news/editorial

16 August 2015 News/Editorial

Without a meaningful flood since early June, with the heavy rain somehow missing us last week, and with the forecast predicting little serious rain for the week ahead either, August salmon fishing has yet to get into gear...which is a shame, because all it might need is water.

The River Tweed Commission (RTC) has publicly objected to the Scottish Government’s notice to impose salmon kill licensing, quotas and tagging on the Tweed for 2016, and you can read the detailed objection by clicking on this link to Tweednews:

http://www.rivertweed.org.uk/news/?p=5214

Please do read it (it is an excellent and, one would have thought, almost impossible to argue against, paper) and object if you can by 19th August.

I was reminded of how blunt an instrument tagging is when Max caught two very small fresh grilse here last week, perfect for eating, whereas I caught an 11 lb old hen fish with a hint of green about it, probably in the river since June.

If I had had a tag, in the brave new world envisaged by the Scottish Government for 2016, and Max had not, he could have killed neither of those very small fresh grilse, and I could have killed an old hen fish with maybe 8,000 eggs in it.

Surely the Scottish Government must see how wrong that is, a direct product of what it is proposing?

That is only one of the reasoned objections put by the RTC in its excellent paper.

I hope you can add your support in the interests of a quota and tag-free future.