Trout and Grayling

The Brown Trout grow huge on scraps thrown in

So this week saw me traveling a little out of my local patch and going to the Peak District looking for Grayling spawning a member of the trout family they unlike salmon and brown trout spawn in the spring once the water starts to warm up and days get longer. Some huge brown trout were present and not camera shy for change normally they won't get close at all! all the images are screen grabs from filming.

While breeding they become so fixated with each other you can get very close to the fish

Here's a female Grayling other wise known as the lady of the stream sometimes seen as a pest to trout anglers i find them fabulous fish that deserve just as much admiration as brown trout.

The River Wye is one of the only rivers were rainbow trout breed in the UK.

Although the exact records are missing, it is believed that a consignment of very small fish was on its way to Scotland from the Washington state in the United States in 1910. for some reason they were put into a lake on the grounds of Ashford Hall to spend the winter. The river flooded that year and the rainbow trout found a new home.

The darker male and lighter female pairing up getting ready to breed. I'll be returning to get more footage of them hopefully breeding. While the Atlantic Salmon is the king of rivers the Grayling is called the lady of the stream and certainly deserves it title.

Even had a photobombing brown trout come into the video!

Video from last year of grayling

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

@JackPerksPhoto
Facebook: Jack Perks Photography
Website: www.jackperksphotography.com

Freshwater fish project funded!

Well I'm delighted to announce my kickstarter campaign has worked and my freshwater fish project will be going ahead!

Link to Kickstarter

The aim of the project is to put fish in the limelight and show them off as a valuable and interesting part of are natural fauna rather then just a meal for other wildlife. We have 54 species swimming in are freshwater (give or take a few migrant sea fish and alien species) the main focus will be filming our native species underwater showing behaviour we rarely get to see.

The money donated will go towards me travelling to venues all over the UK including Norfolk for Brook lamprey and Crucians, Welsh Boarders for Shad and the lake district for some rare glacial species. Themes for the film will include showing children mini species, helping a well known nature reserve uncover its fish species, catching a alien fish and sharing the plight of eels.

The film will be shown at a private cinema in Nottingham when completed and already having a few possible TV opportunities.

A short film highlighting threats and showing whats being done to combat them as well as experts talking about the state of our freshwater habitats. The main aim to film as many species as possible as species like Salmon and Pike are often shown but lots of other species rarely get a mention like spined loach or gudgeon?

Here's 28 species I've already filmed

If you'd like to get involved theres a number of ways

• Donate/Sponsor - if you have a company that would like to sponsor us you can still give and have the option to have your company appear in the end credits of the film. If you'd still like to give money just to support the project then you can still give directly to me

• Locations - If you know of a good clear water venue to film fish (particularly the rarer species) then chances are I'd be interested in knowing!

• Media - I'll be doing allot of filming but would be good to have a second camera so if you want the experience to work on this project then get in touch. Editors, Researchers and other roles welcome!

• Spread the word! - This ones free and little effort, just tweet, facebook, email ,blog or good old fashioned chat to people about the project and see if others can help! 

Grayling & Pike in the Peak District

Grayling other wise known as the lady of the stream are a truly beautiful fish and a member of the trout family. One of the things I've started doing is trying to capture fish behaviour in this case males competing for the prime position and females.

This grayling bumped into the camera a few times! normally they can be quite a shy fish

This male had chased all others away and stayed in this area for a while

Grayling Fighting Video

Not to far away in Cromford Canal there are good numbers of pike

I was a bit unsure what they eat as the only other fish i saw was a brown trout which was actually bigger then the pike and attacked them!

The pike seemed to be gathering for breeding and the pike in the canal also seemed a bit smaller then there river cousins likely because of habitat size and food availability.

Hints -

- Take it slowly the fish are very spooky!
- Visibility is everything and you need it to get the clear shots
- Make sure you wash off after as there are plenty of nasty diseases in rivers like weils disease



www.jackperksphotography.com

Stoney Cove Diving

Stoney cove is a large freshwater dive site located in Leicestershire that holds a few species of fish like pike, roach and perch as well as the endangered White clawed crayfish. i was looking to photographing mainly pike and crayfish although the water was 7 degrees so most of the smaller fish and crayfish had gone to deeper water waiting for hr shallows to warm up.  

This video is shot on a GoPro with a eye of mine housing of the dive and little bit of comedy to!

because of the sunshine and it being a sunday the lake was very busy this meant the water was quite crowded and bit murky so the photography side of things didn't go quite as well.

Hints-
- Try going mid week when their are less people in the water
- Sunny days are best to maximise the amount of natural light
- Approach the fish from below slowly for best results