Following the long days of the Winter close season the start of the 2022 Lomond system season will at last soon be with us.
As with previous years then this will be a date that all anglers and members will no doubt be be awaiting with great anticipation. Rods and gear will be being cleaned, checked, repaired, replenished or replaced. “Sure to catch” lures selected and killer flies tied or purchased and fly and tackle boxes armed.
To ensure that our members and anglers have a good start to the season then over the past few months your Committee have also been focussed upon preparation for the coming season in terms of ensuring statutory commitments and also committing time and effort concerning successful permit and membership provision.
Catch Return processing
Catch returns have been collected, collated and formatted in order to ensure accurate and timely submission was made to Marine Scotland by the cut-off date. This activity concerning catch return reporting is a largely manual and very time consuming task but an important one undertaken that is undertaken by the LLAIA committee volunteers annually on your behalf. Thank you to everyone for their support in submitting a timely catch return.
Obviously bailiffing work continued during the closed season protecting returning and spawning fish, we also are to submit a detailed report to Marine Scotland concerning our water bailiff activity for 2021, that being submitted at very end of December.
We did receive some encouraging words from them, “Many thanks for sending this report through. It’s very comprehensive as always, and it’s interesting to read of matters other than just bailiffing the salmon poachers – for example, your information about pollution and Scottish Water incidents. It’s good too to hear that the relationship with Police Scotland continues to be helpful”.
Fishing Permit provision
As in recent years all efforts and preparations have been made in order to ensure that all of the various permits (Coarse & Game – Day, Weekly, Annual) were ordered, printed, receipted, collated and then successfully distributed to each of our 19 retail outlets in sufficient time for purchase before Christmas for our anglers or their relatives.
Membership Renewals and Application
In recent weeks over 500 Full Membership permits/tags have been printed and prepared ready to be mailed out to each member upon renewal.
Since the end of last season it is very heartening to see that requests for both permits and membership renewals and new applications we appear to be in a healthier position thus far this year in terms of the number of renewals, new memberships and permit sales than for the same period last year. To date over 200 full members permits have been posted out.
If you have not already done so please ensure your membership renewal or application is submitted in plenty of time before the start of our new 2022 season to avoid disappointment.
Standard activities continue to be delivered including Bailiffing work which continues as ever during the close season protecting returning and spawning fish across our system. Responses to pollution incidents, blockages and other incidents and the raising and lodging of objections to planning applications where appropriate also continues to be addressed by the Committee during Winter period and throughout the year as needed.
