Salmon caught on the Don ? A photo by the EA of a sea trout caught in the tidal Don ? What was once the most poluted network of rivers in Europe ?
Well to be fair, I heard this story and saw a photograph in the "Star" newspaper a few years ago, (about 1994) of a fisher holding a salmon of about 8pnds. He had caught this while spinning for pike around St Mary's bridge in Doncaster. Now I was browsing through a few articles on the internet by the EA about the return of migratory fish to the South Yorkshire river Don network. It stated that fish had been seen attempting to leap the weir at Sprotborough. This has got to be really exciting news, but to be honest, I have looked over Hooton Bridge near Kilnhurst on the river Don on many an occasion and haven't seen anything resembling migratory fish leaping the old broken down weir on the Elm Tree farm stretch. Even during and after a spate, but the reports of migratory fish being seen are increasing. One observation was reported in the "Star" again about migratory fish leaping in the river Sheaf.

This is marvelous news. Some commentators have said that migratory fish haven't been seen, up until recent times, for 200 years. I remember my father telling me they used to chase eels and try to catch trout in the river Sheaf during the second world war. The river, above the confluence with the Rother has held life of some kind, well back to the 1960s. I know it's mainly anecdotal evidence but my grandfather said they used to find sticklebacks trapped in water they had pumped out of the Don at one of the Ickles works just above Rotherham. There have been loads of hoglouse, leeches, sticklebacks in there around the area above rotherham as far back as 1974 .

The clean up of the middle reaches below Rotherham seemed to coincide with the closure of the Orgreave chemical and coke producing works on the Rother. It was noticable by the sudden return of water crowsfoot below the confluence with the rother. In 1989, course anglers caught numerous roach and minnows at the back of the Tesco supermarket below the weir in Rotherham South Yorkshire. lower down the river, anglers began to catch fish right through Kilnhurst and Mexborough. Mainly gudgeon and roach. Then as most of us know, the steel works at Templeborough closed along with Dumford Hadfields and other steel works higher up the river.

The fishing then appeared to improve even further when in 1991, barbel and chub were reported being caught below the large weir at Kilnhurst, opposite Thrybergh. Then in 1992 or around that time, small barbel were stocked at Sprotborough. during the 1990s the river Don improved further, where the barbel became larger, fishing matches were being won with weights in excess of 20 pnds and barbel and chub were being caught, in pockets all along the middle and lower reaches of the Don. Bream to over 4pnds, gudgeon, large shoals fo dace, chub and roach became predominant along stretches of the Don. Brown trout, in this middle part of the Don were being caught. Where a report came through of one fisher catching 11 brown trout in one three hour session, below Hooton bridge at Kilnhurst. Then there was a setback, around 5 years ago, the river received a polution from Oil and deisal. Where the thick black oil could be seen, sticking to the trees, three to four feet up the bank side. The river has recovered since this setback, to the extent that double figure barbel have been caught, 5pnd chub, and brown trout to over 3pnds. This May has seen an abundance of water crows foot and a new weed that I have not seen before in the river, and I think it is called starwort. The river looks cleaner than I have ever seen it in the middle reaches. You can clearly see the gravel on the bottom of the river. However there is a smell of detergent, especially below the weirs. Anyways, looking at the river in June 2011, there is no reason at all, why it should not hold migratory fish. Times are looking good. Maybe a well documented salmon or sea trout catch will hit the press, caught by someone deliberately fishing for them and not by accident, fishing for pike, tight lines everyone.

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I can't kill fish ohhhhh.

The improvements to water quality (and blocking of proposed open-cast mining projects) from the cesspit days of the 70's and 80's on the Don can in large part be attributed to the tireless efforts and campaigns of people like Gerald Stocks (sadly passed away in 2008), Chris Firth of the E.A. and that man Stuart Crofts. This intense and prolonged pressure (taking it all the way to the houses of Parliament on many occasions) resulted in a number of commendable investments/improvements to water treatment (both in private industrial sites and municipal water treatment works). Without that investment coming about through years of lobbying pressure, the river would still be dead below Penistone.

The South Yorks S&TA branch (that Gerald founded and remained as figurehead president right up to his death) and, more recently, the WTT "Trout in the Town" group (SPRITE) are trying to continue that legacy of work and extend it further downstream. Water quality (through Angler's Monitoring initiative trained volunteers), native plants (through planting schemes and invasive plant species control) and fly tipping are all being tackled by these local stakeholder groups.

There are somewhere in the region of 30 really "significant" barriers to migratory (and resident) fish passage on the Don system (with many more ones only passable under very high water conditions). Neil Trudgill of the E.A. fisheries department is working to tackle these barriers where possible and the recently constituted "Don Rivers Catchment Trust" is also working on the problem of longitudinal connectivity. The Don catchment trust recently sourced and stocked many thousands of elvers (as well as working to install eel passes).

I suppose the obvious take home message is that the improvements to the Don system are no accident and there are many, many people and groups working very hard to keep progress going in the right direction. If you ever run into Stuart Crofts you will not meet a more humble/self deprecating person; but he has put several lifetimes' worth effort into hassling various authorities and painstakingly trawling through water quality data (obtained via freedom of information act requests) and "accidentally on purpose" covering MP's nice clothes with orange sediment when he has dragged them up from London to look at the Bullhouse minewater discharge. He has also put himself in harm's way many times (when he used to work for Corus Steel works he would regularly blow the whistle on any "off colour" discharging practices, risking his job in the process. He also put himself forward for direct occupation/peaceful protest duties with greenpeace). It is probably worth buying Stuart and Chris Firth a drink if you've ever caught a fish on the Don.

Iwithdrawn etc

Nice one Ian,

As a note- SPRITE have committed to keep their stretch "open access" so that there will always be an opportunity to fish there whoever you are. We might ask you for a catch return (and welcome the odd small donation if you have enjoyed your day) - but we won't stop you fishing by any legal method.

PG

I think it's wonderful that those guys protested against the poluted river Don and its network.

However there was another man, who very rarely or if ever gets a mention, who sat on the river bank in the centre of Rotherham, in the 1970s, almost every 16th of june, protesting against the poluted Don. I think they called him Joe Parker. He must have been in his 60s then.

I wouldn't put the improvement in water quality soley down to the E/A or it's predecessor the NRA. I can't really remember reading any successful prosecutions brought forward by either of these two organisations, with regards to poluters on the river Don. I am sure you can put me right on that score. The E/A did a great job though stocking the river and monitoring the water quality prior to stocking, I would point the improvement of the water quality, mostly at the closure of most of the steel industry and the coal mines and their subsequent related works. It's not just a coincidence that the closure of all those steel works and coal mines etc resulted in a vast improvement in water quality in the river Don and Rother.

I just hope it continues to improve. Someone said to me though, just cos it looks clear and full of weed does not mean that it is a healthy river. Lots of weed and the yellowing of some underwater plants means that there is a high concentration of nitrates and other polutants. There are still unmentionable things floating down the river and when the Don goes into spate, it smells just like it did during the 1970s. I also noticed a horrible froth on top of the river at Sprotborough and some efluent coming out of the sewage works at swinton. I will have to read up on what the E/A are doing about that. The river above sheffield at Oughterbridge looks really good and the grayling there prove that it is in a reasonably healthy condition up above sheffield. I just hope the Don continues to improve. I have a fear though that at the moment, it could have levelled off and reached a stage where improvement to water quality, will slow down dramatically. Like you said, Corus or TA TA are still operating on the river. As for Himalayan bolsom; what damage does it do and all that bamboo ?

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I can't kill fish ohhhhh.

Hi Andrea - its important to separate out the different departments within the E.A. as they all have different (sometimes not very compatible) priorities. The campaigning for the river from a fisheries point of view is hugely indebted to Chris Firth (now retired). But it is also important to recognise the water quality improvements brought about by massive investments into improving water treatment works (the so called "Asset management plan" or "AMP" cycle). This would be very unlikely to go ahead without government body (E.A.) enforcement (in contrast to self regulation). Plans to make future government bodies more hands off (and less able to undertake enforcement/regulatory roles) will probably not be good news in that respect...

In terms of Himalayan Balsam (and Japanese knotweed) - they out-compete our native plants by growing so fast and shading their competitors until nothing else can grow. The invasive plants then die back in winter - leaving bare, loose earth. This is then leaves the riverbank very vulnerable to being washed away in spate flows (often dumping lots of silt onto spawning gravels - killing the trout, grayling and barbel etc. before they can hatch out of their eggs). The loss of really diverse native plant communities also reduces the diversity of insects that depend on those plants. This is bad for the supply of insect prey for fish.

A bit more detail is available here in section 3.1.1 on this link:
http://www.wildtrout.org/images/PDFs...ur%20river.pdf

The invertebrate monitoring being done by SPRITE and the Upper Don flyfishers indicates that the water is of reasonable quality down into the city (it actually improves in some short sections downstream of Oughtibridge in the more urban areas!). Invertebrate and plant communities are great indicators of pollution (whether visible or invisible pollutants are involved). This is because they don't get a "day off" and have to live in the river year round (24/7) - and are not confined to sampling the water in short "snapshots" which may well miss a pollution event. Invertebrates and plants are also not very mobile (compared to fish) so they have no choice but to be whacked by any nasty chemicals coming down the river (again giving good indication of when a problem has occurred).

The fishing on the waters around S6 is so good that you would not believe how bad it was. The quality of fish and fishing is equally good as many fishery managed waters I have cast a fly on.
A lot of this is down to continous lobbying by certain individuals already mentioned and the plus point here is that anyone can help with the continous improvement of the river by joining S.P.R.I.T.E.
Why not drop Paul G or myself a p.m or come down on a Tuesday evening to wet a line. All welcome and we are free to all for nil cost. Tackle can be loaned to new starters.