I saw a lot of fish on Sunday pushing through the V in the head of the Riddings pool a great sight but with 110+ miles to disperse into will we see them again , tides building again this weekend hopefully should bring more in, we saw smolts going the other way to not in huge numbers but also didnt see a feb hopefully they have gorged on lead
We need a lot of fish to stock this river to have any real effect on rod catches. We often hear of runs of fish on the lower beats which fail to materialise to any extent upriver as Steve suggests
Let's say a thousand fish came in last week. Say 20% of those hole up in beats which are not recognised as good salmon beats or are lightly fished. There are plenty of those up and down the river . That leaves 800.
Some will not be takers and its suggested that with the methods we are allowed now we only catch between 10/15% of the run at most . Let.s be generous and suggest that leaves us with a possible addition to the rod catch of 120, just over one per mile, which decreases possibly the longer they are in the river uncaught.
Thing is we have no idea what comes in or out of our river or what happens to them when they do. No idea of the effects of catch and release either in respect of mortality or subsequent egg deposition or of multiple captures and no real idea of what the 'improvements' to our river have achieved. The latter because no one really bothers to evaluate it in any meaningful way.
On top of that we have an NRW who doesn't care a jot and wishes to restrict us further, a Welsh Government who would like to flood Wales with canoeists and probably will, water companies, poultry sheds and cattle farmers pollute with what seem like immunity and lets not even mention the barbel.
Hope my maths are correct
hwell:
