plants such as the water milfoil

Lough Sheelin – one of the truly great Irish loughs, is in serious decline. This in itself is not a new item on the news, for it has been suffering from the effects of pig slurry being washed into it since I started fishing there in 1970. What is so surprising though, is the fact, that even after so much has been done to advertise the problem and have remedial action carried out, it still worsens!I fish Chew Valley Reservoir regularly and compared with most of Britain’s major waters, we suffer more from algal blooms than most. This, it seems, is mainly because Chew has a really large catchment area and it is almost exclusively agricultural land. Most other reservoirs throughout the land have to have water pumped into them. So Chew, suffers form nitrate rich water and this in turn leads to it being so vulnerable to algae. We are used to seeing only six to twelve inches into the water. The trout are used to feeding in those conditions, and it may even be the case that it helps anglers to catch more fish due to their poor presentation not being detected!However, Chew is a stocked water, unlike the majority of Irish loughs, and no matter what our water clarity, quality or even temperature is, we will have plenty of trout to be putting our flies across. The same cannot be said for Sheelin. True, some fish are stocked, but only at fingerling size. No, this water relies on its ability to be self-sustaining. That just “aint” happening. As the water becomes more nutrient rich, the algal blooms reduce the clarity. This in turn kills the essential flora of the water – plants such as the water milfoil – and this in turn deposits itself on the bottom, to clog up such areas as spawning beds. I apologise for over-simplifying the course of events, but that is the basics of what is occurring.What is to be done about it? I would have thought that with the amount of European Community money that Ireland seems to have at its disposal it would be but a small problem to solve. All is not that simple though. Anglers are not rally very noisy people when it comes to kicking up a fuss! There are plenty of other clean loughs in the country, so what if one of them “dies”?Ireland has enough problems of its own to sort out, but maybe those of us who visit the place regularly could lend some support to the situation. I am going to look into ways of getting behind the people around Sheelin who are working hard to clean up the water, and I will let you know here if there is indeed anything that we can do to help.

Back home we are now winding down towards the end of the season. Here in Bristol we are having an end of season bank competition for B.R F.F.A members on Blagdon, followed by the End of Season Buffet. There are plenty of trout left in all of our waters, so if you have a spare day on your calendar get out and give it a go – especially if there is a spot of good weather.