The Torridge Fishery Association have been successfully running a hatchery on the River Torridge for at least six years. One of the highlights is the stocking out of the fry each spring and I was delighted to join them with our son James to introduce this year’s successful brood.
Close to 30,000 fry were successfully reared this year. James and I joined Charles Inniss on a stretch of the Lew that has seen a recent improvement in habitat. Locations are carefully chosen where salmon have not recently spawned in the hope that the salmon will one-day return to repopulate the area.
It is virtually impossible to evaluate success of this project, as any fry that survive in the long term will not return to river for another four years. It would be good to think that at least a couple of these tiny fry could survive to return.
