Bass v Salmon& Sea Trout ?

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Hi All,

Thanks to those that responded - some interesting comments! Been too busy fishing to reply earlier - Conservation Politics can take second place! Last nocturnal sortie to Totnes Weir in difficult conditions - swirling mist and dropping temperatures- did result in success. Landed one sea trout, but lost two with those rubber hooks again! Pleased to see my guest caught his first sea trout ( 4lb 13oz) for a few years. However the really interesting thing, other than the sight of a metre long lamprey on the Weir face and other than having to chase a seal out of the pool before we started to fish, was that all rods on the night that I spoke to had just caught at least one bass - largest reported 1lb 8oz.

Having fished the Dart for 25 years or more this really is an unusually high number of bass and early stage of the season for this to occur!

I did not really expect any answer to the bass v sea trout/salmon debate and my personal dilemma as a game fisherman Chairman, formerly Secretary of the local Dart Angling Association together with being a Member of Devon Sea Fisheries Committee, a recreational sea angler and shortly to be a commercial fisherman, as part owner of a soon to be launched 9.95M Cheetah Cat that will be rod and line fishing for bass for part of the year, continues!

To answer just a few of your comments:-

Colin W - thanks for correcting the date to 1990. Unfortunately this adds to the dilemma as the recorded declines did not really get a mention until the 90's with the rate of decline escalating from around 1995 onwards. We have no real management information systems on the Dart and the only real record is based on the recorded rod and net catches. These were around 5000 for salmon in 1900. Had declined to around 2000 in the early 80s and had fallen to around 500 by 2000, despite increasingly progressive voluntary and mandatory catch restrictions introduced incrementally through the 90's. We finally managed to negotiate a partial 10 net buy-out in 2004 and work with the remaining 3 nets towards future sustainability?

Wurzel- you old rogue - the Dart is fly only for sea trout and how did you manage to get onto our private fishery at Totnes Weir? Please send any fine money to me! The Bacon factory is long closed, but the leat is still open, even if the EA could not tell me what the abstraction licence conditions were, when I asked them a couple of weeks ago as part of ongoing debate into their "Restoring Sustainable Abstraction" programme! Worryingly the Weir face is now almost dry, and it is only May! We know what research into salmon migration states - if they are prevented from entering the river by factors such as man made barriers or low flow - up to 50% may return to sea and are unlikely to return to spawn!

I disagee with you and personally believe that the bass nursery areas here in the South West have done a great deal to restore the bass stocks. The Dart appears full of bass. I fished Salcombe Estuary for giltheads the other day and was plagued by bass to 40cm.

Ryford Andy I take your point about other issues and will be continuing my ongoing fight against over abstraction, habitat degradation and pollution, particularly endocrine disruption from STW discharges - that from Buckfast STW on the Dart containing OP and SP waste from the commercial effluent from a mill scouring sheep fleeces. Submissions I made in to the Minister in 1995 on this subject and about the combined impact of STW components remain unresolved to this date. I also take the point about monofilament netting, whilst recognising the good work that the SFC has already done by using the S&FF Act to limit fixed engine nets along much of the Devon coastline. However please do not lose sight of the fact that increased bass numbers in the estuary may just be another factor in salmonid decline.

Leon I am disappointed by your comment "Maybe we shouldn't be worrying too much about the smolts" . Whilst I note you relate this to the research based projection on bass stocks, the declines in salmonids are already here and also require actions now!

I personally do not know what the impact on salmonids by the introduction of bass nursery areas has been. Nor can I speculate too much on what will happen if bass stocks and or size limits are increased. However I do believe, given the fact that the Dart and other SW Rivers arise in the Dartmoor SAC, where salmon and their routes to the protected SAC area have protected status, that proper consideration should be given to this potential problem. If necessary the precautionary principle should apply until we know for certain!

I have therefore written to Ben Bradshaw on the subject. Perhaps he and his "luminaries" in DEFRA and CEFAS might be able to shed some light on the subject?

I know that this may have an impact on the BASS Management Strategy, currently it does not figure in the document. However it should in my opinion form part of any RIA, if legislation is to be introduced on the back of that document.

Best Regards,

David

 

PS Hot off the press- after a phone call I have just received whilst typing this - from a fellow DAA Member if anyone could tell me the approx weight of a well conditioned 38" sea trout released last night along with others estimated at 10 and 9lb I would be obliged! Did my pal catch the one I lost - Lucky b..... !!!? I shall be returning tonight even more " green" than usual.

 

We have two bass nursery areas here adjacent to the Loughor and Towy plus minor game rivers adjoining the same estuary systems.

 

From local reports (some first hand as a lad who works for me is a keen sewen angler) catch levels have been very good this year. Neither of the two systems mentioned suffer from water abstraction or sewage pollution.

 

Whilst I take your point about bass feeding on smolt it would appear from our local situation that other factors play a far more important part in the decline of game fish stocks.

 

This is only an observation based on local information and knowledge.

[dartangler]

I finally got a belated response from Bradshaw MP. His first, prepared no doubt by some minion in DEFRA, was merely a standard response that I am sure was trotted out to the many disgruntled anglers who wrote following the minimum landing size debacle. This of course did not even attempt to answer the questions I had posed. According I resubmitted my initial letter, via my local MP, to try to ensure that I got a more informed response from the then Minister.

The response, signed by Bradshaw, is quite disgraceful and shows that he and DEFRA are quite incapable of understanding the complex issues put to them.

On the question relating to the impact on salmonids by the introduction of salmon nursery areas the response verbatim is as follows:-

“ Mr …… expresses concern about the possible impacts of bass measures, past and future, on stocks of salmon and trout. Scientific advice suggests that bass nets should have no impact on salmon and sea trout smolts”

That is the only reference to the question I had posed about bass nursery areas and clearly does not provide any answer at all! Why there is any reference to bass nets ( unmentioned in my letter) defeats me and shows that either my letter had not been read or that DEFRA and their scientists have no answer to the posed question on the impact of nursery areas !

 

Forum Members might be interested in another aspect of Mr Bradshaw’s response.

On the question of pair trawling, where I had suggested a total ban on pair trawling and a closed season to protect spawning stocks, he quite rightly states

“To take measures that would extend across the English Channel to encompass Freench and other EU Member States would require action from the Commission and to date there has been little interest in extending or replicating the measures I took to restrict pair trawling in the South West to reduce cetacean bycatch. As I am sure Mr ….. is aware scientific advice from ICES, which informs the actions taken by the Commission, indicates that bass stocks are currently being fished sustainably”

So that’s OK then! There is no problem with bass stocks , my commercial U 10 m quota of 5 tonnes per week is secure!

 

Incidentally from the tone of his letter,

“….. ( Proposals for minimum landing size) .. are the first in a wider package of measures for anglers, including other measures on bass”. We must continue to watch that space for bag limitation and rod licence fees.

 

I note Bradshaw has now moved on to Health ( I am sure the remaining fish in our seas and rivers would say God help the patients) and we will have to see what line the new Minister takes. I find this constant changing of Ministers a recipe for inertia, as invariably it takes them some time to come up to speed on the issues. At the same time the power and influence of the largely unaccountable civil servants in DEFRA, who do sometimes spend a little more time with one Department, increases and given their track record to date the prospects are bleak!