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Tay Ghillies Call for a Change to the Opening Season on the River Tay
In an effort to eliminate disturbance to spawning fish, Tay ghillies have called upon the Tay Fisheries Board to move the traditional opening day of the season to February. In recent years, due to climate change, it has been noted that salmon runs have come later in the season with many fish entering the river on spawning runs in November and December. In the past many people took these fish to be early spring fish but evidence of fish spawning into January has shown that far from being early runners these winter running fish are in fact late runners determined to spawn. With fish in the lower reaches of the Tay spawning as I write it would seem sensible to address the issue now with a view to ensuring that these fish will in future years be left to carry out their procreative activity in peace.
The season on the Tay has been the same for 100 years taking little account of the changes, in the pattern of spawning runs. The same can be said of other rivers throughout the country. Why are the season dates so static? One reason is off course the advance rental of beats, especially time shares. Something would off course have to be done to compensate anglers who find their fishing is no longer in season. Adjusting the season dates on all rivers from time to time would be a sensible move as history shows us quite clearly that while we might be happy to have an established pattern in our lives the fish are not.
In his informative book, 'The Complete Salmon Angler' *, Malcolm Greenhalgh has collated statistics which show that variations in salmon runs occur on a regular basis. Greenhalgh has found that during the 17th and 18th centuries there were no spring runs as temperatures were some 34 to 35 degrees cooler than now.
At this time salmon only ran during the summer and autumn. Between 1780 and 1800 temperatures began to rise and a spring run began on the Aberdeenshire Dee in 1790.
Between 1817 and 1850 temperature fell and spring runs declined. It was not until after 1870 when temperatures began to rise again that spring runs became dominant and summer and autumn runs fell off. 1885 saw a new period of lower temperatures and again spring runs declined.
After 1898 temperatures increased and spring runs dominated the season up to 1960 when there was a cooler period for some ten years and summer fish became more prominent as spring salmon went into decline.
Today the spring runs are a shadow of the heydays of the period 1920 to 1960. It is however clear that variations in climate are more important to the pattern of salmon runs. Many people believe that spring fish are genetically programmed to run early and much effort has been put into preserving the gene pool and spawning grounds of 'springers', which I am sure contributes greatly to conservation efforts,
however it does seem that salmon are in fact temperature sensitive choosing to run early when water temperatures are higher on average. Global warming may in fact result in a resurgence of spring runs. Higher temperatures also have an effect on the available food at sea. The variations in sea temperature between warm and cold periods are quite small, 4 to 5 degrees,
however even this small change can have a massive effect on the plankton biomass in the sea upon which the prey species of salmon feed e.g. crustaceans such as krill. Recognising that salmon behaviour is dependent upon climate suggests very strongly that fishing seasons should be altered from time to time to accommodate this variation.
Fishing a river devoid of fresh fish or or full of gravid fish holds little attraction. Today we find our selves fishing in rivers with seasons decided on the basis of what was happening generations ago which is about as fruitful at times as waiting for the last bus after it has gone.
I hope some serious debate comes to fruition after this call by the Tay ghillies and if one solution is to have a later season commencement for the lower river then so be it. Anglers can be a little too conservative in their view of how fishing should be conducted. Odd for people who are so close to nature don't you think?
*The Complete Salmon Angler, Malcolm Greenhalgh, Blandford, 1996. ISBN 0-7137-2544-3
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