From left to right: Neil Patterson (Columnist), Hazel Brockie (Accounts), Leslie Currie (Advertising), Sarah Ferguson (Subscriptions), Stuart Letford (Assistant Editor), and Mark Bowler (Publishing Editor).

Brilliant

Fly Fishing & Fly Tying has been awarded Specialist Consumer Magazine of the Year. The title scooped the award at a gala evening held at Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh on Thursday, November 26.

The event was hosted by BBC Scotland’s Cathy MacDonald and was attended by a sell-out audience of almost 400 leading figures from the magazine publishing industry.

On making the award, the judges commented: “This is what a specialist magazine is all about – well designed and written, with brilliant step-by-step instructions, This magazine delivers brilliantly. Passionate, but objective – constantly inventive – the judges doubted if there was a better magazine of its kind anywhere in the UK.”

Unseen dangers lie within Norway’s beautiful fjord coastline as sea lice threaten the existence of its wild salmon.

Norway’s salmon under threat

The shock-wave that Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) has had on Chile's salmon farms has now reached Norway. Due to the disease cutting Chile's production down massively, salmon prices have hiked, and so Norway is looking to expand its salmon farming capacity to fill the void in the market. However, Norway's fish biologists are extremely concerned over current sea lice levels off the Norwegian coast, and are warning that the coming smolt migration this spring is critical to the future of Norway's entire wild salmon stock. Some estimate that sea lice from the farms – which are becoming increasingly resistant to farm treatments – are responsible for Norway's wild smolt run being decimated by 90% every year. NASF (North Atlantic Salmon Federation) plot Norway's wild salmon stocks as declining by 80% (from 1.8million in 1965 to 200,000 fish in 30 years).

As rivers in the entire Bergen area, northern Stavanger, some of the smaller Trondelag rivers, and some rivers near the Arctic Circle are considered for closure by fishery managers for the coming season due to lack of stocks, responsible biologists in Norway are calling for closed containment farm systems, as this is the only way they can see that wild fish and the farms can co-exist in the future. However, they are worried that the sheer force of economics and the value of the farmed salmon could drive their own wild salmon to extinction.

Carsington fishery is now set to transfer from Severn Trent to private tender.

Severn Trent tight-lipped over reservoirs’ futures

Draycote Fly Fishing Association met with Severn Trent Water’s representatives early in December to seek assurances from the company that the fishery will not be closed permanently after its construction work there in 2010 (see ‘Anglers shut out,’ News, January 2010).

Site manager, Corinne Moss, head ranger, Carl James and press officer, Grace Marron, told the anglers of Severn Trent’s plans in detail and took questions from the floor. However, the three did not give the anglers satisfactory answers and could only be vague in their responses. Severn Trent, they were told, would “endeavour” to open the fishery for 2011, but couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be a reduction in bank fishing. Draycote currently has five miles of bank fishing.

Many anglers came away from the meeting believing Severn Trent had agreed to the meeting simply to “tick the consultation box,” as the company hadn’t put forward any senior executives to meet them. What is certain is that the fishery, near Rugby, will close for 2010 with construction work commencing in May or June. 
Robert Griffiths, a member of Draycote Fly Fishers for 30 years, said: “It’s just so disappointing. When they built the visitor centre we were still allowed to fish and worked together with the disruption, so why must it be different this time is beyond me. This shouldn’t stop us from bank fishing.”

• Meanwhile, over at Carsington – another one of Severn Trent’s reservoirs – further doubts over the company’s commitment to upholding its statutory obligations have emerged with the news that it has has terminated the employment of its fishery staff there. It is believed the lease will now be put out to tender. Despite repeatedly being contacted by FF&FT, a Severn Trent spokesman refused to comment.

Stocked lake brown trout could be caught throughout the year in 2010.

Brown trout all year?

Year-round brown trout fishing will be a possibility in 2010. New byelaws which will remove the brown trout closed season from stillwater fisheries are planned for introduction early in 2010 by the Environment Agency (EA) if it can respond successfully to any objections lodged. The new byelaw will apply to all fully enclosed stillwaters, ie, those reservoirs, lakes or ponds in which fish cannot normally swim from or to other waters and do not have stocks of spawning wild fish, in England and Wales.
Adrian Taylor, Fisheries Manager at the EA said: “Where wild fish are absent and fisheries are wholly dependent on restocking, there is a case for allowing year-round angling. Removing the close season from enclosed stillwaters should give many stillwater managers this option. The additional power allows us to assess the risk posed to other stillwaters on a case by case basis and remove the close season where there is no risk to wild stocks.”

Anglers can help contribute to sea trout science through measuring and scale sampling their catch.

Anglers to help sea trout programme

Arguably the most sporting and probably the most enigmatic of our indigenous game fish is the sea trout. However, compared to salmon and brown trout, little is known about this most valuable species, writes John Todd. The Celtic Sea Trout Programme is an ambitious new project funded by EU Intereg IV which aims to discover crucial scientific facts about sea trout that will ultimately lead to better understanding and thus management of these fish and their fisheries in these challenging and changing times.
Initially, there will be around 80 rivers targeted, with 20 receiving special interest, in this international project looking at waters in south west Scotland, north west England, the Isle of Man, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Clearly, this will require co-operation from a large number of private fisheries, trusts, angling associations and clubs, commercial fishermen, individual and groups of anglers, universities, fishery boards and other statutory bodies.

Principally, this is an Irish Sea based study and as such the two lead bodies will be the Central Fisheries Board in Ireland and Bangor University in Wales.

There are many aspects of the sea trout’s life cycle to be explored such as: where and what local populations of the fish feed on; where and how far do they migrate; how do rising water temperatures in both fresh and saltwater affect both sea trout and their prey; how do tidal energy schemes and the like affect migratory fish; how do growth rates in fresh and saltwater compare in different fisheries.

These are just a few of the obvious questions requiring scientific answers never minding other even more obvious problems such as pollution and degradation of habitat.

Much data is required with scale reading and size of fish caught being one aspect where anglers can make a significant impact. Details of how and where to take scales without harming the fish together with much more information can be obtained from Dr Paddy Gargan in Ireland on 00 353 (0) 876468611; p.gargan@cfb.ie or Dr. Nigel Milner on 07712038674; n.milner@apemitd.co.uk or Graeme Harris in Wales on 01248 38282.