Finavon Castle Bulletin

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

It is unfortunate that some people, whose words are currently in the public domain, describe the work being done to track the riparian destination of the South Esk’s early running salmon as a “waste of time”. I hope that my readers will ignore those statements because, in my view, they are based on ignorance and a lack of understanding of the role of scientific data in providing fishery managers with the information they need to make relevant and timely decisions to conserve, and ultimately enhance, the river’s stocks of wild salmon and sea trout.

Castle Stream

In addition to their lack of understanding of the role of science, these critics of the Marine Scotland S Esk stock assessment project are I imagine frustrated by the time it takes to obtain meaningful data. Perhaps they may one day accept the principle that knowledge (ie scientific data) is a better basis for taking action than unfounded guesswork!

The 2012 Spring Run. While it is true that the South Esk’s 2012 run of spring fish have so far been disappointing, I note that small numbers of fish have entered the river, some of which have moved up above Brechin and some caught and returned alive. Inshewan reported an 8lbs fish this week, and a fresh fish of 12 to 15lbs was hooked and lost in Melgund Pool (Indies Beat, FCW) earlier today (Friday) following a slight rise in the river level, largely as a result of snowmelt. It is also true that when rivers are very low salmon are often reluctant to enter them and to move on upstream. The 2012 spring has featured a period of very low water. It is therefore manifestly wrong to attribute the lack of fish caught by the very few rods that have ventured out this season to low pre-fishery abundance. As I have said before in these blogs; rod catches, in the absence of other data, can provide useful information about stock abundance, but we should not base our planning and management decisions on rod catches alone.

Onshore winds. With a strong East wind, and surf churning up gravel and sand in the estuary, and with cold water exiting the river, combined with low river levels, it is really not surprising that the bulk of the spring run has stayed at sea. Julian Maclean told me today that no fish have been caught in the nets during the last week, which I can imagine was no surprise to George Pullar, nor the MSS team because salmon generally keep away from the coast when the wind is in the East. To date no tagged fish have been recorded by receivers on Tay, Dee or North Esk, only on the South Esk.

Red Brae

It is worth noting that of the 47 fish so far radio tagged, 9 have been recorded going up the South Esk of which 3 have returned to Montrose Basin. In other words, these 3 fish were recorded as moving downstream of the lowest receiver at Bridge of Dun having previously been recorded at Kinnaird. If we get a good rise in water level, a change in wind direction and warmer temperatures, we should see more fish enter the river. Our three ‘Hamlet’ fish may even decide to return!

The Big Picture – the Ocean ecosystem. An ecologist at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, who was the coordinator of the multinational SALSEA project, last week answered a question for me about predicting salmon runs. I asked him about the 2012 run of salmon into our Scottish East coast rivers. His reply surprised me on two counts: first, he was prepared to make a prediction, which is quite unusual for a high level scientist. Second, he said that we should expect more multi sea winter salmon in good condition and that this trend – more bigger salmon – is likely to continue for the next few years. He was less sanguine about grilse returns and would not be drawn on the overall pre fishery abundance figures. I took that to mean that the cake is no bigger, but that marine survival of certain groups of fish may be improving. Interesting stuff, but maybe we shouldn’t get too excited!

If our media quoted luddites could find a way of acknowledging the significance of facts about the spring migration provided by recordings of South Esk spring salmon, and give their full support to the work of the Montrose team of scientists, we would all be in a better place. Ultimately, if that unlikely situation were to arise, the beneficiary would be the river and its stocks of migratory salmonids. Here’s hoping!

TA on 6 April 2012

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

I spoke with Colin Gibb (Inshewan – 5 miles upstream of Finavon) yesterday about this year’s spring run. He told me that there is a good number of fish in the Esk Pool and that he had seen two fish in the Dardanelles last week. There are also a few kelts lingering in the Castle Hill and the Boat Pool.

The spring run of 2012 in context: The radio-tagged salmon are of course only a small proportion of the total number of salmon entering the South Esk. A few have already been caught by rods as far upriver as Justinhaugh, and, judging by Colin’s Inshewan report, and accounts from the Marine Scotland team of untagged fish released from the Usan nets, we can assume that there may be quite a good number of fish already in the river, with an increasing number waiting in the sea for higher water levels. We should remember that the purpose of the MSS radio tagging project is to find out where the S. Esk’s early running fish go to spawn. Counting them will come later, but that should not prevent us making every effort now to estimate abundance of stocks of both salmon and sea trout.

Latest radio tagging news: The news from our Montrose scientists is that another 8 fish were radio-tagged last week, bringing the total of tagged spring salmon to 47. Of those 47 fish, 8 have now entered the South Esk, with one of those fish dropping back into Montrose Basin. All the fish appear to be in good condition but the numbers seen in the nets in late February and early March have dropped away, so that the target of 11 rasdio-tagged fish for the week ending 31/3 was not met.

Two salmon have migrated upstream and were recorded by the receiver at Haughs of Finavon. The first of these two fish passed the Haughs of Finavon receiver on 27 March and was later recorded at Tannadice. The second salmon was recorded by the Haughs receiver on the 28th of March and is probably lying in one of Finavon’s holding pools.

What surprises me about these reports is that a significant number of spring salmon are entering and travelling a fair distance up the river, even in these dead low water levels. The fact that these fish are making it well upriver (15 to 20 miles, and maybe more) should remind us of how resilient and determined these fish are. Salmon never cease to amaze me. Who would have believed that a good run of fish could take place through the thin stickles of the river in its present condition?

No tagged fish have yet been recorded by receivers on Dee, Tay or North Esk.

TA on 2 April 2012

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

Tagged salmon in the S Esk. Gordon Smith told me today that the Marine Scotland team in Montrose has now radio tagged and released 31 salmon from in the Usan nets. Of those 31 fish 3 have been recorded in the lower pools of the South Esk, but none so far have migrated beyond Kinnaird Dyke. No tagged fish have been picked up on Tay, North Esk or Dee receivers to date.

Drought conditions. Anyone looking at the Finavon webcam would immediately be aware of the unseasonal low water in the South Esk. Those of us who observe salmon behaviour in the river have a consensus view that there will not be much movement of fish until we get additional water. With no reserves of snow in the glens to give the river a late winter boost we are entirely dependent on rain, and the sky shows no signs of bringing that in the quantities we now badly need.

So, three tagged fish from the Usan  nets in the South Esk, and probably more to come. Meanwhile the Usan nets leaders are in the sea again and we expect the process of tagging spring 2SW and 3SW salmon to continue. One thing can be said of the tagging project is that to date it has met its targets.

TA 19 March 2012

Postscript written on 22/3/2012: the river is now very low. Only a trickle of water is flowing on the north side of the ‘armchair rock’ which is the boulder in the centre of the webcam picture. In these circumstances it is unlikely that there will be much movement of salmon within the river, of kelts migrating downstream and fresh fish ascending the river. There is also small chance of new fish entering the river in any numbers. It is in situations like this that we realise how like a ‘spate river’ the South Esk can be, although, strictly speaking, a spate river is what you find on the west coast and in the islands where rivers rise and fall within hours and where you can start the day with low water, enjoy a productive spate at lunchtime, and be back to low water in the evening. The South Esk isn’t quite like that, but, as John Ashley-Cooper says, it does assume very small dimensions in a drought.

Usually at this time of year there are a few snow filled corries to give the river a boost of fresh water from snowmelt, but not this year. The early season in Angus is very often quite wet, with driech days and scudding rain blown into the catchment by gales from the east, sometimes from the southwest. The rain, combined with a slow snowmelt, normally keeps the ‘armchair rock’ well covered. But this year, since the beginning of March, drought conditions have prevailed with the result that the run of early running salmon has come to a grinding halt and the armchair pokes out of the riverbed like an old tooth.

But off the coast, thanks to the Marine Scotland monitoring project, we are seeing reasonable numbers of salmon caught in the nets, which has resulted in the target number of 2SW and 3SW salmon being radio tagged. These tagged fish have little incentive to enter the river in these very low water conditions. It can be assumed that, as more fish accumulate in the Scurdie Ness/Lunan Bay section of the coast, they will stay in the area of the South Esk estuary like aeroplanes in a holding pattern awaiting permission to land at Heathrow. Fortunately these salmon will not be killed by netting, although the likelihood of predation by seals is heightened as the concentration of waiting fish grows.

A promise of things to come?

The message is a simple one; We need rain, and preferably lots of it!

TA 22/3/2012