Finavon Castle Bulletin

Philip McWalter’s 20lbs hen salmon caught in Harry’s Bar on 15 October and returned carefully to the River to spawn.Late Season Fishing at Finavon.
Low water & coloured fish.

As I write this blog on Saturday morning 19 October it is still raining after heavy rain overnight. The Armchair Boulder in the webcam view has disappeared beneath a muddy flood and the SEPA level marker tells me that at 0655 today at Gella Bridge the level was 3’2” and rising. It will certainly continue to do so well into the afternoon.

There has been only one place to catch salmon at Finavon this week. We have caught and returned four fish between 7lbs and 20lbs in the little stream known as Harry’s Bar (Bogardo Beat), just above the deep water at the head of Melgund Pool. Although there have been fish showing in the main pools, they have been reluctant to take, and all of those seen were coloured. In the previous week there were two fresh grilse caught, one of which was sea-liced.

As we go into the last 10 days of the 2013 season I note that it has been a poor year for angling – the lowest catch of salmon and sea trout at FCW for more than 30 years. But it has not necessarily been a bad year for the fish. It will be interesting to see what the Usan nets declare and how many keep-ins there were during the season.

Early spawning of sea trout took place and appears to have been successful in the Finavon spawning gravels in September, and there are plenty of salmon waiting to spawn when the water temperature drops decisively, probably next month and in December.

In my view the river is in good ply and, given reasonable conditions over the next 8 weeks, there is no reason why the spawning period shouldn’t be productive. In that respect we are wholly in the hands of Nature.
TA

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. While I may digress at times to write about other places, these 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

Although the temperature hasn’t dropped – yet, the leaves, dessicated by the dry summer, have started to fall into the river, making fishing an irritation at times. There are a few fish about, less than we might have expected in the circumstances. Many anglers were hoping that the long drought might have held back fish, so that when the first flood arrived, as it did (briefly) last week, there would be an in-rush of salmon into the pools. We all hoped for silver MSW autumn salmon, but what we got was a few rather coloured fish which had probably been hunkered down in some of the lower river pools.

We have seen a few salmon, all coloured, caught and returned. My guess is that many fish will have arrived off the coast earlier in the season and either were predated or netted, legally or illegally, and some may have died from stress before entering the river. While there may be a late autumn run, I think encouragement of a consistent level of cool, fresh water flowing into the sea at Montrose will be the deciding factor. But of course that is pure speculation, and is not supported by data.

South Esk Tagging Project

I have just heard that two salmon were tagged at sea in April 2013 and were later recorded as having entered the Spey! Given that only 38 fish were tagged at sea, and a further 22 in fresh water at Upper Kinnaird on the South Esk, these two Spey fish represent a sizeable proportion of fish ‘belonging’ to the Spey being caught by Usan Fisheries. We don’t really need any more evidence that the impact of Usan nets is probably affecting all east coast rivers, including ‘the rivers in-between’ (see the bulletin for 22 September).
Perhaps the inclusion of the Spey will add weight to the powerful argument that mixed stocks netting has had its day, and that it is impossible to manage Scotland’s wild salmon effectively while the practice continues.

Tagging for 2013 is now complete with 38 salmon tagged at sea after capture in the Usan nets, and 22 in the South Esk after being caught in a net trap positioned in the Arn Pool at Upper Kinnaird. It is a pity that no contract was agreed between the Government and Usan Fisheries to continue tagging into the month of May. This I understand was for commercial reasons, presumably because Messers Pullar did not want disruption to their extremely valuable May netting.

As I mentioned in mid April, May is now the most prolific month for spring salmon on the South Esk. In years gone by it was April that saw the main run, but that has changed. We will therefore not get the data we need to find out where our May-run spring salmon spawn and where their progeny have their nursery areas. That is a pity, and I suggest is against the public interest. In other words, that contract with Usan Fisheries should in my opinion have been demanded and signed. After all, we are talking about a national and natural resource here, and we all are involved (or should be) in protecting it for future generations.

So, how many salmon are now in the South Esk catchment, as revealed by recordings on the positioned static receivers?

22 salmon were tagged in fresh water at Kinnaird

13 tags remain below the dyke (some which have been regurgitated and are now sitting on the bed of the river)

6 salmon have crossed the Kinnaird dyke

1 salmon is already in Glen Clova

4 are unaccounted for

24 radio-tagged salmon, including the 2 netted at sea, now appear to be in the South Esk, which is more than at any time in 2012

38 salmon were tagged at sea in Usan nets

2 entered the South Esk

1 entered the Tay

7 entered the North Esk

2 entered the Spey

26 are as yet unaccounted for.

These 60 fish are the baseline for the 2013 tracking exercise whose objectives are:

1. To find out where South Esk springers spawn

2. To find out which rivers the Usan nets are (lethally) exploiting

Of the 22 early season salmon caught in the Marine Scotland net in the Arn Pool at Upper Kinnaird we now know that some tags were regurgitated and later recovered, and that some 6 fish triggered the Bridge of Dun receiver as they left the river, so we may have a dozen fish to give us the data we need to establish where the spring salmon spawn and where their progeny spend the pre smolt part of their lives. Not a very robust sample.

TA 8/10/13