200 but this figure can be safely doubled as many fish would never be seen on the bottom of the deeper pools. The fish counted were mostly game fish with sea trout up to 14lbs and the rest in the 4-8lb range, some precious spring salmon were lost, as were many brown trout , grayling, and salmon parr.

This incident is not the first, as three weeks previous a similar incident took place only three miles further along the A59, the same substance was emptied down another surface water drain where it emptied into Barrow brook killing many fish, but, due to the actions of the E.A's pollution officers.
this was stopped from entering the main river.

This incident has left the members of two major game fishing clubs and two smaller ones very angry They are hopeful that,and from early ecological tests being carried out by the E.A. the invertebrate life in this part of the river has not been too badly effected.
This incident was first discovered by the local farmer Mr. Alan Parker from Smithies bridge who alerted the authorities and tried to stem the flow himself. The E.A.have been requested to send a letter of thanks to Mr.
Parker.

Here is a pick of some of the fish found dead by the EA

[tyneandrew]

Terrible news and very sad. Unfortunately we share the planet with some real scum who care little for anything other than themselves.

[scotty]

some people just have no idea the effects of there actions,or mabye they are just ignorant to the fact that they are causing so must harm to the wildlife around them and dont care. has any body been caught for doing this?

scotty.

[johnmac]

i think it would be fairly easy to track down the culprit... but lets see if the fuzz go to the effort!!! and as for the courts...even if they did get him or them..... it would be a £200 fine and a community service charge........ give him 10years...that'll discourage others!!! fu*king ba$tards!! It really pisses me right off!! scum bags!

[dangler]

Johnmac, don't hold back, say what you mean! lol.
Must say I entirely sgree though.
Mike

[johnmac]

strong words from me i know... but its strong actions that are required!!

[wilbert]

The ACA have put up a £1000 reward for information leading to a prosecution of the person behind the pollution. The EA have given anglers the all clear to continue fishing, personally I won't be out until we get rain and lots of it. The river is full of weed and a good flood lasting 48 hrs is required just to clean the river up then we can get down to some proper fishing.

[hadrian]

1000£'s you say?

[hadrian]

it was flybox.

[wilbert]

Cheers Hadrian I will pass on his details and claim the reward for my self. ;D

[hadrian]

hi wilbert,i was listening to keith arthur on talk sport this morn he said that the pollution was down to somebody unloading 8(eight)tonnes of oil into one of the ribbles tributaries and that it was probably a local company.a representative for one of the local angling clubs came on to say that his club and 1 other local club had doubled the reward for information leading to a prosecution.

the e.a./government and the company(when caught)should all be held responsible and dragged over hot razor blades for this.

hadrian.

[wilbert]

The reward has been doubled with 2 clubs adding £500 each (Ribblesdale AA and Clitheroe AA) and there is talk of a few more clubs / fishing bodies adding to the pot. The pollution was a mixture of cooking oils, batter and bleach, there was way more than 8 tonnes of the stuff dumped, it was pumped into a surface water drain from something the size of a milk tanker on 2 occasions at this location. 8 tonnes is the amount that the EA managed to pump out of the river.

[wilbert]

Water levels have been up and down for the last week and it should continue to fish for a day or 2 . The fish have been running hard and on Sunday a good run of fish was seen moving up river and quite a few were caught too but mainly on the worm as the river was big and dirty. Most fish being caught have been in the 4 to 10 lb class and have been fresh with a good percentage carrying sea lice.

On the pollution front the reward now stands at just under £5000 but all the leads have gone cold and no one has been brought to justice.

[wilbert]

The NLO (net limitation order) comes into force next year and there will be a mandatory 2 fish (salmon) bag limit per angler for the whole season on the Ribble system. The EA are also using the Ribble for a pilot scheme for carcass tagging similar to the one used in Ireland. The 2 tags will be issued by fishing clubs or tackle shops if you are not in a club and your license will be stamped and the 2 tag numbers will be recorded on your license. the tags are non transferable and will be a different colour for each year, unused tags may have to be returned at the end of the year with your catch return. If this is successful then it could well be used throughout the whole of England and Wales at a later stage.

The anglers seem to have got the worse deal again and the nets look as though very little will change for them. The NLO aims to reduce the estuary nets from 6 down to 2 over a 10 year period through natural wastage (death) but if after 10 years there are still 6 nets in operation 4 will not be forced to give up their license. The nets are protected by law which goes back 100's of years and it would take an act of Parliament to remove them. Once again the whole river system is being held to ransom by 6 nets men who have done bugger all to help the stock levels improve. They have a 100% kill rate and I have never seen any of them on a working party carrying out habitat improvement etc. The nets will also be issued with the new tags but they will get an unlimited amount. Any salmon that is found without a tag in it will be assumed that it has been caught illegally and some serious question will be asked.

[wilbert]

The EA have discovered a large population of American Signal Crayfish in a small tributary of Long Preston beck. They have taken the decision to poison the whole of the tributary in the summer of 2007 to stop the spread of the crayfish. They will poison the whole of the beck using a poison and series of dams and diverting the flow. They will electro fish the area between the dams just in case there are any fish that need removing first. This sounds dangerous but has been done before with 100% success. This is a very expensive process but needs to be done, if the signal crayfish get into Long Preston beck and into the main Ribble it could spell the end of the Ribble as a salmon fishery in 10 years. The cray fish populations are so dense that in a 10m stretch which is no wider than 1m at its widest the EA picked out over 300 crayfish bu hand. The crayfish were illegally stocked about 2 years ago in complete ignorance by people growing them on as food but had no idea of the destruction they cause. The crayfish need to migrate in search of food as they eat all insect and fish life, the area that they have been discovered is completely devoid of all life except crayfish.