River Erewash Foundation - Meeting 6th April

Just to remind members there is a meeting on Monday 6th April - 7.30pm upstairs at the Red Lion, Sandiacre.Anyone expressing an interest in the River Erewash Foundation are most welcome to come along and introduce themselves. The meeting will be followed shortly by a newsletter to all members informing of all important matters they may have missed if unable to attend the meeting.

Trout caught in the Erewash

Happy New Year from everyone at the River Erewash Foundation!

The new year brings news of recent trout captures from the River Erewash. First of all, Colin Poole was lucky enough on 2nd January to accidentally catch a 3lb brown trout whilst fishing at Toton on one of the stretches looked after by the Foundation. Colin was trotting double red maggot on a size 18 hook through a two and half foot deep swim. The fish was in superb condition, and returned safely to the river.

Alan Oxborough reports catching a brown trout between 8oz and 10oz in weight, and in super condition. The fish was caught in the upper reaches in a location between Pye Bridge and Ironville. Alan has been fishing the Erewash for the last 1o years, and reports catching chub to 2lb, perch to 1lb, and small roach and dace.

Please let us know about your captures from the Erewash, photographs can be sent to our e-mail address. If you wish to keep precise locations to yourself, we will respect your privacy.

IMPORTANT Please let the Foundation know of any grayling caught, we are trying to monitor the survival and spread of the recent stocking. Please return any trout caught.

Grayling Stocking - 11th December

On Thursday 11th December we stocked 2 stretches of the river Erewash with Grayling donated by the EA to the River Erewash Foundation.We have stocked through Broxtowe Borough Councils stretch to Long Eaton and the foundation is very grateful to Broxtowe Council for accepting our foundation and opening their arms to our conservation aims through their land. Moving on over the Toton sidings (Railway lines) we carried on stocking through Erewash Borough Council up from long Eaton towards Sandiacre and luckily the EA own this land (thank God) as Erewash Borough Council have seemed unhelpful to this point, though I'm glad to report their lack of co operation didn't prevent the foundation doubling its length of river to monitor the tiny graylings progress, in the coming years.Watch out for press releases and please notify on this thread should you spot any.

IMPORTANT
Our next management committee meeting will be at the Red Lion, Sandiacre on Monday 12th January at 7.30pm. Anyone wishing to become involved in conservation works and become active/members for £10 membership fee should attend this meeting. Membership forms can be downloaded by e-mailing the secretary at erewashfoundation@btinternet.com

The Foundation can now be contacted at:

erewashfoundation@btinternet.com

The launch of the River Erewash Foundation.

The River Erewash Foundation are pleased to announce that it's inaugural meeting will be taking place on Monday 1st December at 7-30pm in the Red Lion Pub, Derby Rd, Sandiacre, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG10 5HW.All those who are interested are welcome to attend, membership will be available on the night. Membership to those unable to attend will be available after the meeting.The aims and objects of the River Erewash Foundation are:• Restore and conserve the biodiversity of the River Erewash and it’s tributaries.• Achieve this through regular monitoring, regular meetings, and a programme of conservation management. The association will work with the local community to do this, as well as local landowners and relevant organisations.• Restore the River Erewash to it’s historical biodiversity.The Foundation has the support and backing of the following organisations:Broxtowe Borough Council,Erewash Borough Council,The Wild Trout Trust,Environment Agency,The Grayling Society,Derbyshire Wildlife Trust,Friends of Toton Fields.The Foundation is moving fast, and there is already a lot planned to happen over the next few months.

Carry on up the Nutt Brook

Earlier this week myself and Trugg (and his faithful hounds) took a walk alongside a potential spawning tributary of the Erewash; the Nutt Brook.

The Nutt brook flows above ground for about 1/4 mile before it disappears underground to reappear besides the derelict wastegrounds around the Stanton ironweeks. The brook has obviously been engineered by the hand of man in recent years, but withstanding this, has greatpotential as an area for trout to carve out their redds and spawn; in short an ideal nursery ground for the wild trout of the Erewash. There is a lot of work to do to achieve this, but this is achieveable.

Trugg has already asked for ideas on what we should do on a couple of obstructions in the brook. But it doesn't look too bad as is. I spotted a chub just upstream of the 2nd blockage Mick took a photograph of. Typically I soon as I mentioned the chub to Mick, it hid under some debris and Mick couldn't see it at all!

Whilst walking the brook some rises where also spotted, where these the rises of trout?

Rumours have been heard of trout from the Nutt brook, but as yet these rumours have yet to be confirmed. Do any of you have photos that could prove the existance of trout in the Nutt brook, or even the Erewash?

There is more to come from the Erewash Restoration project, watch this blog, exciting times are ahead!

WTT Visit - August 19th 2008

The project was recently visited on the 19th of August by Tim Jacklin and Paul Gaskell of the Wild Trout Trust for advisory visit. Mick and Del of the project accompanied them along the project's stretch of the Erewash and Nutt brook.

The WTT report can be viewed at:

http://www.wildtrout.org/images/PDFs/AV2008/erewash2008.pdf

The report is very encouraging, and as the conclusions states:

1.0 Conclusion
This section of the River Erewash has habitat which is capable of supporting adult trout. Their absence is probably because of the following factors:
· intermittent water quality problems (as described in section 2.0)
· limited trout spawning habitat in the form of suitable gravel riffles because of the low gradient of the river, past river engineering works, and the flashy runoff regime
If trout populations could be found within the wider catchment and actions targeted at improving and extending these populations, then it may be possible to return wild trout to this section of the Erewash.

In short, with the projects's continued hard work and efforts the Erewash once again will be a river with it's own self sustaining wild trout population.

River Erewash Flood video

Whilst surfing through the net I came across a short video on You Tube featuring a flooded River Erewash, I can only presume it was filmed on the upper reaches near Pinxton, unless of course you know better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2eUeSw-7o