Gone Fishing on the River Rib

A walk along the banks will rarely reveal any fish as they tend to hide in the shadows amongst the vegetation. However, a trip out with the team from the Environment Agency responsible for the health of the county’s rivers is highly rewarding. The team sweeps through the river with a wand-like gadget that emits an electric current which attracts the fish. Suddenly, as if by magic, fish of all sizes swim lazily from their cover towards the device; the team lift them out, weigh and measure them, and take a few scale samples before returning them, unharmed, to the river. Their analysis from this exercise grades the River’s health. The fact that there are so many fish is excellent news.

Sadly, as with many British rivers, there are high numbers of non-native ‘Signal’ crayfish, which are rapidly out-numbering the smaller native crayfish. Although excellent to eat, Environment Agency permission is required to catch Signals (as well as a special trap and the land owner’s permission) which won’t be forthcoming if native species are also present.

There is an enormous amount of wildlife to watch in the vicinity of the river. There have been regular sightings of mallard, moorhens and coots; if you are lucky you will see kingfishers too.

Recent fishing of the river has landed a brown trout of over 2lbs - a very good weight for this size of river.