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
Readers of these blogs may be interested to have an overview of sea trout catches by rods and nets in the South Esk District in the years 2005 to 2008 inclusive. On the grounds that the Usan Fishery netsmen have said that minimal numbers of sea trout have been killed in the last two years (2010 & 2011) we should get some idea from these figures of the additional spawning escapement resulting from that restraint. These figures have been verified by MSS.
The figures below are for sea trout killed in May and June for these 4 years: the figures in brackets are ST caught and returned alive to the river:
| Year | May rods | June Rods | May Nets | June Nets |
| 2005 | 7 (6) | 196 (19) | 316 | 1289 |
| 2006 | 12 (8) | 191 (19) | 254 | 1474 |
| 2007 | 11 (9) | 199 (50) | 456 | 408 |
| 2008 | (3) | 120 (40) | 574 | 335 |
The average number of sea trout killed in the S Esk District, rods and nets combined, is 1402, with the nets accounting for 1251 and rods 151. If, as seems to be the case ,C&R has increased as well as minimal kill by the nets in the last two years, we should be seeing more sea trout in the system. What we cannot know at this stage is to what extent the sea trout returns from the coastal nets reflect a mixed stocks fishery. In other words we should maybe assume that a proportion of sea trout killed by the nets were bound for other rivers, but we have no idea what that proportion is. More research required here.
However, whatever the proportion of sea trout from elsewhere is we can safely assume that there is a significant spawning escapement of largely female fish. Let’s hope that may result in a greater abundance of sea trout.
TA