Spring Fishing Overview.
On Friday 28th May Charlie Anderson landed a nice springer of 10lbs. He caught the fish at Inch Murrin. Charlie is one of Lomond’s Faithfull and is well known throughout the loch. Well done to Charlie he deserves this success.
Another chap who is becoming a regular to Lomond is Donald Brown. He too landed a cracking fish of 13lbs on the same Friday. Donald fishes out from Balloch and was coming home from a night’s camping when he hooked the fish at Duck Bay.
Donald Brown with his 13lbs springer: Friday 28th May 2010.
We do not know if there have been further springers caught over the holiday weekend or on the Monday?
So the spring salmon season has come and gone and we can reflect how it went and perhaps compare with the previous two years which were record years for catches of springers and possibly summer salmon as well. Overall though and considering the severe problems in the marine environment that are obviously affecting salmon stocks and spring salmon stocks in particular nationally, we did not do too badly all things considered. The loch did quite reasonable and we suspect that the large springers caught were probably all at least three sea winter stock. The worry is the lack of our traditional two sea winter stock, but that is also the main concern on most other rivers in Scotland that have a spring run.
Most other nearby rivers had seen any opportunity of sport evaporate with the low summer water levels and the Lomond system because of its structure is always able to provide some sport under these poor conditions through Loch Lomond. The River Leven suffered with the low flows as to be expected and even if the runs had been heavier it is likely the loch would have benefitted to an even greater extent than any appreciable performance boost on the leven if water levels stayed very low. There were periods in April when sport ought to have been better on the River Leven but without a decent run of two sea winter stock in most rivers it was never going to happen. We also experienced harsh cold wintry weather during the early periods but lets face it, spring fish can be caught in those conditions if they are there and remain in the river.
There is much to be pleased about despite all the doom and gloom. We had three springers caught in March. We could well have had more fish caught in the early period had more boats been out on the loch or perhaps more rods fishing the leven during the weekdays. We had a good show of large springers and the condition factor of our springers was generally good. So on balance given the state of play on most Scottish rivers and given the fact that our system does not have a large amount of spawning habitat we didn’t fair too badly under the circumstances.
THE SPRING SALMON SITUATION COUNTRYWIDE.
This overview may be rather early to report as there will be some delay before we find out about other parts of the country. However it is becoming clear that spring salmon stocks are in trouble throughout the country. Some fisheries banned the killing of all spring salmon until 1st June and others banned the killing of all fish until 1st July. Other fisheries imposed restrictions such as taking each alternative fish.
Catch & Release is all to the fore in most fisheries throughout Scotland. The enforcement and effectiveness of such restrictions will vary greatly throughout the country but in some fisheries that have large associations and angling clubs close to highly populated areas its effectiveness through the difficulty of enforcement is minimal. Whether C&R in itself is effective as a conservation tool is still questioned by many?
Here are some topical pointers to think about:
It is often said that catch & release is vital and that we have no choice but to take the precautionary stance? It is generally agreed by the vast majority of fisheries and experts that while we continue to experience major problems in the marine environment we must take all necessary precautions within our own fisheries to protect fish stocks? It is generally hoped that the SALSEA project should answer many of the questions we ask regarding the problems at sea?
One’s views of fisheries and fisheries management might well depend on how many years experience you have on the subject and how involved you have been on fisheries management on a national scale and local scale. Our Chairman has been involved in fisheries management for more than 25 years and has seen it all. He has his own personal views on fisheries management and the politics involved in fisheries matters.
Here then are his views of the current situation regarding spring salmon stocks!
Chairmans views: Politics rules and basic common sense is all too often put to one side on most issues. Anglers are being made the scapegoats with catch and release and told if you kill the fish YOU could be destroying your own fish stocks! We are told as anglers to take the precautionary stance which seems a reasonable viewpoint until you realise that no such stance is being taken or even advised within certain and specific proven known problems in the marine environment that we already know is affecting our migratory fish stocks!
It is a fact that despite all the latest legislative powers and changes to how the Aquaculture industry is supposed to operate, we are now in a worse position than when we first started to tackle the fish farming industry many years ago. This is an industry that is still largely self regulating, if you compared its effect on migratory fish stocks to the world global meltdown of the financial fiasco recently experienced you mind well find an amazing amount of similarities! Taking risks with other peoples livelihood without having to pay the consequences for one!
Ironically we had an opportunity to deal with the situations in the courts by the actions of The Sea Trout Group. Sadly they were persuaded to drop their case and since then we have witnessed huge numbers of farmed salmon enter a whole variety of rivers throughout the country.
I am not one for knocking businesses or an industry just to protect my own self interest and that of fellow anglers. I am only too willing to work with any industry and agree a way forward for the future BUT when an industry cannot even contain the product (farmed fish) that if allowed to escape could potentially wipe out our wild salmon and sea trout stocks, working together and co-existing cannot even begin until the issue of containment is satisfactory. It is an absolute disgrace that despite all the talk one hears of AMA (area management agreements) between fishery trusts/boards and fish farms we still have not resolved this one very important and crucial situation re containment.
Last year 2009 was one of the worst years on record for escapes of farmed salmon. In all those years the fish farming industry has continued to largely do what it likes so long as its fish do not poison the consumer.
There are a whole variety of factors having an impact on our migratory fish stocks. I just wish we would deal with the known issues FIRST and then advise, enforce and research to find out the other possible causes.
Fish Farms: It is well known they are responsible for the potential they have of destroying our wild salmon and sea trout stocks by farm fish escapes. Sea Lice problems derived from the operations of Fish farms can be dealt with. It is well known all Fish Farms pollute the areas they operate from. Eliminating the escapes would have protected our wild fish from dilution of our stock regarding genetics and DNA. If we don’t tackle the fish farms what is the point of adopting good fishery management practices with careful thought to genetics and possible DNA if farmed stock are going to be entering your river system at any time.
One of my annoyances is people who complain but do little themselves. I have been at the forefront of trying to get changes over a decade ago! In 1997 I wrote to the Scottish Office pleading with them to enforce double net enclosures on all salmon farms or we would be in trouble in future years. I was told by letter, there are now few escapees and others in the political research field told me to mind my own business as it did not concern me. One year later (1998) we had over 500 of the escaped farm fish that supposedly did not concern me!
I wrote in trout and salmon of a further escape of farmed fish from a particular fish farm site that had an escape, only to be called a liar by the fish farm official followed by an admission that they did in fact have a further escape! I never did get an apology. In short when you run an industry that is shielded to a massive extent by intervention to protect their interests without fear of prosecution you can largely do what you want until someone prosecutes. I have long believed that prosecution was the way forward and an aggressive stance towards the fish farming industry regarding escapes was the only way we could protect our fish stocks. I still believe it is the way forward even though it is probably too late for many West Coast rivers.
One thing I am certain of is that diplomacy along with a sound knowledge of the subject matter on hand has not worked. We had through Andrew Wallace Managing Director of the association of salmon fishery boards a man with all the skills required above and yet despite all his efforts and that of others in the fisheries world we are moving backwards rather than forwards when it comes to tackling the fish farming industry.
Catch & Release:
To date no one knows for absolute certain how many fish are required to produce an optimum number of smolts going to sea. There was some limited research done on the Tweed recently where they looked at one section of a river and found that of all the pairs of fish spawning in that section only two pair’s offspring survived and dominated that stretch. In the words of a well known biologist, all the other pairs need not have bothered turning up!
Until we know for certain what the complex make up of streams with salmon populations is all about we are mainly guessing. If such results were common throughout fisheries then what success would catch and release have on spawning fish? Would we not be better off looking to see if there is a recognised DNA marker or strain of fish and then through capture, checking DNA and genetics breeding from such fish to enhance our fish stocks, we could improve matters?. I don’t see one single biologist or scientist with that type of thinking, instead I see people involved in the science make their own interpretation of whatever results come out. This attitude may or may not suit some fisheries but it is the way things are currently moving even though we still know so little through DNA and genetics.
We have known for a number of years items that ARE causing damage to wild fish stocks out in the marine environment BUT because of politics they are not being addressed despite solid scientific evidence to prove they are having a damaging affect on migratory fish stocks.
It is scandalous for government bodies to advise the angling fraternity to adopt certain practices such as C&R in the interest of taking a precautionary stance whilst known issues in the marine environment are being allowed to continue with minimal or no interference or intervention, despite the glaring fact that these are the real issues that could matter!
This year we are told that the Scottish fish farming industry plans to increase production by around 60,000 tons. Yet we are also told there has been more escapees than ever before in 2009. We still don’t have double net enclosures that would offer some security to fish farm escapes. But then that would involve extra cost and reduced numbers of fish in each cage (less profit) and that say the fish farming industry would cause us problems.
We still have pollution by these fish farms and sea lice numbers coming from fish farms that are causing problems for sea trout stocks. The fish farming industry actually blamed the Crown Estate for not allowing them to move sites more often. It never occurred to them that what they were saying was, we want to re-locate once we messed up one area with gross pollution to another so we can mess that up too.
All of this is hugely convenient in ensuring the fish farming industry is allowed to get away with doing whatever they like. We still take millions of tons of sand eels and small fish from the marine environment even though we know it is part of the complex food chain. We still feed the fish farms with this vital food chain without studying or carrying out proper research to find out what effect the taking of such fish has in the marine environment. It takes many tons of these small fish to make up just ONE TON of fish meal for the fish farming industry. We still allow commercial netting for salmon despite the economic benefits of angling compared to commercial interests.
It is not just the fish farming industry, we still allow our important Estuaries and Sea Lochs to be exploited by commercial netting for fish of all kinds, shrimps and prawns etc ignoring the fact that economically it would make sense to ban all commercial activities and develop the areas for improvement of fish stocks and huge sporting economic benefits through angling of all kinds including sea angling. We have a fisheries policy that sees valuable and often immature fish stocks not allowed to be kept (regulations etc) so instead we return them to the sea dead…..dumped for want of a better word.
Of all the Atlantic salmon in the wild we also now have a huge number of farmed fish of the worst genetic DNA that you could possibly imagine (some put the total figure against wild fish at 40%) which have escaped and will have damaged the existing wild salmon populations, yet where are the prosecutions? What are all the bodies designed to safeguard our heritage and national interests doing about this? Despite all the noise generated through various bodies regarding the regulation of fish farms the facts remain. SNH has no remit to investigate or control the fish farming industry. SEPA have no remit for wild fish impacts and scientists through Marine Scotland appears unable to raise concerns unless the code of conduct is broken. It might not surprise you to learn that the code of conduct to regulate practices is administered by none other than the fish farming industry itself.
I could go on and on about marine issues that are not being addressed that could be causing problems for fish stocks and that we should at the very least be adopting a precautionary stance. Instead I will leave it at that and just say that at least this committee and I have been active and have on numerous occasions tried our best to get change or bring about improved operations regarding a multitude of issues of national and local importance.
We (the LLAIA Committee) will do what we can to sustain our fish stocks in the best possible manner and at the same time carry out planned habitat improvements where appropriate and where timely. But when you have to go through a variety of meetings with various organisations to get approval for taking about a dozen adult salmon from a river to run a well thought out stocking project, even though you are carful and thoughtful in taking into account genetics and DNA etc and are then told (wrongly) we could be having a negative impact on genetic integrity and natural selection you cannot help but feel hypocrisy is a forgotten word.
When all this is going on and ever increasing red tape is now being thrust upon you at every level whether justified or not, you know you are dealing with politics rather than common sense.
We have seen over this past number of years a general improvement to the way salmon fisheries are now managed within their freshwater environment and this can only be good for us all. Gravel abstraction guidelines. River works and habitat work, sensible stocking as but one tool and others highlighted, in short a whole list of sensible practices to be adopted by management in their own rivers. The big danger with all this momentum lies in going too far too fast without having the facts to back up any particular strategy. One example could be in seeing new management techniques that are being adopted purely on the grounds of one’s interpretation of results with regard genetics and DNA work, rather than what in fact the results are actually telling us, which up until now is not very much! Mistakes have been made in the past with assumptions being subsequently proved way off the mark. Hopefully some measure of common sense will prevail and we will continue with steady sound improvements to fishery management taking into account one’s own individual fisheries needs.
In conclusion: I do feel that over the years we have allowed others to dictate to us what we should be doing to conserve fish stocks instead of us acting as one united body of anglers taking action to ensure our interests are being protected and other industries are prevented from destroying other industries like our wild fish industry.
Perhaps had we (as I had suggested many years ago) concentrated on the problems in the marine environment first before concentrating largely on the freshwater side of things we might well be in a better position than we are in right now nationally with regards salmon and sea trout stocks.
In one of our recent AGM reports sent out to our members we highlighted a number of items that we regarded as negative within the freshwater side of things. Some we can tackle others may be left as they are such is the political world we live in. But so long as we still have reasonable numbers of fish we can still prosper in the years ahead.
We have witnessed great progress within the RSPCB (for example) with regards protection of a variety of bird species some of which do impact on our wild fish stocks. A group that has successfully managed to punch well above their weight when it comes to political clout!
So with all those problems facing us one would think that all anglers would be united and display some measure of support for those in the front line so to speak. Having people in your own organisation that does as much as humanly possible with passion, to always fight hard and care about your particular system, in my case the Lomond system is always important. When individuals rubbish others without thought or knowledge and I mean this not just from our own system’s recent problems in the past but today in the more general sense nationally you appreciate why anglers punch well below their political weight.
We will be producing a web report concerning our stocking of fingerlings and smolts and our more immediate plans to try and sustain our fish stocks or improve them. It is a common sense approach based on this Committee knowledge of fishery matters and hopefully will try to mitigate and improve on some of the negative factors facing salmon and sea trout in today’s political world.
The Committee LLAIA