9 April 2017 News/Editorial
Four snippets this week.
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It seems that extraordinary moves are afoot in England, thanks to the Angling Trust negotiating with the Environment Agency, to stop all netting (drift and T&J) off the northeast coast (and elsewhere) for 5 years from 2018, which would effectively mean the drift nets stopping altogether next year, as they are due to be phased out in 2022 anyway.
The quid pro quo on English rivers will be higher rates of catch and release for the rods.
We can only hope the responses to these consultation proposals are positive, so that the UK Fisheries Minister will implement them next year.
Andrew Flitcroft in his letter (p.7 in the current (May 2017) Trout & Salmon magazine issue) urges all anglers to respond positively to the consultations. Mark Lloyd of the Angling Trust has also written an excellent article on p.51 of the same issue.
T&S will post details of the consultations on its Facebook page, as will the Angling Trust on its website, so please take the trouble to respond.
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Consider the Washington State, USA, Sport Fishing Rules.
Under “Salmon and Trout Handling Rules….Freshwater….effective to 30th June 2017”, it says this:
“It is unlawful to totally remove salmon….from the water if it is unlawful to retain (kill) those fish, or if the angler subsequently releases the salmon”.
In other words, you can only take a salmon out of the water if you are allowed to kill it. Why is it illegal? Because it is so bad for fish to be taken out of the water, something those who go on taking and displaying these “out of the water” photos seem to ignore.
One supposes that those photos of caught salmon being held out of the water, prior to release, are remarkably rare in Washington State, USA.
Or the Washington State law courts are busy.
Advocating the criminalisation of those who take salmon out of the water prior to release may seem harsh, because (arguably) it can, rarely, be unavoidable, just to unhook it, regardless of the dreaded photo.
But, my word, it would stop those pictures…….. and therefore those magazines, websites, twitter and facebook pages being able to publish them.
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All the stranger then, you might think, that Fishpal (together with The Angling Trust and the Atlantic Salmon Trust) have come up with an excellent video, commentated by Dr Ken Whelan, in which he says “the one thing you should not do is lift the fish out of the water”, and lifting a fish out “could do serious damage to its internal organs”, all this after a perfect demonstration on the Tyne of how to net and unhook a salmon without lifting it out.
How can Fishpal do such good work and then be responsible for pictures of so many “out of the water” photos on Fishtweed, Fishtay, Fishdee and no doubt others, as well as sponsoring a whole page of them in the latest Gallery on p122 of May’s Trout & Salmon magazine?
Only one of the 9 photos on that page does not involve “lifting”, two others are just acceptable being held, one hopes momentarily, just on/out of the water while kneeling alongside. The other 6 are all bad, not only lifted well out of the water, but the front hand squashing the salmon’s insides exactly where nature never intended them to be squashed.
Why do T&S and Fishpal go on publishing such pictures, which only encourage others to do the same, when surely they must know it is wrong?
If you want to watch the video, “The Gift Part 3 Catch and Release” here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucE4KgHzsPM&feature=share
“The Gift” parts 1 and 2 are well worth watching too.
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And finally, what of the fishing last week?
With a Tweed catch of over 100 salmon, you might think it pretty good, certainly better. On the other hand, with a settled and falling river all week, conditions near perfect, the first for some time, you might think it a little disappointing.
A more balanced view might be somewhere in between.
Spring 2017 is, so far, very much following the same pattern as recent years, even decades, with the early spring catches being low, and they gradually build as spring progresses into April and May.
What we can say, for sure, is that there is no sign of the spring runs of the 1920s to 1960s returning. Not only are there too few salmon for that, but the weight profile is very different.
What we are catching now is, admittedly some small, but also a lot of big fish, averaging over 10lbs, as compared to a 7lb average in the 1920s-1960s.
So if there is no sign of the missing autumn grilse coming back in the spring, will they come back, in numbers, as salmon after overwintering, as they did in the 1920s- 1960s?
But when? In June and July, as they appeared to do last year, or in the autumn?
You will hear more theories, on that particular point, than you can throw a stick at, but the truth is this.
Nobody knows.
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