While the prime focus of the Foundation’s projects has been Atlantic salmon and brown trout, our work benefits a wide range of fish species in both rivers. This is especially the case in our work to improve water quality and prevent soil erosion.
However, earlier this year we started our first project whose primary beneficiaries are the Wye’s coarse fish.
Surveys & Analysis
Within the Environment Agency Coarse fish Habitat (EACH) project, we have started to analyse Fishing Passport catch returns from the last five years to establish coarse fish species and stocks in the English section of the Wye.
We will then compare the results with physical features in the river such as woody debris, weed beds, willow margins and deep, slow sections. This will help us determine which sections of river have good or bad stocks of coarse fish and why.
This summer we will also carry out habitat and electrofishing surveys to confirm the results and help us further to identify sections of river in need of improvement.
Habitat Improvement
EACH will enable us to improve habitat in three sites with poor coarse fish stocks and identify two further sites to improve in future projects.
Hopefully barbel, chub and pike anglers will be as excited about EACH as we are!
We are very grateful to our partners the Environment Agency for helping to finance the project.
