news/editorial

18 May 2014 News/Editorial

This week I start with a photograph (click on to enlarge) of a beautiful 29lber from the Spey.

Before getting there, I would like to apologise for my intemperate comment about the 33lber, and the photograph of it on Fishtweed, in last week’s effort. It most certainly does not represent best practice, my apology therefore not because I was wrong, heaven forbid, about that, but because it was wrong to single out that picture.

In short, everyone is at it, we are all doing it the wrong way, including a number of photographs on our own Lees website.

The Rules, which all Tweed owners are expected to enforce, on handling fish which you intend to (or have to) return, are as follows:

There are 8 of them (2 in the preamble and 6 shown as bullet points in the Tweed Angling Code for Salmon and Sea Trout, copies of which should be in every hut):

1. Fish should be released as quickly as possible

2. Fish should be unhooked using suitable forceps

3. Use a knotless net, if not beaching

4. Do not take the fish out of the water

5. Do not hold it up by its tail or close to your body UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

6. Handle the fish as little and AS GENTLY AS POSSIBLE so as not to remove scales which protect from infection and disease

7. Hold the fish gently and upright in the water until ready to swim away on their own

8. Allow time (can be up to 30 minutes) for the fish to recover before allowing it loose into the river.

Ok, so almost all photographs, on all websites, of fish still to be returned, breach numbers 1, 4, 5 and 6 of the rules above viz No1… by definition if you are taking the extra time to photograph it, so it is not being released as quickly as possible; No 4 most photographed fish are taken out of the water, when it says quite unequivocally they should not be; No 5 whereas very few people hold the fish up by its tail, a significant number are held close to the body, risking removing scales; No 6 simply by photographing the fish you are not holding it as little as possible when you lift it out of the water, and almost certainly not as gently as possible, because they start wriggling and moving when you want them to stay still for the photograph, again risking removing scales, and causing unnecessary distress and delay.

In summary, not only are the Rules being ignored, worse than that the ignorance of the rules is being portrayed triumphantly on every fishing website in endless photographs of fish caught, together with the proud captor.

These are Rules, which means everyone, fishermen and boatmen must implement them.

So why is it not happening?

Mainly, I suspect, that anglers and boatmen have simply forgotten these Rules, or indeed never knew them in the first place.

Let us be clear, if you are (a) not going to photograph the fish and (b) do not have to land the fish from a boat (where you may have no option in deep water and a sheer bank, for safety reasons, but to net it and lift it, in the net, into the boat), these rules should stand EXACTLY AS THEY ARE, maybe with one addition if you are beaching a fish on gravel….. Malcolm has a note up in our hut explaining that you should never drag it up the gravel, thereby removing numerous scales; either keep it on the edge of the gravel and the water, or if the depth allows, fully in the water, on its side on the gravel under the water.

So what of photographs, which seem to be the main cause of the trouble, and the underlying reason why most of the Rules are being broken?

It is surely unreasonable not to allow ANY photographs on the grounds that the act of photographing itself delays the return to the river (even if it does), but perhaps some of the following should be added to the guidelines issued by the River Tweed Commission:

1. Fish, which are going to be returned, should only be photographed in special circumstances (first fish, biggest fish etc) and not as a matter of course, because it delays the safe return to the water.

2. So far as possible fish should always be photographed IN THE WATER.

3. Holding fish up for the camera should be avoided at all times. It breaks most of the Rules by removing the fish from the water, and further delaying return to the water; it increases the chances of damaging the scales and removing the protective layer of mucous. In addition, hands placed on the fish’s stomach, supporting the weight of the fish, can cause damage. The fish can also effectively drown in too much oxygen.

Simple, and to show how it should be done as opposed to all those photographs of fish being held up, one hand on the tail and the other on the stomach, out of the water…… look at again at the 29 lber from the Spey.

It is both an excellent photograph of fish and fisherman, and the very best practice.

So, in future, when you want yourself and your fish in a photograph, if you possibly can, you should get into the water with the fish.

If you don’t believe me, put yourself in the fish’s position; suppose you are towed on a rope from a speedboat around a lake, on the surface but only just, for 20 minutes. Then, when you are exhausted and half dead, the speedboat stops, somebody pulls you in and unties you…… but before letting you go, they plunge you under water for 5 minutes while they take an underwater photograph, and, because you struggle for air, they hold you really tight around the ankles and wrists, causing bruising at best, breakages at worst. Next, after all that, they let you up, back into the air, and dump you back on the shore…while off they go to find someone else to catch and tow round the lake.

Anthropomorphic you will say, but is it? Salmon drown/ suffocate in air so why photograph them there?

So next time, you get in the water with the fish. PLEASE.