I See Trout!

I hadn't realised that this mild dry autumn was having such an impact on the water reserves. A knock-on effect of this shortage has been a dramatic drop in water levels on our rivers. Which in turn has made life tricky for the Sea Trout as they make their way back up river to their spawning grounds. The difficulty being that little water was running over the weirs, making them virtually impossible to cross.

We finally had a spot of rain last week, just about enough to make the weirs run effectively. We were very keen to watch the trout jump and a friend who had been studying a site for a number of years, promised to let us know when they were active. He was very interested in our reaction to seeing them - Wow! They were huge, some up to three feet in length. Before trying to clear the obstacle, they gathered in the calmer waters, looking like torpedos waiting to be fired. The urge to migrate must have been deeply engraved, with many showing the scars of previous failed attempts. For a few hours we watched their endeavours, all to no avail, not one made it over. We felt a little helpless, but assured that with a bit more rain (which has come) they will cross the weir with ease.

We were also lucky to see their breeding behaviour. Occasionally a female would swim into the shingle shallows and quiver her tail, in order to create a hollow for her eggs and to attract males, who needed little encouragement. The males fussed around her flicking and rolling onto their sides, eventually fertilising the eggs. Sometimes the males jumped clear out of the river, we wern't sure if this was a practice jump for the weir or an act of bravado to impress their fellow suitors - whatever the reason, why didn't they put the same energy into leaping over the weir?