Catch Limits

There is no formal catch limit for wild trout in the UK. If a limit is not specified on a permit it is hoped that anglers will act with moderation when killing brownies.



Trout are delicious to eat but a couple of half pounders fried in oatmeal for breakfast is a feast, all you need to satisfy your hunter gatherer angling instincts.

Many clubs ask that all wild trout are returned unharmed or they set a catch limit. Some clubs require that all wild fish are returned. To compensate they stock with dye marked or fin clipped fish which can be taken.

Peebles-shire Trout Fly Angling Association is a good example of a club using marked fish which ensures that the wild fish stocks are free to regenerate relatively unharmed.

The standard size limit for trout is 8" but most clubs and fishery owners set a higher limit of 10, 12 or more inches (I always look for fisheries that have a high size limit – doesn't it just tell you something about the fishing prospects?) On the Don they ask that all fish under 12inches (30cm) and over 18inches are retruned unharmed; maximum 2 fish per day, 8 fish per season can be taken.

This policy protects the smaller fish and the bigger spawners ensuring that natural stocks are sustainable for the future.

As to salmon and sea trout, we are for many reasons passing through a period of great concern for the future of these magnificent fish.

Consequently all fishing boards in Scotland have set conservation measures which you should find out about before you commence fishing (information will be supplied with permits) but you should know that these measures have not been applied lightly.

Much has been done to promote the recovery of our migratory fish runs. From 2015 anglers are being asked to play their part. Face facts, how much salmon smoked or otherwise can you eat?

We are anglers not fishmongers, it is illegal to sell rod caught fish in Scotland. In the rest of the country and Ireland similar measures have been implemented indeed more stringent measures have been put in place such as returning all fish before June, returning every second fish, setting daily catch limits, returning all hens or large fish (large fish can carry more eggs per kilo of weigh, over 1500 eggs per kilo therefore they are more valuable to the long term sustainability of a fishery), issuing tags which limit the number of fish you can kill per season, and having total catch and release policies.

As of 2015 new regulations in Scotland require that all migratory fish caught are returned unharmed up to the 30th of April even if they are dead or expiring and thereafter they advise that all fish caught up to 30th of June are also returned unharmed.

Conservation limits have been set for 2019 SeeSalmon Conservation limit, Scotland, River Categories

The River Categories are Cat 1, catch and kill allowed; Cat 2 catch and kill permitted under certain conditions Cat 3 All fish to be returned, no exceptions.

The same level of conservation applies to sea trout in Scotland which continue to decline in many river systems and throughout the UK and Ireland. Some rivers allow a limited number of fish to be taken, some ask on a voluntary basis, that all fish are returned.



While some rivers in England go from strength to strength, the Wear, Tyne, Yorkshire Esk for example, reknown sea trout rivers such as the Towy are in decline as a result on agricultural pollution.

Sometimes it feels like the old adage "when one door opens another one shuts", thats why we need to keep up the pressure on gorvernment to act in our interests and on out fellow angler to be restrained..

The Spey requires that all sea trout over 3lbs are put back. Brown trout stocks in Scotland remain healthy and sea trout are, like steelhead are to rainbow trout, just brown trout that migrate to sea. It may be that in rivers holding migratory fish the food supply is sufficient for parr, smolts and wild brown trout resulting in there being no pressure to migrate.

Certainly, the Spey below Aviemore has become enriched by nutrients coming from inadequate sewage treatment. The heydays of sea trout and their decline roughly coincide with the growth of Aviemore as a tourist Mecca. Similar may be said about the Deveron and Don but linked to agricultural fertiliser. Nutrients promote the develpment of vertebrate populations, flies, shrimp, snails, providing an abundance of food.

Maybe when the number of salmon par in river systems returns to the 'plague' proportions we once knew the brown trout will start skipping out to sea again where they can get a good feed and return as hosts of finnock or sparkling sea trout.

As to sea fishing there are no limits but advice is that you should not fish for bass and mullet in nursery grounds, should return large predators such as shark. They are not often eaten by the anglers and killing is an ego trip and a them is a waste. In fact this advice is being promoted across all species as we move away from the days of killing everything in order to do the 'body count' at the end of the day.

Where a catch limit exists it will say so on your fishing permit, otherwise use restraint - you are an angler not a fishmonger.


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