One month into the close season and we find ourselves in the midst of the long awaited “Indian Summer”!   Yes, after 40 years of talking about it, finally, it arrived, and not surprisingly, it had a strange affect on fish and their behaviour.   Much like we see with warm weather in the summer, fish were much less willing to take a fly on the run up too, and during this unseasonable weather, all of which proved more than frustrating for anglers visiting the river this autumn. Although there were more than enough fish present in the pools, particularly in the lower half of the river, try to get them to take!?  

There have been many theories as to why fish were so reluctant to look at a fly, we must remember however, this is nothing unusual in September, but this year, the rot seemed to set in much earlier, around the beginning of August!   After a wet summer with lots of high water the river finally begun to settle down, but not until around the end of September, by which time fish of all colours were spread throughout the whole river.   One theory, and certainly a plausible one, was; with so much high water, fish; most of which were Multi Sea Winter [MSW] of similar size, were displaced from their preferred area of migration, after each of the many summer floods, finding themselves in the “wrong” place and having to make the migration again a few times over.   The combination of high water, high water temperatures and similarly sized fish [very few grilse] for me makes for an Interesting theory! !

As the winter approaches, this year, the SFB are to scale down the output of their hatchery. A more targeted approach will see between 60 and 80 hen fish being caught up, producing between 250 and 300 thousand eggs for the hatchery this winter.   This much reduced number is a direct result of a more scientific approach to fisheries management. Basically speaking, unlike in the past, the SFB now need a licence to collect and hold the eggs of salmon, a licence which must be applied for to the Scottish Executive on the basis of sound scientific study. Only after consultation with SNH will this be issued to the board, meaning that all future hatchery based projects will be carried out, not as they have in the past, as a precautionary approach, but as a proactive one, targeting areas which have been identified through long term study to have an inadequate number of juveniles.   Another facet of this new approach to the hatchery will be stocking will only take place in areas which can be easily monitored by the scientific team. This will again provide detailed analysis of whether this is indeed cost effective, or, as many already think, is a waste of recourses.   One thing which will be different to the past is that all of the juvenile fish held in the hatchery will be planted out a Parr in the autumn; even with the reduced number of fish held in the hatchery this should have a positive impact on those areas identified as having vulnerable populations.   The boards stocking policy will be reviewed again at the end of 2012. 

Although the final number of fish caught this year is not yet available, it would seem, although not the best year on record, never the less, 2011 will be looked upon as a fairly good season for bigger MSW fish.   After a slow start, like most other Scottish rivers, the Spey had a better than normal spring, with the period between February and June producing some 3850, or some 20 tonnes of very good quality MSW salmon.   Gordon Castle Fishing’s in particular saw a marked improvement in numbers of fish during this period and although lightly fished saw one of its best season at this time for many years.   This period also saw numbers of fish returned at a record high with an ever increasing number of anglers happy to release their salmon, irrespective of whether it was their first or second of the day. 

Another interesting development this month was word of a new spray for the control of Ranunculas weed. I hope to have more on this next month but it seems for the first time we may have something to control the ever increasing threat of this plant. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all followers of the column a Merry Christmas, Happy and Healthy New Year. Tight lines for 2012! 

Ian Gordon
Speycaster