The River Colne in West Yorkshire will be stocked with 5,000 grayling today (Friday 10th June) as part of efforts to return it to one of the best grayling rivers in the country.

Fish stocks in the River Colne were hit last year following a pollution incident, which damaged fish populations.

To help with the recovery of the river, fisheries officers at the Environment Agency will be stocking it with grayling to increase numbers of the species.

They will be doing this at locations from below Marsden down to Milnsbridge.
Peter Mischenko, fisheries technical officer at the Environment Agency said: “Grayling are a really important species, with anglers coming as far as Holland to fish for them in the River Colne. This stocking should help to boost numbers of this species in the river as part of an exercise that was started last year after the incident.”

The young grayling are nearly four months old and have been bred and grown at the Environment Agency's fish farm at Calverton in Nottinghamshire.
The eggs come from adults caught from North Yorkshire’s River Nidd back in March, and the young fish, known as fry, have been grown in a specially designed system that ensures they can thrive in the River Colne.

The fry will continue to grow in the river and some of them will begin to spawn themselves in the spring of 2013. It is hoped that by stocking these young fish over the next few years, the population of grayling in the river will
return to healthy numbers.

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Calverton Fish Farm is a major source of river coarse fish in the UK, producing chub, barbel, dace, roach, bream, tench, rudd, crucian carp and grayling. All of the fish produced at the site are used by the Environment Agency to replace stocks lost during fish kills and in the development of new fisheries throughout the length and breadth of the country.

The work at Calverton is funded by anglers purchasing fishing licences so, as well as contributing to the environmental benefits, anglers buying a rod licence will be improving the sport for future generations.