Planned projects

At Bintry Mill we have always pursued a policy of ongoing habitat improvement to the river and its banks for the benefit of  the wild fish population. Historically most of this has been funded from members’ contributions and much of the hard work has been carried out by our enthusiastic corps of unpaid volunteers, although we have received some additional funding from third party organisations. We have worked closely with The Environment Agency, Natural England and the Norfolk Rivers Trust in the past to improve the river, deal with pollution incidents and maintain the water in good order.

We have received Environment Agency approval for our latest channel improvement project, a bed raising exercise designed to create new fish spawning gravels, speed up flows to a significant stretch of river and create variation and fry refuges. This will be our most ambitious project to date and follows on from a similar improvement carried out two years ago, and which has proven very successful.

 

Before: This stretch of river was deep and slow, having been over-dredged in the past. There was little flow variation or cover for fish and wildlife. The restoration will involve large quantities of stone placed into a re-designed channel and extensive tree planting on the banks to create shade.

 

Now completed, the new gravel spawning bed has totally transformed the river over about 50 metres. Fish have already colonised the new gravel, mostly minnows and a few small trout. Once more woody debris is added to the gravel, immature fish will feel much safer and hopefully adult trout will use the area for spawning over the winter. Following a major silt pollution incident several years ago the river is now very short of spawning gravel for trout. The club is working hard to remedy this with projects like this one, but funding is still coming mostly from members’ subscriptions and their free labour.

 

After: The gravel work is now complete and has totally transformed about 50 metres of river, with the knock-on effects apparent for some distance downstream. There is still work to do to provide shade and cover for fish, but the hard (and expensive) part is done. This project was partly funded by the Environment Agency’s Fisheries Improvement Programme.

 

View the full project PDF

 

Ongoing habitat improvement

As well as the major bed raising projects the club has undertaken over the past two years, the day to day business of keeping up with changing climate and river conditions has continued and a major priority is to retrieve as much lost spawning gravel as possible.

A whole new gravel riffle on the County School beat has created about 100 metres of new spawning gravel for trout and dramatically increased the flow variation over that distance.

 

The summer of 2025 suffered from exceptionally low water levels and flows. Additionally, the heavy silt deposits resulting from a major bank breach several years ago has coated much of the spawning gravel in the upper reaches of the river. These flow deflectors are beginning to scour some of that silt to expose the gravel. Hopefully this will increase as winter rains provide more water.