Great News

  • Thread starter Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Toxic sheep dips have been the prime cause of the deterioration of insect life on a lot of our rivers for many years.

This not only affects fly fishing for trout, but the whole food chain.

Of course the manufacturers of these dips are devastated. Let's hope they are. We simply cannot carry on dumping poisons into the countrside like this.
 
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Tony Rocca

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The preparation of fleeces at the wool mills, washing, scouring etc, led to the pesticide contamination of many of our rivers.

Even when some of the worst dips were done away with the problem persisted as most fleeces are imported from countrys where dip control didnt exist.

There were big problems in West Yorkshire only a few years ago.
 
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Frank "Chubber" Curtis

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This is good news. Let's hope they soon ban it's use in all other products.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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I think when we buy woollen clothes in future, we insist on home grown wool. Maybe the woollen industry could have a mark on all woollen cloths signifying that the wool is British and has been processed in an environmentally friendly manner using non toxic dips and other ways of washing the wool.

The best woollen cloths, notably those woven by the best Huddersfield and Scottish mills are all produced using British wool.

Sure it costs a lot of money but the quality is there.

Next time you have a suit or jacket made, insist on the following names:

Holland and Sherry
Reid and Taylor
Dormueil
Halstead of Huddersfield.
Keith and Henderson

There are many others.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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The ACA were instrumental in getting this ban by the way.

Again, ALL members of FM should be members of the ACA.

JOIN TODAY

Phone 01568 620447

www.a-c-a.org
 
Mark Wintle

Mark Wintle

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The farmers were bleating in the paper that they now didn't have an effective sheep dip. The impact of this has been devastating to fish and bird life. I wonder just how bad it really is ie how many rivers have been affected yet undetected. I cannot find caddis at all around here yet the rivers used to be alive with them.
 
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stuart clough

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The dace will be starving Mark! In my studies Brachycentrus subnubilis (cased caddis)formed 80% of the diet of dace in the Frome. Wonder what they are eating now?
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Two important points Mark and Stuart.

I have noticed that the enormous hatches of sedge you used to get by the side of any river on summer and autumn evenings in the old days are no more. Fly fishers on the Test and other chalk streams also tell of enormous hatches of mayfly and other ephemeridae. These insects are the main food of dace, roach and trout.

This could be the reason for the demise of the dace in many rivers.
 
Mark Wintle

Mark Wintle

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Stuart,

It could be down to my failing eyesight; back in the early 70s caddis was my favourite bait and the Piddle was lietrally crawling with them. When I've looked in more recnt summers they appear comparatively absent. Hardly scientific.

Yet many of our local rivers have some sheep farming on the meadows in the catchment, and as the stuff was so lethal, the effects may be there yet undetected.

Any idea what the numerous dace on the tidal parts inc Christchurch harbour eat?
 
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stuart clough

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Mark - In the winter - anything they can find. Bivalves I expect.

In the freshwater river cased caddis are their favourite food, but blackfly larvae (Simulium) also feature strongly at times.

Interestingly, despite finding loads in drift nets, I never found a Gammarus in a dace stomach (the trout and grayling from the same area were full of them).

Ron - dace seem to be doing OK in some of the Southern rivers. The last couple of years on the Avon have seen a big improvement, and some of the millstreams are full of 3 & 4 year old fish at the moment.
 
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