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I've never been to the river Don; but I have read much about the conservation and reclamation work that's being done! Your statement saddened me! I agree there should be a law passed to put an end to the rubbish being dumped in to our river systems! An enforceable LAW.

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What kind of rubbish are we talking about Captain? Is it just morons throwing their crisp packets & coke cans in the river or is it more like indusrty causing the problem?

Fair play to all that help this great cause, i hope to get involved one day myself when i have more time.

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I had a feeling it would be. I caught some muppets dumping rubbish alongside the trent one day (was Barbel fishing). I challenged them as they doidn't look like the usual 'goa away or be stabbed' kind. They were embarrased and pointed out that the council in the area charged for them to dump their rubbish. That's why they were fly tipping.

I know that is no excuse but i know from where i live, it is hard to get rid of rubbish. The councils need to look at themselves and ask just how much does it cost them to clear up this fly tipping? Would it not be better to invest in more acessable tips?

P.S. i'm not defending these idiots.

I can empathize with you! We also have some mindless idiots in this area of south Wales, who continually fly tip in or alongside our rivers; and even if there is a charge for taking your rubbish to the tip! Surely a small charge is preferable to almost everyone. wouldn't that be better than just dumping it? In this area, if you take the rubbish yourself there is no charge! So there is no excuse! But there is another culprit - the contractor who is paid to remove rubbish who may have to pay a small site tipping charge, he would sometimes just to avoid paying what he's been payed to do, will fly tip complete truck-loads of rubbish where-ever and when-ever he can get away with it! Your so right - we need an enforceable Law. SOON.

I to have confronted people in the past dumping "household" type junk.In my area the council seem to have it wrong as well a couple of years ago i put a new kitchin in and borrowed an astra van to take the rubbish to my local tip , i wasnt allowed to tip because i had a van and therefore needed a permit ! This was with a van the size of an estate car!
It must cost councils more in clearing up fly tipping than allowing people to take it to a tip for nothing.
Perhaps they should collect for nothing (i think some do ) and try to educte.

I and my bf have fly fished the river don loads. The river around Thurgoland is very much like the upper Nidd around Dacre Banks. We fish it around Wortley, In the stocksbridge waters. Lots of grayling this autumn and winter but I have noticed that they seem to be much much smaller than they used to be mmmmm. We had a big polution about 3 years ago when someone dumped a load of oil in the don and it almost made me cry. The trees were black with it in the lower reaches around Kilnhurst, which I may add is normally a beautiful stretch. I had no idea where it actually came from ????

until the fishing club at kilnhurst put an iron gate across the major footpath, there were actually whole cars, most probably stolen, dumped straight into the river. Fly tipping goes off all the time. It looks like "cowboy" type building rubbish, plaster and stuff and also beds, settees etc.

It's a shame cos since the demise of the heavy industry in the area, the river was becoming a fantastic river to fish around Kilnhurst, loads of brownies, the odd salmon and sea trout, and the usual river course fish, loads and loads of chub. Once saw a man catch 11 brown trout and a shad ???? and saw a man catch a 3pnd 6 ounce brown trout erm on luncheon meat lol.

Anyway things seem to be picking up in a big way, but it only takes one thoughtless profiteering idiot to ruin it all again. Anyways we will see.

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I can't kill fish ohhhhh.

I used to Fish the River Sheaf in Sheffield which runs through SW Sheffield, through Millhouses Park, down Queens Road, under Bramhall lane and finally joins the Don. It was (and is!) a wonderful river and I did my undergraduate thesis (over 10 years ago now!) on the changes in River Quality from source to confluence. There were significant rubbish dumps and quality deteriorated as you neared Sheffield town centre... not rocket science!

I found some very interesting patterns - clearly non of them provable without significant further scientific input. At the time, there was a CSO (central sewer overflow) active which routinely used to dump raw sewage into the Sheaf in Millhouses park at times of high rainfall. My study showed that bizaarely the river had more life immediately down stream of the CSO - invertabrates mainly - and the trout thrived... except when the roads were heavily salted during bad winters which left you with only certain year group fish. I know there was talk of sorting the CSO out and i'm not sure if its been done?

I'm getting slightly off track here, but it is a wonderful place upstream of Millhouses and I wondered if anyone from the WTT had picked up on the River and its stocks? The trout are beautiful and I had a few decent sized specimens over the years i fished it. Has anyone else fished the Sheaf?

Thanks, Dan