Peover Eye working party Wednesday 19/11/2025
8 people attended the working party on Peover Eye today 19th Nov. We managed to carry the timber for the second bridge down to the bottom of Amsterdam Covert and install across the small stream. The stream runs off the field and has cut a deep channel into the river. We also started the construction of a leaky dam to slow the flow of water and allow sediment to settle above the dam.
At the bridge that was completed earlier this year we have started constuction of a trench to divert the water away from the slope and next week will start constructing some steps down to the bridge.
Thanks to those who attended.
Cheshire Game and Country Fare 24/25th August 2025.
The Cheshire Game and Country Fare takes place at Cheshire Show ground, Tabley, Cheshire, WA16 0AH. The club will be attending and some of our members with also be helping out on the North West Fly Dressers stand in the angling marquee.
Fish and Fishing of the River Mersey by David J Salomon
AGM 5th March 2025
The Club AGM will be held on the 5th March 2025 at the Hall at Marthall, Sandlebridge Lane, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 7SB. Doors open at 6.30 pm for a 7.30 pm start. There are refreshments available and we have a number of speaker including Sal Potts from BEACON, Keith Hendry from Mersey Rivers Trust, Mark Egerton from the Angling Trust, Andrew Wolfenden from the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust, and Peter Birch on Water Q.uality and Invertabrates.
Semperfli Roadshow 1st Feb.
A date for your diary. Semperfli have the latest Popup Road Show on the 1st February at the Victoria Hall in Mobberley. There will be all of the range of tying materials and a number of tyers from their Pro Team. They have asked for local tyers and the Bollin and Birkin club along with the North West Fly Dressers Guild will be providing members on the day. Check out the link to the Semperfli promotion.
North West Mobberley (Knutsford) Pop Up Roadshow Feb 1st 2025
Office for Environmental Protection upholds WildFish complaint | Wildfish
Cheshire Game and Country Fare 25/26th August 2024.
The Cheshire Game and Country Fare takes place at Cheshire Show ground, Tabley, Cheshire, WA16 0AH. The club will be attending and some of our members with also be helping out on the North West Fly Dressers stand in the angling marquee.
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At Sundays Cheshire Game and Angling Fare we will be joined by Paul Brown who will be assisting Phil and Bernie in the casting arena. Paul is qualified with the Game Anglers Association (GAIA) and Fly Fishers International (FFI) Worldwide, he holds the Advanced Qualifications from GAIA in single handed and Double Handed casting. He also holds the Two Handed Master Casting Instructor and the Single Master Casting Instructor qualification from the FFI. This fare gets better and better so lets hope to meet up on Sunday at Peover.
Cheshire Game and Angling Fare 4th August 2024.
A date for your diary.
The Cheshire Game and Angling Fair takes place on Sunday 4th August at Peover Hall, Over Peover, Knutsford, Cheshire, England, WA16 9HW
Bollin and Birkin Flyfishers along with the Northwest Branch of the Fly Dressers Guild will be at the show again for our third year. We will have a club display and fly tying demonstrations in the Angling Marquee.
Phil Ratcliffe will be giving two fly casting demonstration in the main arena in the morning and on the casting platform on the lake in the afternoon.
We will also have a casting area by the side of the Marquee for the public to have a go and they will be coached by Phil and Bernie Ratcliffe who are both casting instructors.
I hope club members can join us and enjoy the multitude of events taking place.
Angling – Cheshire Game & Angling Fair (cheshiregameandanglingfair.co.uk)
Water Quality Testing and more
The club has received funding from United Utilities and they will be providing 4 Water Quality Testing Kits purchased from The Angling Trust and 4 Biosecurity packs supplied by The Mersey Rivers Trust. These kits will be used by club members to monitor the Bollin, Birkin and Mobberley Brook and the results will be posted on the Epicollect app.
The Angling Trust has launched the WQMN to engage angling clubs in better understanding the problems on their waters, to support the delivery of effective solutions that restore our rivers to a healthy state, and to help the Angling Trust hold the government to account, ensuring it lives up to its rhetoric on improving our environment and meeting its own legal responsibilities.
The club will also receive 3 display boards to be used at the Cheshire Game and Angling Fare at Peover and the Cheshire Game and Country Fare at Tabley. These fares take place on the 4th August and the 25th and 26th August respectively. The boards will carry information about the clubs activities and include maps and work carried out on the waters we fish and there will be one board used to display the Entomology from kick samples and Water Quality Testing results that are carried out in house.
AGM Wednesday 6th March 2024.
The 2024 AGM will be held on Wednesday 6th March at The Hall at Marthall, Sandlebridge Lane, Knutsford, WA16 7SB. Start time 7.00 pm. There will be a number of speakers and an update of the clubs activities during 2023. An email will be sent with information of the agenda and details of membership renewal. Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be available on the night. It will be a good night to put faces to names and to catch up on members activities last season and plans for the 2024 season.
Peover Eye Grayling Fishing
After consideration it has been decided to allow FLY FISHING on Peover Eye through until 15th March 2024 due to the presence of Grayling.
As this is a new water we would like to monitor the total catch returns of members to evaluate the potential of this new water.
Maximum hook size 12.
I would ask members to report their total catch each visit either by the Facebook page or direct to me at alanwhittingham@btinternet.com so we can assess what fish species are being caught.
The River Bollin and Peover Hall lake are both course fisheries and can be fished, observing the closed season of the 15th March, fly, float and spin but observing a NO GROUDBAIT rule.
Tight lines.
Cheshire Game and Country Fair Sunday 27th and Monday 28th August 2023.
The fair takes place over the Bank Holiday weekend at the Tabley Showground Near Knutsford. WA16 0HJ.
The club has been asked by the Northwest Fly Dressers Guild to take part and put on a display like at the Peover Show earlier in the month. I have accepted on behalf of the club and as some of our members are also members of the Guild we will be able to cover both activities over the two days. The Angling Marquee will also have tackle retailers and there will be casting demonstrations and public participation with assistance from casting instructors.
I hope that members can come along and support the fair over the bank holiday and it will be a good chance to meet members of both clubs.
Cheshire Game and Angling Fair Sunday 6th August 2023
A date for your diary.
The Cheshire Game and Angling Fair takes place on Sunday 6th August at Peover Hall.
Bollin and Birkin Flyfishers along with the Northwest Branch of the Fly Dressers Guild will be at the show again for our second year. We will have a club display and fly tying demonstrations in the Angling Marquee.
Phil Ratcliffe will be giving two fly casting demonstration in the main arena in the morning and on the casting platform on the lake in the afternoon.
We will also have a casting area by the side of the Marquee for the public to have a go and they will be coached by Phil and Bernie Ratcliffe who are both casting instructors.
I hope club members can join us and enjoy the multitude of events taking place.
Extra Parking at Peover Eye
We have agreed a new parking area at the Cheshire Forest Kennels, Peover Park, WA16 9HW. Instead of taking the centre road into the hall and stables bear to the left and then take the first turning on the left onto the drive for the kennels. Go passed the house on the right and the kennels on the left and on into the field at the end of the drive. If you have to go through any closed gates please make sure you close them after you. Parking is on the left hand side of the field. If there are horses in the field there is a parking area just at the end of the drive on the left. Go to the bottom of the field into the left hand corner and through to take you down to the river. This is near to the top of the beat.
This is another good parking spot and is also the home of Frazer, who looks after the dogs, so please make sure you close all gates and park responsibly.
BOLLINANDBIRKINFLYFISHERS952011422.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM
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Peover Eye Parking
The club has managed to arrange extra parking for Peover Eye. The owner of the greenhouses off Long Lane, WA16 8XD, has kindly allowed for a maximum three vehicles to park at the bottom of the access road that runs along side the greenhouses. The vehicles must not block access to the field or the greenhouse entrance and if three vehicles are already there then parking would be at the church and hall car park.
This parking will give closer access to the bottom half of the beat.
Walk down the side of the field untill you reach an access gate on your left just before the treeline bears to the right.
Turning to the right and following the path takes you into Amsterdam Covert.
Straight down into the small valley you will see a plank foot bridge crossing of the small Brook. Cross here and go to the top of the small valley and you will pick up the path which take you to Spinney Wood to the right.
The map on the website shows this area detail.
This is a great parking asset for the club so please be considerate when using this facility.
Please display your parking permit.
AGM Post on Mersey Rivers Trust Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/merseybasin/permalink/2471011726396630/
The BBFA AGM 2023
This year’s AGM 2023 will be held on 1st March 2023 at the Hall at Marthall, near Knutsford and the doors will be open from 7.00pm and the meeting will start at 7.30pm.
The Hall at Marthall, Sandlebridge Lane, Marthall, Knutsford, WA16 7SB
I look forward to meeting present and new members at the meeting for a catch up over sandwiches and a drink.
Latest update from Peter Birch.
River Survey results 2022
Hi All,
Another sampling season has come to an end. It is also the first year that I have been able to sample for the whole season. With 126 separate surveys of many types over 304 hours and with the unwilling help of well over 48,000 invertebrates taken in the 46 Kick Samples. The results of which, along with current population distribution and abundance can be found at https://birchpeter99.wixsite.com/birkin-wildlife by clicking the River Samples Results tab.
Not only that, but we have now been sampling and recording for 5 years.
A lot has changed from when we started in 2017. The very poor start of this period, has been improving year on year and achieved the highest scores again this year. This year has also seen the first year of more accurate analysis of Phosphates, Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia.
Riverfly Yearly Overall Average scores in 2016 were as low as 2.1, in 2017 when we started sampling, reached 9 and continued to climb, reaching a comfortable 12.9 this year. (See graph below). Although buoyed up by some very high scores with the inclusion of Peover Eye (which had a high score of 19 at one point), these scores have been compensated down by the poor scoring of the River Bollin which has fallen dramatically since the arrival of the invasive Deamon Shrimp only 2 years ago.
The Overall Conservation value has risen from Moderate to Fairly High as the species (currently over 135 species recorded), both in variety and numbers have improved on most waters excluding the River Bollin, whose diversity and population densities have been devastated with the arrival of the Deamon Shrimp. I can’t stress enough the importance of cleaning and drying all equipment and waders after fishing the River Bollin, before going to any other waters, to stop the spread of this river changing invader.
The water quality and Oxygen content has remained good throughout and the Sand sedimentation is gradually improving in the upstream areas, along with drastically improved Siltation amounts throughout.
Other changes that have occurred during this time is the loss of Water Crowfoots weed from the Birkin Brook, the last vestiges of which where washed away in the floods of 2019. This has been replaced by Spiked Water Milfoil, which although already present, is filling the empty spaces accordingly. Spiked Water Milfoil is more pollution tolerant than Water Crowfoots which is not the best of signs, but better than no water weed at all. Conversely Helobdella stagnalis, a pollution tolerant leech, has not been recoded since 2019 and has been replaced by species that require cleaner water.
A more holistic approach has been undertaken each year, including this year especially and more are planned for next year onwards. These include;
a] Combining the kick sample and swarm counts along with surface observations for invertebrates.
b] Terrestrial Invertebrate surveys
c] Riverbed type distribution surveys on Beat 1 and 2.
d] Cross section, velocity and flow for each water system
e] Aquatic and semi aquatic water plants
f] Diatoms, Algae and Fungus species, though this is one for slow outrun as my learning is slower in this area
g] Bankside Vegetation and surrounding Vegetation
h] Surface and Bedrock geology
i] Chemical analysis for Ammonia, Phosphate, Nitrate, Nitrite, Sodium Nitrate, Turbidity, pH and Temperature
On a chemical front Ammonia levels are low to very low across the board, but we are still running with high Phosphate levels on Birkin Brook and very high Phosphate levels on Mobberley Brook and River Bollin, whose primary causes seem to come from sewage disposal measures, or the lack of them. As well as Very high Nitrate levels on Mobberley Brook and River Bollin. Despite this the water ecology is improving to the point that the Blue Winged Olives, a useful indicator of excessive Phosphate levels, due to its absence in Phosphate polluted systems, is still thriving in our waters thus far.
From knowing virtually nothing about river wildlife and ecology in 2017, I have had the pleasure of learning so much as time has passed with still much more yet to learn. Here’s to the next 5 years.
Peover Eye
On the Articles page there is an article by Mike Handyside about the Birkin Brook, and I informed Mike about it now being re published on the club site. He thanked me for the link to the web site and also gave me some information about the history of the Eye that he remembers from when he fished it as boy and young man. This is the relevant information he relayed to me, and the oxbow lake can be seen on the map.
“Just for your info, if you look at the lower end you will see an oxbow lake (pond) in Great Wood (Amsterdam Wood). Here fish (presumably trout) were reared sometime around the turn of the 19th century. I am one of the last people alive to know that, but now someone else knows! A modern field drain runs in today.
The stretch below was then run as a private fishery for a wealthy family from (I think) Heaton Norris. They had the estate for holidays. There were metal gratings across the brook at your downstream limit and at the mill to stop larger trout moving stretch! Again, another cut off meander provided a rearing pond for fish. We should be allowed to do that nowadays!
Best wishes Mike”
Cheshire Game and Angling Fair Sunday 7th August 2022
A great day was had by all at the Peover Fair on Sunday. The stand in the Angling Tent was manned by Peter Birch and Terry Dudley with a bit of help from yours truly and members of the Fly Dressers Guild, Dave Palmer, Donald Couper and Mike Warburton. We had lots of interest throughout the day in the clubs activities and the skills of the fly tiers.
Outside we had a casting area for the public to try out and Bernie and Phil Ratcliffe helped to instruct in the finer arts of putting out a line. Lots of people took up the opportunity and even the Presidents children had a go. Phil also gave a demonstration of single hand casting at 12.30pm and double hand casting at 15.10pm and both sessions went down very well.
For our first attempt at a show to represent the club I thought we did very well with no problems and good remarks from the public.
Bollin and Birkin Flyfishers 