Shopham Work Party 30th May

Since the last work party on 9th May, I have been up at Shopham quite a bit,  planting willows downstream from the bridge on both the north and south bank with the help of my partner Abby, and I have also built a new step for Shopham up stile making access a lot easier over it.

As mentioned previously a job I wanted to focus on was the willows just before the bend upstream of the bridge, but for this I needed a boat. Mick Greenway, our coordinator, suggested that the small boat from Hurston might be suitable, which luckily fitted perfectly on the back of my truck.

We had a turn out of 4 people including myself which is exactly what I needed.

I was the one to go in the boat and we spent 4 solid hours cutting back the willows and pulling out huge snags really opening  the area up and allowing it to be fished again There were a couple of willows that had become deep rooted in the centre of the river that we were unable to budge and they are still visible. If you do fish here  just be aware that they do spread under the water, but overall the area is much improved.

A huge thanks and great  credit should go to my team on the day; Martin Cornish, Mick Mills and David Gibson who did an amazing job, hoisting all the branches and logs from the river. As a team we certainly made a difference!

Hope you all enjoy your fishing up there this forthcoming season!

Steve Gray – Shopham Bailiff