This has been a difficult year for anglers on the River Idle. The extreme summer temperatures and prolonged drought led to low water levels, high water temperatures and an explosion of in-river weed growth. To conserve precious water the Environment Agency held back their weed cutting programme as the weed beds slow down the rivers flow and thus conserve the water. Needless to say these factors all compound to make it a summer to forget for anglers on many waters not just the River Idle.

In contrast throughout the winter months heavy rainfall has led to swollen river levels which make angling difficult. As with farmers we anglers are either complaining of too little rain or too much! This has led to patchy sport and a drop off in angling effort compared to recent years.

Despite the vagaries of our changing climate some individual successes have been given to me. A pike of 18lbs was caught on a spinner and only this week (mid-February) a solitary angler caught barbel of 7lb. 7lb 8oz and 9lb 4oz and lost others. A few weeks earlier I met on the bank-side a member who said he had experienced a “poor year” as he had only caught 84 barbel which was down on the previous season.

It would help if your successes on the river could be reported to Ron Trevis or me. We promise to respect your privacy and not to reveal the location of your catches unless you give us permission to do so. Every so often you really need other angler's results to give you the encouragement to fish and try something different.

By the time you read this newsletter the coarse fishing season may have ended on the River Idle but during the last two or three weeks of the season, providing it stops raining, good sport should be had on this splendid but frustrating river.