RT- Thank you Feargal for generously giving your time, let's kick off with who introduced you to fly fishing and when did you catch your first grayling?

FS - I was educated in Derry, Ireland by the Christian Brothers who had a very distinct ethos that the school day did not end at 3.30pm, that was the opportunity to join Clubs and mine were Gaelic Football, Hurling, Fly Fishing and Fly Tying. I was not born with this nose it was finely sculptured at the end of a Hurling stick. At age 10 I could hop on a bus in Derry and in 20 minutes I would be on the bank of the River Fughan with a good chance of catching a Trout or a salmon or 40 minutes in the other direction I would be at the confluence of the Rivers Finn and Mourne where there is still a chance today of taking a salmon. I was spoiled as sitting on the bank of a canal throwing bread into roach was not for me when I could so easily be on the bank of a river. My first grayling was many years after as they are not sought after in Ireland, which was in the early 80's when I fished the English chalk streams. I became a Society member for the first time then though I let my membership lapse before rejoining some years later. My biggest grayling so far, is a 3-pound fish I captured on the Test about 10 years ago. Fishing for me has become more about being outside in the countryside and catching a few fish is a bonus.

RT- Do you still tie your own flies, and do you have a favourite Grayling fly?

FS - I do, having learned at school, I recall the first fly I tied was a bloody butcher using mallard feathers and as for grayling a Pink Shrimp and a couple of gold heads will do nicely thank you very much.

RT - How often do you get to fish and where is your favourite venue?

FS - I fish a lot as I have been Chairman of Amwell Magna Fishery for over 6 years, my only fishing Club and we have a private river valley forty minutes from my home in North London which is not over fished by our sixty members. On a Sunday morning I can have a couple of hours on the river and be back home for lunch before I am missed. I fish the chalk streams half a dozen times a year, but I have not become a member anywhere else as it is too far to be driving and I would be just taking a rod that someone else could make more use of. I have fished all over the world, but my favourite spot is the Tuolumne Valley, eight thousand feet up in the Californian Rockies, they had a bit of a gold rush up there in the 1850's but now they have silver in the form of land locked salmon. Difficult to get up there but really worth the effort, the salmon feed in the reservoir and then migrate back up the river to breed.

RT - Does your wife or any of your children fish?

FS - They are not really interested in fishing though they do like the social side of it, I have tried to interest them and each of them has had a go but a good lunch after is more attractive. My daughter came to a social event on the river to help out and she took the opportunity to have a lesson from well known fly fisherman Neil Patterson, she did very well and caught some trout but has not taken it up.

RT - During your life in the music industry did you take your fly rod on tour and can you recall the best fishing adventure you experienced?

FS - While I was a member of the Undertones I had a ten-year gap from fishing until during a long weekend off I rediscovered my passion for it. I recall as a music industry executive I was invited to go to Washington DC to address an international copyright lawyers conference at the Ronald Reagan Conference Centre and to be honest I had no real motivation to go until I realised if I flew over on the Friday I could go fishing and deliver the speech on the Monday. I hired a car and went to North Pennsylvania trout fishing over the weekend, it all worked out very well and even the lawyers were happy. I had a business commitment on one occasion in Austin, Texas which is difficult to get to without a layover, so I arranged to stay in San Antonio and fish the Guadalupe River which is the southernmost trout river in America.

RT - What were the standout moments of your time in the Music Industry?

FS- I worked hard as an artist and every day was different throughout my time in the industry. I have the greatest admiration for people who work in a factory environment, I could not do it. I was blessed to work in an industry that gave me so much and to which I owe so much. I was honoured by her late Majesty and presented with an OBE by the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace. I cannot discuss what we talked about when she presented it to me, but I can say that we did not talk about fishing. The day was memorable for the trip to the Palace and a very nice lunch for my wife and two youngest children. I am a member of the Fly Fishers Club in London and King Charles remains our President, the conversations when I go there for lunch will always revolve around fishing and lead to some good swap days on members waters.

RT - Do you recall the incident that was the catalyst motivating your conservation campaigning?

FS - That would be about 6 years ago when I became Chairman of Amwell Magna, and the River Lea was having serious flow issues. The Club had been talking to the Environment Agency (EA) for 15 years with the situation getting worse, we had two and a half miles of eutrophication so with the backing of Fish Legal we took the EA to the steps of the High Court, and I was banging on the doors to be let in. The EA realised we were bloody serious, and steps were taken to improve the flow which is now solved. With that experience I thought if sixty ladies and gents with the backing of Fish Legal had to go to the High Court to sort out that problem what else is there going on. That gave me an itch and every time I scratched it just got bigger, the more I scratched the bigger it got. Every single river in England is polluted, 70% of that caused by the water industry and agriculture, the regulators ought to be ashamed of their performance and track record. For three decades they had all been doing nothing but say what they are going to do. The water companies produce water resources management plans every 5 years and give them to the regulators, this is what they say they are going to do but it does not happen even though they have a duty to protect and enhance the environment. The EA and OFWAT are incapable of regulating the Water companies and agriculture and that made me so angry. I wanted to do something about it, I wanted to get people to listen.

RT - From a conservation viewpoint what are the standout achievements thus far and how have you achieved them?

FS - There are three main components of what I do, firstly exposure using Press, Media and TV which is going well, secondly Politics engaging Ministers, MPs and members of the House of Lords to talk with them and stimulate interest and debate, thirdly challenge the Government whenever necessary just as Wild Fish are currently doing with judicial review. If we are not capable of keeping all three going, then we are wasting our time. I have become a national leader finding myself on the front of newspapers, I have stimulated debate in Parliament, only recently a select committee debated the devastation being caused to the Wye and Usk which are both on the verge of environmental collapse. It is a no brainer to stop what is happening. My best achievement overall is to bring to national prominence the appalling state of our watercourses, I was recently nominated by the Times newspaper as Activist of the Year an accolade of which I am proud.

RT - You addressed the Labour Party Conference; did you sense a genuine intention to clean up the Environment?

FS - I received a standing ovation for talking to them about sewage being discharged into rivers, if you had told me five years ago that would happen, I think I would have said that you have lost your mind. They were genuinely committed, if elected, to introducing jail sentences for water company directors who breach the law, I am keeping in contact with Sir Keir Starmer on conservation issues.

RT - You appeared on two episodes of Mortimer & Whitehouse Go Fishing, which was productive publicity for conservation issues and good fun I expect, is Bob improving as an angler?

FS - Good fun with two comedy legends and great publicity, they are just the same with each other off screen as on it, like an old married couple. The first occasion was on the River Lea only half an hour from home, the second on Lake Corrib in Connemara. Bob is actually quite a good angler, he caught a Brownie dapping on Corrib and that is not easy.

RT - Are you seeing improvements in the cleanup of our rivers?

FS - Not even close, those responsible have not felt enough pain but it is on the agenda. A clear plan will come, properly costed but not yet. We know the problems and are talking a lot but that is not good enough. We need a plan to fix it, a time to do it, how to pay for it and get on with it. It is about water quality and quantity, everyone knows what the problems are, just get on and do it.

RT - Do you have any direct contact with the water companies?

FS - Some, but I have no intention of going round in circles getting nowhere with them tied up in meetings, I don't want bull shit or bickies and tea, I want action. They have had decades to come up with a solution and spent it in meetings. Ron, your local water company is United Utilities would it surprise you to know that since 2007 they have paid out four billion pounds to shareholders while they have spent 1,267,203 hours pumping raw sewage into rivers on 195,528 separate occasions. They have spent small sums during that period financing wetlands or placing woody debris into rivers which I have scientific evidence from two research teams that show it does not work in removing phosphorus from rivers or at best is of minimal effect. The water companies embark on projects that are a total waste of time while they continue to pollute our rivers, take out profits of two billion pounds a year and service fifty-four billion pounds of self created debt. The EA is incompetent in controlling them and OFWAT is just useless. The standard of the senior management is scandalous, the quality at the top is not up to the job. The Government have just published their Environmental Improvement Plan which is not worth the paper it is printed on, there is no funded or time scaled improvement, they say 160 treatment plants will be upgraded, there are 7,000 in the Country. Most of it repeats what they said in 2018, the current five-year plans include that number of upgrades, there is nothing new. The proposed investment spread over five years divided up among nine water companies works out at about £26 million per year, totally underfunded, particularly when one considers statistics like Thames Waters half year profits were £500 million. This amounts to Government sleight of hand or in the vernacular a smoke screen and bollocks, we must have the courage to call them out, it is a Whitehall gag. They create a process that makes it look like we are moving forward and ultimately deliver nothing, there is no real commitment. The Water Framework Directive states that our water bodies will be in 100% good ecological state by 2027, that objective is systematically reduced and is now 75% as soon as is practical.

RT - Would you have any advice to me as Conservation Officer of the Society?

FS - The Grayling Society has a respected voice which should be loud and successful, pick your targets carefully as we have limited resources. Write to the Secretary of State and to MPs. Be robust and tell them how disappointed we are with Government plans. Call out a charade when you see one, demand transparency and keep letters concise a couple of sentences is often all it needs.

RT - Do you have any advice for individual members of the Society how they can contribute to conservation?

FS - They should be writing to their MP requesting support for a cleanup of their local rivers. Grayling Society members are an expert voice on the effects of pollution on a particularly vulnerable fish. I will be asking for a show of hands at the next conference to see how many have in fact written to their own MP.

RT Are you working on any new projects that our members may find interesting?

FS - I am helping to launch a new initiative launched by the Times Newspaper to clean up our rivers which will be announced shortly. That will give considerable impetus to our objectives, and I am backing it fully.

RT - Feargal, thank you again for your time and for a discussion that I know our members will have found extremely interesting.