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Wild salmon and sea-trout in Scotland ...

Started by Sandison, April 21, 2016, 12:34:38 AM

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Wildfisher

Quote from: markirv on April 21, 2016, 06:59:26 PM
As Negley Farson said in his 1940's book 'going fishing' in regard to Uist sea trout fishing....Its beautiful, but was one place in the world he has no wish to go back to, 'fishing as a business, it was too well organised'

To be fair though that does not apply only to salmon fishing. It's the principle reason I do not go to Scourie.

corsican dave

Quote from: admin on April 22, 2016, 09:49:41 AM
To be fair though that does not apply only to salmon fishing. It's the principle reason I do not go to Scourie.
aye, the private toilets, huts and mown banks definitely detract from the wild country experience up there. shame really..... :roll:
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

Laxdale

Interesting thread! As one of said salmon fishing ghillie duck heads I shall give my two bobs worth one I sober up and get home tomorow night.

Wildfisher


keithfish

I have to defend the salmon fishers ,my experience on the Tay when I started fishing was most of them wore Tweed and complained that you were within a mile of them, nowadays most stop for a chat and  earlier this year I had one gentlemen wave me in front of him as a couple of trot were moving.

Laxdale

I just remembered this thread!
Too much fine malt whilst lounging in the palatial hut overlooking the manicured banks of the Spey at Easter Elchies  affected my memory!
A good trip with three springers landed over three days and a couple departing prematurely.
A will not offend the trout anglers by displaying pictures of the fish or the river bank!
Anyway.
Aquaculture over my way is a disaster with sea lice problems out of control.
But, for the most part, salmon and sea trout stocks are stable or increasing.
And, crucially, almost all the fisheries are fully booked and employ a full compliment of keepers, ghillies, watchers and assorted other staff quite often on a full tie basis.
Any argument to change aquaculture using the "extinction of wild salmonids" argument will fail because of this.
Open minds, which can only be those with first hand experience of changes in the area over the last 30-40 years, would wonder what has changed differently in the islands compared to west coast areas.
Starter(s) for 10 are land use and monofilament nets!

As the ferry was docking in Stornoway, there was a brand new Marine harvest boat on the other side of the pier. A massive live fish carrier ( I think) which illustrated to me the scale of local aquaculture operations. It also told me the aquaculture industry felt confident enough of its future to be investing in such vessels!

Wildfisher

Quote from: Laxdale on April 27, 2016, 02:55:44 PM
It also told me the aquaculture industry felt confident enough of its future to be investing in such vessels!

And they should be confident. This is a battle long lost. They have Scotland's politicians in their pockets. The only way they will be checked is through some major disaster or more likely that they find another, cheaper place to produce their fish with standards even lower than they are allowed to operate under here. I have to admit I find myself moving deeper  into the "so what" camp.

Wild salmon in Scotland are not pivotal to the ecosystem as they are in North America - in fact our natural wild environment is so highly degraded anyway the disappearance of salmon would really only be missed by a few anglers and not a lot else. Depressing I know, but you have to be realistic.

Angling in Scotland in general is now living on borrowed time with hostile, interfering  government and a general lack of will within the angling community to stand up and be counted. Perhaps like fox hunting and hare coursing it's just had its day.

As I always say, there is the option of fishing abroad.

loch coulter

i just wonder how much input the manufactures and shops selling angling equipment are putting into this, surely they should be getting together and getting some of their representatives to lobby the government :roll:

bibio1

One thing this review will do it take the function of fishery management out of the control of private interests. This for me was one of the reasons the aquaculture industry thrived. In the end the votes available from those that fished the likes of Loch Maree didn't compare to those that could have worked in the fish farms. At the time it was a simple political calculation. The east coast had a much more developed economy for game fish whereas those that went to the west coast were more gentrified and unlikely to vote labour.

If the fishing had been more "public" would it have been subjected to the aquaculture industry. In reality we don't know and never will know.

It's just a shame that fisheries on the west coast were so devastatingly trashed.

They say you get the politicians you deserve. I honestly don't know what we've done to deserve the politicians we've had for the past 40 years.




Bobfly

If you have a fishery interest which is salmon focused then you get to where much Scottish river fishing has ended up. Same again in a way with landowner benefit from windfarms. There is actually now scope for better participation from across all anglers for all species. That needs folk who are the users on the ground to participate but, sadly, there is not a good track record of the average Joe doing that.
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