River Tay 15 January Opening Day

[salmonking]

There are idiots everywhere,i have too many incidents to cover,
i must not start to RANT .

[macsalmo]

Was that in Trout & Salmon?
The Neap fly or something similar?

[macsalmo]

salmonking said:

There are idiots everywhere,i have too many incidents to cover,
i must not start to RANT .

I know what you mean Col.

Count to 50 and keep off the juice ;D

Gary

[madkeen]

Willie the board can't being doing everything wrong there seems to be more fish running the isla/ericht than there has been for years or is it that the ericht headwaters have always been healthy?

[kercock]

The major factor in this past winter has been the consistent high water,including two floods in ten days. The EU ban on the use of Malachite Green in the tanks cost the hatchery a very high percentage of their broodstock,hence the need to catch and strip fish for the hatchery.
I am no fan of the Board believe me.but all the facts should be seen. Perhaps more will be revealed at the meeting tomorrow morning at the Royal in Dunkeld where the TSFB invite the ghillies to a blether and an update, the ghillies then have the opportunity to put forward their opinion on various matters. I go every year in the hope that progress will have been made but no luck so far !There was far more than the Board members £30k,the ghillies association gave a wad of money to that as well plus a generous wad to John Youngs wee hatchery on the Earn. In the early days big numbers of Ericht fish were used to restock many areas of the Tay catchment area and may well be used againin the future. There was ( no surprise) no plan B in the event of the high water of the past couple of months.

[kercock]

The very big success of the Coupar Grange area of the Isla Is due,I reckon ,to changes being made to the Aberbothrie part of the Ericht where a large island was removed causing that area to speed up and move gravel down stream to effectively "dam" The ericht lower down which, in effect, means that the ericht now has to be higher to let the fish come through into the system than previously.This information was passed on to a TSFB member who said they would not be doing anything about it because the revenue now created via the levy from Coupar Grange is very big in comparison to that generated by the Ericht system. So the situation is left to continue. FACT. If anyone out there thinks that the TSFB remit is in the interests of the salmon..............Dream on !

[kelliefly]

Thanks Dennis, well said.
people should be aware that with around 630 fish caught at Coupar Grange last year the bulk of which were spring stock and the stripping being carried out in the Ericht glens dose not bode well for the future of the Ericht.
David simmers tells me that the Ericht is over stocked ,what lack of foresight this board has as no eggs are returned to this system .
It seems to be take ,take ,take on our system.
A vote of no confidence in the board should be brought up at these meetings, time for a change.

[kercock]

At the "ghillies"annual meeting at Dunkeld yesterday Dr Summers said that IF things work out they will reach 75% capacity of trayed eggs very soon. End of story.
It seems that a large portion of the money available for opening up new areas is to be spent on the Coupar Burn,which as you know comes from the Sidlaws down through Kettins and Coupar Angus metting the Isla at the Graveyard at Woodside,the rest is to be spent somewhere up near the headwaters,no surprises there then. The Tay Ghillies Assn have thrown huge ammounts of dosh at the TDFB. "projects" and did'nt even get a mention. it was the usual We We and We do this etc. Here is a cracker,and absolutely gospel. I know a man who after a first ever conversation with a VERY senior member of the TSFB was offered the chairmans job if he wanted it ! FACT. He knows almost nil about salmon,trust me I know.

[silvergrey1]

IF things dont work out and there is every chance they wont, how many eggs will be in the hatchery?, this should have been a priority months ago but as usual all talk and no action, how can anybody trust this Board with the best interests of the Tay when the majority of them know absolutly nothing about fishing.

[williegunn]

silvergrey1 said:

how can anybody trust this Board with the best interests of the Tay when the majority of them know absolutly nothing about fishing.

Based on what?

[silvergrey1]

Knowing who the Board members are

[kelliefly]

What about this story,
Many years ago when about 2,000 fish were trapped under the bridge in Blairgowrie the the board decided to net them out in order to place the fish on the spawning beds up the glens ,[shee & ardle]
The fish were moved without any oxygen ,reports were approx 850 fish, the rest were stripped for the hatchery.
Speaking to the people that were present at this work I was amazed to here about half the fish never recovered.
Oxygen was used to transport the last few tanks of fish.
Can we trust these people to look after the tau system . . .I think not !
If anybody knows a different story to this ,let me know

[scotia]

Good to see the Scotsman running the feature on your beats initiative Jock.As usual the board comes out with a bloody lame excuse."The fish are spawning at different times through the length of the river and there's no demand for putting the season back but we are watching the situation",reminds me of the old saying "if you always do what you always done you'll always get what you always got". What a load of Horlicks from the board.
Hope you have the TV cameras out on your beat toasting the late spawning salmon. ;D

[kercock]

Jock, I'm surprised you did'nt mention that when I asked David Summers at the meeting in Dunkeld what his opinion of the Newtyle stance of no fishing until the 1st of Feb, his answer was,Well, it just means that Newtyle would be catching the same kelts a fortnight later and when I said it would let two weeks of kelts drop back,he reckoned it would make no difference. To the Press he gave a very different answer indeed..
You and I will have to meet up, soon.
When the TVcameras were filming the salmon being "rescued " from the Blairgowrie Bridge area,consious of the cameras on him the TDSFB inspectorof baillifs kept putting the fish into the areated tank,alas,the lure of stardom it seems was too much and the effect of that was there were too many salmon in the tank and by the time they fish got to the release point they were dead ! That was told by a number of people who were helping out that day.

[salmoseeker]

Great thread you started Willie, I support your views and enjoy your lucid comments. Anything that can be done to support fish stocks requires support and the old school chapping mentality really needs 'knocking on the head' (if you'll pardon the pun). :/)

So as an Ericht season ticket holder of some time and local, am I wrong to get depressed when I see the club member's list of SALMON COMPETION dates?...seven in 2007 'weigh in 6pm'. This archaic nonsense needs to be stopped or your initiatives will be for nothing.

ps That lesson you gave me 11/05 at Newtyle helped me get 8 fish on fly last year, three returned (ok good do better). jb

[hornet]

So why does the the TSFB not listen?

Do they assume that they know better and have the long term preservation in hand?

What or who is stopping them from changing?

Why do they not follow the likes of the Dee and Esks in opening the season later plus have a C&R policy in place?

Why?

[kelliefly]

Samoseeker,
your point about the blairgowrie angling club and competitions had been discussed at the end of last year.
As far as i know only one or two members have weighed in fish over the last few seasons and on the last A G M trophies for salmon comps were not uplifted.
Blair angling club dose not allow any more than one fish to be kept per day and many anglers return all the fish they catch which is better than most beats on the lower tay.
the lies the board tells of the cost of policing cargils leap is utter nonsense as fish have not stacked up in this area for a long time and poaching is not what it was over twenty years ago.
if you want to know that the ericht is like now i suggest you talk to the people who fish it .
I think the stance taken on the Newtyle beat is first class and should be commended .

[salmoseeker]

Grant,

I fish the Ericht and I know most of the guys, all of whom are a pleasure to share our beautiful river with. My point was its' not a good idea for the club to be seen to be endorsing competitive Salmon angling! (especially if as you say it no longer happens). Its just that my season ticket has all the dates and weigh in times for these competition - maybe the club might consider removing these next year if there are no salmon competitions.

I accept what you say about the single fish limit - a really good move on the part of the club.

Cheers,

John

[charlieh]

williethegillie said:

Every year they complain that we have a poor record (40%) for catch and release yet they ask for every second fish to be returned - which is exactly what they get minus 10% = 40% .

One simple way to improve the C&R rate is to switch from killing the first fish and releasing the second, to releasing the first and killing the second.

Under the current system, somebody who catches one fish will probably kill it - C&R rate 0%. If they catch 3 fish, they will kill nos. 1 & 3 - C&R rate 33%.

Do it the other way round and the person who catches one will return it and have a C&R rate of 100%. If they catch three, they will only keep no 2, so C&R rate is 66%.

It should be obvious that as the rules stand, they are unlikely to achieve over 50% without a very significant voluntary contribution. A small change to the rules would mean that a rate of over 50% is more or less guaranteed even before any additional voluntary contribution.

[johnmac]

sack the board!! sack the board!! sack the board!!

Sorry i am a Celtic fan.... call it a knee jerk reaction!! ;D