news/editorial

17 June 2018 News/Editorial

The catches last week were 82 salmon and 32 sea trout, making the season’s running totals (within 90% accuracy) 788 salmon and 113 sea trout to 16th June 2018.

We seem to be in a weekly run of small dirty rises in water levels, better than nothing at all, you would say, in terms of avoiding drought level conditions and a consequent death to productive fishing.

But it does nothing to clean the river, quite the opposite, the effect being a redistribution of dirt rather than clearing it out.

As for the week ahead, the weather forecast is mixed, unsettled to start before settling down after some rain on Tuesday/ Wednesday, but cool-ish.

So as long as there is some water, and fish numbers continue to slowly increase…...

…..there is hope for better things to come.

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I have news of simmering anger from Tweed’s trout fishermen, directed at those over-wintering flocks of cormorants.

So far this year there have, I am told, been remarkably few medium sized trout either seen rising to flies, or caught; the theory goes that a flock of 100 cormorants for a few hours in your best trout pool will hoover up anything under 2 lbs, ignoring the very small fish and not being able to digest the very big ones (over 2lbs).

The scientists are holding fire in agreeing with this angling analysis...just for now. Of course, there could be as many trout as ever lurking in our pools, but they just are not showing or rising as much as of yore…..for whatever reason.

But the case against our fish-eating birds (FEBs) is beginning to take on an interesting momentum.

It is hard to imagine that an overwintering flock of 100+ cormorants will not do serious damage to fish numbers during the 6 months that they are here.

Up to now it has been the salmon fraternity that has been protesting most about FEBs; curiously the cormorants, in particular, because they want a bigger meal, may have been doing even more damage to our resident adult trout and grayling than to any (much smaller) salmon juveniles.

Watch this space.

The case against FEBs, and in favour of proactive protective actions to safeguard our fish…... is building, both here and on other rivers.

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Last week the River Tweed Commission (RTC) published its Application to amend the the Annual Close Time for the Tweed so that, for conservation purposes, no salmon can be killed by law between 1st February and 31st May.

At present, it is illegal to kill salmon between 1st February and 31st March, and only by agreement with the rods is nothing killed after that, until 1st July.

Notably, the only remaining commercial net, Gardo, has refused to comply with both the RTC and the Tweed Foundation’s scientific advice that killing April and May salmon is not sustainable in view of their very reduced numbers.

Their stance has angered many rod fishermen and ghillies/boatmen, especially as the last two Aprils and Mays (2017 and 2018) have been notably lacking in salmon, the rod catches being less than half of what they were in 2016 and before.

Moreover, the conservation case was almost unarguable based on 2016 and earlier springs, all the more so since the seriously reduced last two years’ spring catches.

The practical effect of this change on rod fishermen will be minimal as they already put back everything they catch up to 30th June, but it will mean that Gardo can only start netting for salmon, for 2019 and all subsequent years, from 1st June, not 1st April.

One would hope that the conservation case is so strong that there is little that Gardo or anyone else can sensibly say to counter the RTC’s Application, but just in case, it would do no harm if concerned proprietors and anglers were to write in support before 18th July to:

Marine Scotland,

Salmon and Recreational Fisheries Team,

Area 1b North,

Victoria Quay,

Edinburgh EH6 6QQ

For more information and detail via the RTC website please click on this link http://www.rivertweed.org.uk/news/?p=6237.