Small numbers of sea trout have swum against the odds to migrate upstream to their spawning grounds at the headwater of the river Rother in Kent.
The fish need high river flows to allow them to complete their ‘run’, which usually happens during the winter swell between November and January. The occasional sea trout may manage to swim upstream during the summer months, but very low flows means that is a rarity.
The drought conditions of recent months has meant that Rother’s flows were so low that the Agency’s Kent fisheries team struggled to even get their dinghy afloat in the first possible opportunity they had to monitor the river.
The feeling amongst the survey team was not hopeful – there were concerns that there may not have been a run at all.
The surprise was that whilst there were fewer fish than in previous years, all the fish were healthy and of reasonable size.
“It just goes to show how strong-willed these fish are,” said a spokesman for the EA. “This really is a case of nature overcoming all the odds.”
