FEB TROUT & SALMON

[Wildfisher]

Billy,

There are / were both. Some were run by rich concerns some by individual. On the Thurso for example, estuary netting and rod fishing  is controlled by the same estate.

[silverbutcher]

Thanks Fred,

On the Thurso for example, estuary netting and rod fishing is controlled by the same estate.

So will they be closing down their nets then, or is it only non estate owned nets that get bad mouthed.

Billy

[Wildfisher]

I asked Eddie McArthy  (river head keeper) about this and he said that the revenue from netted fish helps keep the angling rents down.

Now that the river is to be syndicated and become a near total exclusion zone for all but the fabulously wealthy, I wonder if this will continue?

[silverbutcher]

Fred,
That confuses it a bit for me ( I know I'm a bit o a dunderheid ). Does that mean that on the Thurso its not about the numbers of salmon the nets catch, but where the revenue is going?

Cheers
Billy

[Wildfisher]

Billy, as far as I can see it’s just about revenue, no matter where it comes from.

[Wildfisher]

A  good post Blackwitch. As I said, for the life of me I cannot understand how it is the likes of  “salar properties” and their ilk can believe they have more rights to the fish than the man with the net who is carrying  out a tradition  that goes back 100’s of years?  I have no wish to see the rivers  cleaned out by nets, but that does not mean to say there is no room for a bit of netting too, on  small scale anyway. There is no room in modern Scotland for the kind of right wing elitism and privilege that magazines like T+S seem to promote. Perhaps I read this the wrong way, but that’s certainly the impression I get when I read stuff like this from  Andrew hyphen hyphen and co.

[Wildfisher]

One point from the article (and I'm sure this will please you Fred ) one of the arguments for keeping the nets is the netsmen police the mouth of the river and control the seal population.

Jim, I must say that really surprises me  :lol:

There is no doubt that in the 60’s and beyond, companies like Johnston’s  played a big part in decimating stocks. As kids at Lunan bay we used to let fish out of the bag nets if out night fishing, but don’t tell anyone.  These are not really the kind of netting operations I could support. That is a long way from one man and a haaf net though.

A point of interest, the latest proposals in the SE fisheries consolation document talks of the removal of barriers to fish ascending the rivers. Like Morphie dykes  I suppose. I wonder though if that will mean Sir Hyphen  and co will have to remove the artificial barriers and “holding pools”  they create on some rivers?

Do you think I should   be holding my breath on that one?  :lol: