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Signal crayfish Loch Ken.


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Someone higher up on the Dee system had the bright idea of farming the crays however she forgot to build cray proof fences around her ponds and they got out and into the river system and worked their way downstream into the loch where they are about three quarters of the way down towards the hydro gatess

 

Won't be long before they're right down there and ruining the bank fishing there as well

 

I'm informed that cray eggs are getting into the water downstream of the hydro gates and that crays are getting caught below the gates

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Someone higher up on the Dee system had the bright idea of farming the crays however she forgot to build cray proof fences around her ponds and they got out and into the river system and worked their way downstream into the loch where they are about three quarters of the way down towards the hydro gatess

 

Won't be long before they're right down there and ruining the bank fishing there as well

 

I'm informed that cray eggs are getting into the water downstream of the hydro gates and that crays are getting caught below the gates

 

 

High Brian

Do these Crayfish live throughout the loch or do they congragate at the river systems flowing into the lochs? :rolleyes:

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I have registered my boat on this loch for the season to fish for pike and bream.

Do you get pestered by the crayfish?

Whats the best approach?

Do you have to pop-up your deadbaits?

Will the crayfish take sweetcorn?

Any info on this matter will be more than welcome.

THANKS......... :rolleyes:

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You will get bothered by crays if you fish deads hard on the bottom , they need to be popped up to avoid them

 

The best way to fish for pike before the livebait ban was to livebait, either two/three feet from the bottom underneath a float or high up in the water but seeing as you can no longer livebait you have to use deads

 

If you are using any fishmeal based groundbait for bream then the crays will be on it in an instance so I don't see why they would'nt murder your sweetcorn hookbait seeing as they obliterate every thing else

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  • 1 year later...

Hi,

 

I have fished Loch Ken for some 15 yrs now and the AS crayfish issue is of great concern. I have had dialogue with the authorities and Scottish Natural Heritage.

Whilst something is about to be done by these authorities, I would welcome all experiences regarding this issue and the potential for anglers not visiting the loch as a result of the As infestation.

I keep a boat there and have witnessed the potential ecological demise of the water over the last five or six years. The Loch is such a water, that provides good income to the local economy by the likes of myself and many others.

I am trying to build a case for the authorities to create a sustainable removal of the alien species that can and will alter the water in a most negative fashion.

 

Please respond with your views.

 

Andrew

You will get bothered by crays if you fish deads hard on the bottom , they need to be popped up to avoid them

 

The best way to fish for pike before the livebait ban was to livebait, either two/three feet from the bottom underneath a float or high up in the water but seeing as you can no longer livebait you have to use deads

 

If you are using any fishmeal based groundbait for bream then the crays will be on it in an instance so I don't see why they would'nt murder your sweetcorn hookbait seeing as they obliterate every thing else

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I was going to take my boat up there this year but have decided not to do it and put it off till next year as reports on fishing have'nt improved sufficiently enough to tempt me up there yet

 

Its a 160 mile drive there from my house so 320 mile round trip so I expect some chance of decent fishing when I get there not just a bucket full of crays for dinner

 

I was a season ticket holder and a member of New Galloway club for many years and have spent a lot of time bank fishing the loch but I'm no longer a club member and from what I understand member numbers of the club have declined as have day permits due to the state of the signal problem in the loch

 

Many anglers and freinds I know used to stay in the Ken Bridge Hotel or the New Galloway Arms or the Kenmure In New Galloway itself but now no longer do so because the fishing is so poor from the bank, sales to visiting anglers of food and bait to anglers visiting the loch from the local shop have gone down and I think its now shut down and closed

 

Given the big midge problem thats just about bearable with the right preparation the signal infestation just about caps any enthusiasm to return to Ken at the moment

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I am trying to build a case for the authorities to create a sustainable removal of the alien species that can and will alter the water in a most negative fashion.

 

Please respond with your views.

 

It would be nice to put the genie back in the bottle, but the experience in the south has been that once you have them they cannot be eradicated. You will never get rid of them by trapping, unfortunately. Even trying to wipe out a population in an enclosed gravel pit using poison was not certain: clicky. Of course, you could not poison the entire Loch Ken system, wiping out all fish and insect life.

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Guest tigger

A couple of m8's of mine are actually fishing on Loch Ken at this very moment using dead baits for pike and others for the bream. I spoke to one of them earlier and they'd had one pike of 16lb but he said it was virtually impossible to fish as the crays where straight on their bait. I know there fishing the bottom end hoping the crays hadn't got that far down yet but obviously they have. He said he's gonna try using a bung and fish the deads up in the water.

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