Duncan

According to my mate who was at the auction most of the major Walker items went to Japan. The main buyer wasn’t there in person he was on the bank of a river, apparently at one point the bidding was held up while he played and landed a salmon. The auctioneer couldn’t understand why the Japanese where so interested, and made the comment that perhaps they thought there was a distillery connection. Prices for some stuff was a bit low with 4” Ariel’s making £600, Carter pins £300/£320, James MkIV’s £300. Green whipped MkIV’s to £600 A Hardy RW Avon made £900 and cased fish were making good money with Cooper case’s achieving higher prices than Homer cases. Duncan

Last address I have is: Mervyn Haskins 27 Hill Lawn Brislington Bristol BS4 4PH tel: 01179 771066 As far as I know he's still with us. Hope this is of use Duncan

Thanks Leon/Graham, You replies have reinforced my observations with identifiable fish. There is an underlying reason for this query. As you know mono-filament gill nets are banned in inshore fisheries in Scotland, however there appears to be a loop hole that is currently being exploited by certain sectors. The loop hole is – don’t use mono for the net, use a multi-filament (two strands of twisted mono is multi-filament) as this is outside current legislation. My mate, who is the DSRB (District Salmon Fishery Board) manager recently observed a netter working in the estuary, catching mullet and salmon and sea trout (which were returned – dead but returned and therefore not illegal, again). He contacted the Sea Fish Protection bods who confirmed that it was ok to fish in this way with this type of net. There was a small creek that contained a good number of larger specimens of thick lip mullet, this particular netter fished 4 tides in succession, his catch was 18 stone, 14 stone, 7 stone and 3 stone after which he gave up and went elsewhere. That creek is now devoid of fish and from your previous posts likely to remain devoid for the foreseeable future. We are starting to move to get the estuary (the Solway) designated as a bass nursery, this will stop the netting however containing both the English and Scottish sides on the estuary this is proving a little more difficult. Thanks for your reply and I will keep you posted on the developments. TTFN Duncan

Morning All, A mullet question. In river estuaries or harbours are mullet creatures of habit or nomads. I mean by this do the same mullet return to feed in an area tide by tide and year by year or is it different fish passing through and taking advantage of the feeding opportunity. TTFN Duncan

Morning all, I’ll be there both days, working on the Grayling Society stand. Call in and say hi, you wont be able to miss me miss me – Shortish, rotund, greying beard and wearing a green CSG sweatshirt & I promise not to give you the hard sell about joining. TTFN Duncan

Evening All, I've had a reply to my query and its posted below: "Hi Duncan Sea trout are the sea-running (anadromous) form of the brown trout (Salmo trutta) and so are genetically the same species. Underlying the sea trout habit may be a combination of circumstances, including limited local feeding and growing opportunities in fresh water and good access to and from saltwater. The tendency to migrate to the sea to feed is more common in some populations than in others and is likely to be inherited to some extent. However, even where sea trout are common, some of the juvenile trout live their lives and mature in fresh water as brown trout. In these mixed trout spawning populations, most of the brown trout (sometimes nearly all of them) tend to be male fish. Conversely, females are more common than males among sea trout. In experimental stocking experiments that I carried out in the River Earn System, in Eastern Scotland, burn trout, river trout and sea trout were produced from batches of eggs produced and fertilised by sea trout. I am not sure how much the relative proportions of sea trout and brown trout produced within individual spawning populations vary between years under normal circumstances. However, a radical environmental change, such as the formation of a new barrier to migration, or the availability of a major new source of food, such as that provided by fish farm cages, may curtail sea trout. It is also believed that sea trout originating from donor brown trout stocks soon colonised other rivers in the Falkland Islands and elsewhere. Trout have the inherent flexibility to adapt quickly to such changes. I hope this is the kind of information that you wanted. Best wishes Andy" I hope this is sufficiently informative for everybody. TTFN Duncan

Ahh, the sweet smell of promotion. I'm actually the Grayling Society's Equipment Sales Officer (they don't trust me with the money) and Area Secretary for the North of England and Southern Scotland. To try and get a scientific response I've tapped a message off to a fishy chap I know and I’m awaiting his reply. Information I’ve looked at state that the fish are biologically the same but the Sea Trout has a smolt stage whereas the brown does not. I will post it up when I recive his reply TTFN Duncan

Just to muddy the water a little further, a report from the Roslyn Institute can be read Here The method of assessing the pain receptors looks a bit gruesome. Duncan

Can I recommend a book - Floater Fishing - Brian Skoyles & Chris Ball, ISBN 1 871700 25 6. Great little book, instructional and a wealth of information inside. Steve Burke may have a copy TTFN Duncan

Hi Phil, It’s an interesting one this. When is a brown trout not a brown trout – when it’s a sea trout? Sea trout, brown trout, slob trout are all one and the same fish. For some reason (probably only known to him upstairs) a brown trout has the sudden urge to visit pastures new - feed better, sun, sea & sangria I don’t know but they do, and off to sea they go – they do have to undergo some sort of a biological change to compensate for the density change from fresh water to salt I don’t know the mechanism. So where are all the large trout, probably tucked under the bank as in my experience on rain fed rivers its usually late evening that consistent catch’s of larger fish are made. Are you sure that these small trout were in fact trout, as salmon smolts will be starting to head to sea around this time? On one of the rivers I fish its common to catch large brownies (4lbs plus) early in the season yet they disappear after May never to be seen again until the following April. Are these well mended kelts that are just fattening up in the river before making the transition to the sea again – I don’t know and other people I ask not sure either. I do suspect that brown trout will stay in a river until hunger forces them to put to sea and they change to the sea trout derivative. The reverse may also be true that low food stocks at sea forces the sea trout to revert back to brown trout. Lots of unanswered and imponderables with this question it would be interesting to illicit a response from on of our learned fishy biologists on this for a more definitive answer – it there is one. Duncan

Leon, I can confirm that water levels are low in north Cumbria and SW Scotland, we have not had any significant rain since 11th March. However at this moment we don’t want very heavy rain, which will cause the inevitable flood conditions - rivers up here are rain fed and are susceptible to heavy localised rainfall. Grayling have spawned and the chub & dace are not far away. Heavy floods between now and June will decimate what fry survive and another year’s stock potential is lost. Duncan

TT The LRH is part of the Hardy Lightweight range and was the brainchild of Lawrence Robert Hardy, son of Hardy founder William Hardy. The LRH is 3 3/16” dia. and weighs 3 7/8oz. The Lightweight range was patented in 1951 so your reel is ffrom that date onwards as they still make them. I don't think the reels carry a serial number - the rods do and you can check them against the Hardy data base to find the date of manufacture and sometimes who they were made for. Value - new ones are about £120 and Hardy reels do have a good resale value. Hope this helps Duncan

Wag, Got the JRC TH Classic - IMO its the dogs dangly bits. Weighs 2.9kg (just checked it), low height and carries my 17.5 stone. Comes with integral mud feet and the leg adjustment is spot on. I usually carry it with a bungee cord fitted onto my rucksack. It’s made in the UK and comes with a 5-year frame warranty. A top bit of kit Duncan

Nigel/Phil, Mr Heddle-Cowie contacted me a couple of months ago wanting info, and my first query was why and what will the info be used for, I’ve always been a bit twitchy regarding motives by the TC’s. However the fundings private on this one, H-C is a “biological statistician” (what ever that is) and he wants to provide a statistical overview of the Tweed then and now. So any info, even anecdotal, would be useful the glory days at Coldstream etc. I’m sending what I have, and I’m persuading dad to do the same. Mr Hall in the match days could also have some info. I will be monitoring the outcome of this study and hopefully with some of the changes within the TC some good will come from it. Nigel contact me privately and I can fill you in on a few other developments. Duncan

Morning Lee, The survey is being undertaken to support the current Salmon & Freshwater Fishery review. Hence no sea angling input. TTFN Duncan