We were on the River Stinchar yesterday undertaking a control programme for Japanese knotweed. Annually the Board collects a levy from anglers/angling clubs and syndicates which is then used to facilitate management, projects and monitoring across the catchment to the collective good of the river, proprietors and anglers as well as the fish and other species that depend on the river. On behalf of the Board we are again undertaking the control of JK across the catchment.
The Board is supporting the Trust annually to deliver strategic control of JK across the catchment. With water levels far too big for electrofishing we opted to have a team of three out injecting JK. Rain stops a lot of our work but unlike spraying injection isn’t an issue under most conditions, so we donned the jackets and had productive session working between Hallowchapel and Asselfoot. We still have more control to undertake this year and will continue to chip away at untreated stands and double check some of the areas treated in previous seasons.
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- A biggish water going down but to my eye still quite fishable and not too coloured.
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- Hallowchapel – the junction with the Duisk and the Stinchar and there were a few fish on the move yesterday.
We stem inject exclusively nowadays rather than spray any plants as our experience is that sprayed stands will invariably come back given sufficient recovery time. This suggests spraying doesn’t always kill the plant entirely whereas injection does seem to eradicate the plant.
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- As I arrived yesterday this was the view down the valley – very moody and picturesque but I knew I was in for a soaking!
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- Injected stems – a neat dose of roundup is injected directly into the stem of every plant. Labour intensive but very effective.
