Well that’s another salmon and trout fishing season over and while we expect it was better than in 2018, it still wasn’t a particularly good season.
The Autumn run was again poor but thankfully, there were still a few fish making it upstream. The Lugar often has the better back end run and we will keep an eye on this to see what materialises. It is not uncommon to see fish moving over Ochiltree Dam in December.
The Clerk to the Board was asked to send out the catch returns promptly this year so if you haven’t yet received it, it should be with you any day. It is essential to get returns back to the Board (and MSS) quickly to allow them to be included in management reports.
Next year we believe the river will again become a Category 3 river meaning that all salmon must be released unharmed. Only when catch returns improve can the the status be upgraded and mandatory catch and release lifted. Getting accurate catch returns submitted on time will help this. In the mantime, the board will support the catch restrictions in the hope that stocks improve.
A sea trout that was returned after release
