The Committee’s Blog

In accordance with Article VII © of the LLAIA Constitution 7 (seven) full members have sent suitably proposed and seconded nominations to stand for election to the Committee of the LLAIA at the forthcoming AGM to be held on Wednesday  29th February 2012 at The Partick Burgh Halls.

These nominations were all received by the Secretary prior to 31 December 2011.

The members standing for election are:

Mr Stewart Inglis                                    Mr M MacCormick

 Mr G Gath                                             Mr J Raeburn

Mr W Marsden

Mr R Campbell

Mr J Muir                     

All nominations are made individually and each will require to be carried by majority vote on the night.

Mr M McCormick has nominated himself as Chairman but these elections are to formulate the Committee only.  The positions of Chairman and Vice-chairman are selected by majority vote of the successful Committee candidates once elected who then should present their choice of Chairman and Vice-chairman for ratification by the members.

Note: Full members of the LLAIA only are allowed to be present at the AGM.

 The Secretaries LLAIA                                      ————————————————————

All nominations are made individually and each will require to be carried by majority vote on the night.

Mr M McCormick has nominated himself as Chairman but these elections are to formulate the Committee only.  The positions of Chairman and Vice-chairman are selected by majority vote of the successful Committee candidates once elected who then should present their choice of Chairman and Vice-chairman for ratification by the members.

An adipose fin clipped smolt: We expect to get grilse coming back that are fin clipped in 2011.

Another season has gone and a new one to look forward to. This has been a difficult year for your association but also a very satisfying one. We finally managed to get the benches fitted at Drumtian and at Wilsons stretch above the Ballochruin Bridge. Rod rests were also fitted and another homemade bench was fitted at Drumtian. A plaque was fitted on the bench at Drumtian in remembrance of Hughie Horn, a long standing member of our association sadly missed by all who fished the endrick. That stretch is by far the most popular stretch on the River Endrick with most fish caught on the Endrick caught at Drumtian this season.  It has proved to be an incredible purchase in buying the stretch, few would argue now with the purchase of Drumtian. We will now target work on Wilsons stretch to bring it into line with Drumtian with another bench and rod rests and some trimming and tree removal. Other work such as the strimming at Coolies Lynn and on the River Fruin is planned. We are looking at the possibility of putting some benches on the River Fruin provided permissions are granted.

Rod rests and benches on the River Endrick: 2010 

Bank maintenance during the spring was very active with the number of trees landing in the river Endrick giving us a real headache. We had to remove numerous trees and all of this takes its toll on time and resources. We did manage to get Drumtian trimmed and looking nice but other stretches that we had hoped to get improved will have to wait until this winter or next spring.

Fallen trees are left to the association to clear.

As fishing seasons go 2010 will not go down as a particularly good one.

There will be a report out reflecting the season of 2010. It will show that some anglers did particularly well and others were sufficiently pleased with their seasons sport. The spring salmon fishing was satisfactory with some top quality fish being caught . We also had an unusual early start to the season which was an added bonus.

Alec McElwee  with the first springer caught on March 23rd 2010. Eric McDonald took the first springer on the fly at 13.5lbs it too was taken on the same day on 23rd March.

 Overall though, the season was spoiled somewhat by the lower than expected catches of grilse on the river leven and Loch Lomond and the disappointing sea trout runs.

It is easy to forget that in most salmon and sea trout rivers the runs of fish have always varied with good, poor and average seasons been thrown at us. The variability and uncertainty of the salmon runs has always been a feature of the Loch Lomond System and many other systems as well. The differing seasons was not a real concern in those days when fish stocks were plentiful but over this last decade much has changed to alter that position and now with increased problems at sea and elsewhere such variability can result in much poorer seasons and anglers catches in certain areas will probably reflect this.

This committee has been at management level for over a decade and observed the declining catches taking place in many rivers up and down the country and the attempts by government bodies to halt the decline without success. These days it would seem that science and red tape appears to have taken over from common sense with little prospect of an improvement in sight for salmon and sea trout stocks if we continue to rely on others to improve things for us.

 We will not sit idly by and watch our fish stocks decline. LLAIA Smolts in one of the holding tanks.

That is why we had embarked on a new stock enhancement programme involving smolts, parr and fingerlings. We are not prepared to just accept things as they are and see our member’s destiny left in the hands of bureaucrats and scientists amongst others who so far have not managed to reverse this decline.

There are anglers and association members who have already decided that “stocking does not work”  some of whom have voted against this committee remaining in office. We believe the majority of our members on both sides of the  argument are prepared to be persuaded either way, which is a more measured approach.

Understandably anglers and members would like to know if stocking works, particularly with many biologists and scientists fighting against any kind of stocking programmes preferring to see such investment being given to them to do as they please.                                                                 

Try telling these guys as they leave the VOLDAC HQ heading for the big loch just to leave things as they are, nature will sort it all out: Aye right!

 We are not running a hatchery based programme for profit or to further the aspirations of science or biologists. We are doing this for the overall benefit of the fishery and the anglers that fish this system, without anglers there would be no protection of existing fish stocks and disastrous consequences for the fishery would undoubtedly take place.

All anglers and members now need to know does stocking in any shape or form work. We accept that we cannot go on as in the past with such hatchery based work unless we at least know or can prove it brings benefit to the system.

That is why we have begun evaluating this type of work. It will cost more to run any stocking programme if it also involves evaluation. The extra cost will be worth it in the end as it will end speculation and determine if it is worth doing or not.

What we do know is that doing nothing and allowing nature to take its course has resulted in the disappearance of salmon juveniles from the cashel and millarochy burns running into Loch Lomond. Doing nothing will more than likely see other areas ending up the same way?

2010 smolt output increased by 15% by marked adipose fin clipped fish!

The smolt trap on the River Endrick showed that 15% of all the salmon smolts trapped were from the LLAIA stocking programme involving fingerling and pre-smolt stocking.

This assessment was carried out completely independent from the LLAIA by the Loch Lomond Fishery Trust and proves that the LLAIA has boosted the number of smolts leaving the Loch Lomond system. The smolt counter records salmon smolts from both the endrick and its tributary the Blane combined. The smolt trap is estimated to capture only a small percent of the numbers of smolts heading out to sea from above the trap.

 We are confident our stocking programme will work. Releasing the stocked fish 2010.

We have now proved that our smolt/fingerling programme does increase the number of smolts heading out to sea from the Loch Lomond system.

These results are only for the Endrick/Blane system. Obviously the Douglas and Fruin smolts will also have increased the number of smolts leaving those respective rivers as well. In the case of the River Douglas the smolt increase will be almost all due to the smolt programme as there is very little spawning below the impassable falls. There is a fish pass built into the Hydro scheme on the Douglas for the downstream migration of fish so hopefully it will have done its job as we had put the pre-smolts above the Hydro Scheme. This does not take into account the smolts that have been imprinted in the Endrick, Fruin and Douglas holding tanks for imprinting and put directly into the River Leven when deemed ready for smolting.

There is still much to be proved one way or another but it does prove that the pre smolts have not as some suggested all stayed where they were stocked and being predated on. It also proves that stocking above the impassable falls on the Loup of Fintry produces smolts and the suggestion that they would be killed going down the series of falls has not been the case.

So far so good then, but much work has still to be done yet to prove it a worthwhile venture.

The next stage is to prove we can get a percentage of these extra smolts returning as adults.

The first returns from our work will be due in the summer of 2011 in the shape of grilse and the following year 2012 by multi sea winter fish such as springers and summer salmon.  We have no way of knowing exactly what percentage of the fish will return  to the loch lomond system in any given year or what percentage of those that do return will be grilse or multi sea winter fish such as springers. Evidence compiled from elsewhere suggest it could be in the ratio of  over 60% grilse and 30% multi sea winter fish, with less than 10% being autumn running fish.

There is a lot at stake but more of this type of fish would be at the top of our wish list. Alan Millar a springer of around 25lbs Loch Lomond 2010.

Anglers will have their own opinions as to whether our work will produce more fish or not and they are entitled to their opinions. The association cannot be expected to manage the fishery though, based on an opinion!

The association committee started this programme of enhancement based on an in-depth look at all the options available to us and what was being done elsewhere and what we could afford at any period in time. Once we established sufficient positive evidence based on work done by others etc, we were then able to determine if this type of venture was worth doing for the Loch Lomond system. We also had to consider what the alternatives were.  There are few alternative routes to go down other than running an enhancement programme involving smolts etc. All the evidence suggests to us that doing nothing is not working.

Habitat improvements get touted about as though it is simple and inexpensive and when it is done the juvenile fish suddenly appear! If there is much less  adult fish returning to their rivers of birth then logic suggests than there will be plenty of available habitats for the fewer numbers of juveniles to occupy. Thus habitat on its own could be viewed as akin to locking the barn door after the horse has bolted!

We have over the years carried out various habitat work and we recently reported on the latest type of work re boulder placements on the River Fruin.

The cost of such work does not come cheap almost £500 for just twenty tons of suitable boulders to get to the river.  We have to pay to get them delivered by the farmer to various parts of the river and we have to put them in the river etc. It all cost money. We will have to evaluate the work to see what extra smolts we could achieve out of this work if the extra fish return to allow the improved habitat to be utilised. We will work out the extent of the habitat improved in length in relation to costs etc.

Habitat work such as boulder placements does not come cheap. River Fruin habitat work 2010.

Some people suggest that previous hatchery work done by this committee did not work because we have been running hatchery based stocking of unfed fry and partially fed fry for many years and yet the runs of fish have not improved. This type of thinking is deeply flawed when one considers the number of potential negatives that have been accumulating over those same years. We have covered many of these negatives recently so have no wish to cover old ground. 

It does not make sense to compare the system now with itself say thirty years ago when much has changed in the watery elements. It does make sense though to compare our system with other well established systems along the same west coast of Scotland, many of which have virtually collapsed. In so doing you might then take a different view of whether our hatchery work has been worthwhile or not.  Overall it will be shown to have been better to have had a hatchery based enhancement programme than having nothing at all. You don’t have to look too far along the west coast to see how badly the state of other west coast fisheries are compared to the lomond system. One particular west coast river system in 2009 recorded the lowest number of salmon going up the fish pass since records began, a deeply worrying fact that puts things into perspective here on the Loch Lomond system. Thankfully we have not plumbed those depths….yet.

There are ominous signs occurring with the grilse runs in 2009 and in 2010 so we must do what we can to ensure we reverse this decline and start to see an improvement. Thankfully we had the vision to start our smolt programme when we did and as stated we should start to see the results in 2011. Worth noting that for every fish caught with an adipose fin clipped there will be many more that remain un-caught. It is the remaining un-caught fish that will help to reverse this decline which has badly affected the West Coast Rivers up and down the country.

So we will continue to concentrate on what we feel will make a difference rather than try to apportion blame without offering an alternative solution.

The association’s strategy is to ensure we significantly increase the numbers of smolts leaving the system in the first place, otherwise it is pointless to improve habitat when plenty of unused habitat is not fully occupied by existing runs of fish.

We know that in nature there are huge mortalities between the fish that hatch out and those that reach even the fingerling stage! If Tweed biologists statement about 97% of fish hatched out will die within the first three months is in any way accurate or reflective of fish in our own system, then by adopting a hatchery based programme of producing just fingerlings will have circumnavigated around this major mortality and provided a much greater opportunity to increase the number of smolts leaving the system.

 Making use of unused excellent habitat: Above the loup of fintry River Endrick.

By selecting to stock areas above impassable falls it reduced potential competition between existing surviving natural salmon juveniles and our stocked fingerlings.  This method also offers a far cheaper alternative to the boulder placements as the habitat is already in place, allowing us to conserve our cash to ensure the smolt programme is securely funded over the next few years. In this game one needs to be capable of accumulating cash but equally important to know when not to waste it.

Taking things on to the next stage of juvenile production we find that there is better survival from the fingerling stage to the parr stage and from the parr stage to the smolt stage. Once the fish leave the system as smolts it is job done and we are at the mercy of the marine phase.

At least two miles of great habitat lie above the loup of fintry: We have made use of one mile. We must work to get the water abstraction stopped in this area to give us another mile of habitat above that point.

We produced large parr for the river fruin this year and during September stocked the river with those large parr. We are trying to persuade the Loch Lomond Fishery Trust to move its smolt trap from the Luss water to the river fruin before the spring of 2011. This would provide great information on whether the stocking of these large parr was a worthwhile venture or not in terms of producing extra smolts.

 Marking fish as mentioned before is not as straightforward either. Since we have several different strategies involving smolts and fingerlings etc one might ask how we know which one is best.  We expect to see a return from both methods though it might be more difficult to determine the returns from the fingerlings. This will be due to the fact that the vast majority of fin clipped fingerlings have only had part of their fins cut. It is claimed that the fins if only partially cut will grow back in. We believe though that they do not grow back in perfectly so we can differentiate between any returning adult fish by a close examination of the adipose fin. With the larger pre smolts, the vast majority have had all the fins removed.

The committee are confident that the smolt enhancement programme is a sensible strategy to adopt when the problems we are having are self evident on many other river systems along the west coast of Scotland. Those who genuinely care about this system will continue to support the system by taking out a permit irrespective of who is in charge or whether they agree or not with the present management.  We are pulling out all the stops and doing whatever we can to ensure that at least on the Loch Lomond  system we are taking steps to halt the decline. Hopefully members and anglers who fish this system will have a better future ahead than those rivers that have seen their fish stocks virtually wiped out!

The relentless rain has meant the SIWG have yet to visit the Endrick and Fruin. We are confident though that we will get the opportunity and will continue with our smolt programme. We will be concentrating on getting brood fish for the Endrick and Fruin this year.

As we enter another difficult year with many members facing hardship with little spare money to spend we will have to tighten our own belts and ensure we work effectively for our membership and continue to run a tight ship.

We will continue to protect the fish runs by adequate bailiffing as and when required and continue to ramp up our enhancement programmes. All other items will be scrutinised to ensure they represent value for money. We are in the process of adopting changes to the rules and regulations as well as a change in how we operate from next year onwards. We are considering extending the ban on killing sea trout from the present 1st May to the 1st June, though anglers can still fish for them.  We will let everyone know of these changes in due course.

Tight Lines. The Committee LLAIA.

Long standing member Hughie Horn is going in to hospital today for a major operation. The Committee would like to wish Hughie a successful outcome and speedy recovery.

BEST WISHES THE COMMITTEE LLAIA

INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS ONLY

CRAIGBELL FISHING’S

Full members are aware that fishing on the Craigbell pool is ONLY ON  A TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY /THURSDAYS

These days would normally be available by pre-arranged booking through the secretary.  We have found that throughout July the fishing’s can lie un-fished and many members do not turn up for their arranged booking. As an experiment for

FOR THE MONTH OF JULY ONLY

We will allow any full membetr to fish the Craifbell on the dates mentioned above with the following conditions attached.

MAXIMUM TWO RODS ON AT ANY ONE TIME

CATCH LIMIT ONE SALMON AND ONE  SEA TROUT

MAXIMUM TWO VISITS DURING JULY BY ANY FULL MEMBER.

TIMES ARE:  FIRST LIGHT TILL 12 LUNCHTIME

1PM TILL  6PM

7PM TILL DARK.

DARK TILL 4AM

all members must carry their permit with them at all times.

Please act sensibly and avoid arguing with fellow members.

Tight Lines  The Committee LLAIA

Following the run up to the EGM, LLAIA Members had reached a crossroads.  At stake was the future of the Loch Lomond System and the prosperity of the LLAIA as an Angling Association. The Association has to balance the interests of its members in all parts of the system they fish, whilst at the other end of the equation has to effectively manage the system with the limited resources available to most fisheries and Associations these days.

 Following a full debate, carried out in an orderly and democratic fashion, the outcome of the vote was 116 votes to 110 in favour of the present Committee. So six votes separated the two sides and were the difference between success and failure.

This is the second defeat in two years for the Alternative Committee, although after last years election they claimed they were not given a fair opportunity. This time it was they who did a lot of the canvassing and preparation with the Present Committee being content to send all members their election document without any canvassing. We felt strongly that if we could not get a majority on the back of our past record, then why continue.

The Constitutional Amendments to adopt postal ballots was defeated by the smallest margin possible (one single vote). When Michael Brady and Gary Weir did the counting on their side of the hall, Gary had counted one less vote than Michael. The count was disputed by Michael who added the extra vote. On reflection perhaps it was just as well given that a significant number of people had left the hall after the first vote went against them.

 A new beginning with a brighter future for the Loch Lomond System?

One member summed up his observations by a simple fact.  If both groups were combined just think how well the association and the system could progress.

The almost disastrous two year long acrimonious dispute which has cost the association a fortune in lost revenue, amongst other things, has hopefully now ended.

The choice has been made between “A VISION FOR THE FUTURE” or   “TO REALISE OUR DREAM AND COMPLETE OUR WORK” with the majority of members taking the view that the present committee have done well enough throughout the years to be given the opportunity to realise their dream. That is to complete the Smolt programme and get the salmon numbers increasing again on the Loch Lomond system.

 The Committee now has three years of what they fully expect to be “uninterrupted peace” to realise their ambition.. 

Although assurances were given from Malcolm McCormick that he will not return and will leave the present committee to get on with the job, we as a Committee intend to instigate sensible changes in the way we do things. Hopefully this will give recognition that there are some improvements that ought to be considered in our reform of how we operate. 

That said there are valid reasons for not making certain changes and the whole thing would benefit from a more considered approach than has been possible to date.

 Luss Estates Factor Mr Iain Sheves is to be congratulated for conducting a difficult meeting in a fair and professional manner. The LLAIA owe a great debt of gratitude to Luss Estates for allowing Mr Shivas to chair the meeting.

One major stumbling block remains however: the individual behind the website that was responsible for most of the bad feeling and contempt, Mr Robert Beacon,  has to decide on his future. Presently he along with another River Leven angler remains banned from fishing all Association waters, and a Court Action against him is being pursued by the LLAIA committee.

The Association lawyers have put a stop to the sometimes vile, defamatory. derogatory comments and false allegations aimed at LLAIA Office Bearers and members on this website. The Rules set out by Internet Providers were broken and serious breaches took place that ANY Court would take a dim view of should the Association proceed. The costs are likely to be high but the loss of business has also been high.  It should be noted that the Web Site was actually closed by the provider following a threat by Mr Beacon to sue them.

The Association will no longer allow defamatory or derogatory comments and false allegations to continue in any future website, regardless of the source. 

Mr Beacon will be offered the opportunity to meet with the Committee. He will be asked to give a legal undertaking guaranteeing that should he open another website he will fully abide by the Rules of the IP organisation. No further false allegations, derogatory or defamatory comments will be tolerated on his website. Following a suitable undertaking, himself and the other banned angler will be given the opportunity to fish the River Leven again with immediate effect. 

We know that there are a lot of misgivings within those who supported us as a Committee that Mr Beacon would abide by such an undertaking. Likewise there are similar feelings on the other side towards us or individuals within our Committee. However, there is NO future for the Association if we cannot all accept each other without rancour and get on with things regardless.

We note the new website set up by the Alternative as part of their campaign, which gives anglers and permit holders a different outlook and perspective in the Loch Lomond scene. It  is always a good thing and is healthy for an Association of our size, to learn from different viewpoints as long as it is kept within the boundaries of common decency. It also serves to keep us on our toes, which is no bad thing. So far it has remained in keeping with the general spirit of the Associations aims and aspirations, whilst putting out an alternative viewpoint which no one can complain about.

Democracy is about allowing people to have their opinion and take opposing views if they feel they want to without feeling that by doing so they will be punished.

This committee has never had any problem with people or groups having a difference of opinion. Problems arise when someone or any group for that matter start to make false allegations and defamatory comments in public or give false information to others. Personal attacks are not in the spirit of angling and should be pounced on by others as out of bounds. If you can’t put your real name to it, don’t write it , and don’t send it

We are all anglers and hopefully over the coming three year period we can all come to realise that there have been mistakes on all sides. In the interests of the system and our association, we should all cast them aside and start to move towards greater things for the LLAIA. Those who show concern that our Fishery Manager and Secretary are paid should not bother themselves with this simple fact.

 Far better to KNOW that both persons are providing excellent value for money,. and that is all that really matters. 

 An opportunity now exists for a new beginning. Let’s hope the majority of sensible and caring members put a stop to further disruption and strive to create unity with the objective of improving our fishing.

The Committee LLAIA

The following legal advice has been posted as a result of the proceedings at the recent AGM…

Legal_Advice.pdf

The Committee LLAIA

LOCH LOMOND ANGLING IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION (the “Association”)

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

The Association held its AGM on 19 March 2009.  At the meeting a resolution purporting to be a vote of no confidence in the Committee was put to the meeting and received the support of a majority of the members present at the meeting.  The Chairman then closed the meeting, indicating that an EGM would be called in due course to clarify the position.  Certain members then purported to (a) re-open the meeting; and (b) pass resolutions removing the Committee and replacing it with a new committee.

The Committee has taken legal advice with regard to these matters and that advice is that the purported resolutions were not validly passed and consequently the Committee remains comprised of the following:-

M Brady

P Lyons

A Mair

D Sunman

E McGrandle

D Ferguson

A MacRitchie

C McCrory

The representatives of the Colquhoun Trustees and the Montrose Trust

Meantime the Committee are taking further legal advice.

LLAIA 2008-09 AGM

19 March 2009

Report on proceedings.

A turbulent and acrimonious AGM concluded with a vote of no confidence in the Committee and the termination of the meeting having addressed only 5 Agenda items. Following the vote of no confidence, the meeting was closed by the Chairman, and notification given to those present that an EGM would be arranged at the earliest opportunity to elect a management committee.

Approximately 160 members attended the meeting.  Various items of literature were handed to members attending by a group of members offering an alternative to the sitting committee.

A proposal from the floor that they be provided with a microphone, was initially resisted by the chairman and committee, but conceded by the committee. The mike was provided and was used by speakers from the hall throughout the meeting.

Following numerous interruptions, the proposal by the committee to ratify the meeting as a legal and binding AGM was approved by the members attending Proposed by Malcolm McCormick and seconded by Kevin McCormick.

The minutes of the previous AGM were read as per previous convention but following a vote, were not approved by the members present. Craig Ferguson, who stated that he was in fact asked by the committee at that time to take minutes, contended the veracity of the minutes. The committee replied that a number of them took notes on the night and that Alastair Mair compiled the minutes. The motion to approve the minutes was rejected by a vote of the membership present on the night.

Numerous interruptions by various members ensued, prominent amongst which were Malcolm McCormick, Kevin McCormick, John Clark, Gary Weir, Craig Ferguson, Stuart Ingles.

An assertion by Mr Ryan and seconded by Gus Miller that a free vote would be impossible due to the unruly conduct of the meeting whereby a loaded vote and intimidation were obviously present. A full and democratic decision by all members could then take place. This resulted in his proposal that the meeting agree to an independently scrutinised postal ballot, in accordance with Electoral Compliance. This proposal was subject to an amendment proposed by Jim Day seconded by Andy Campbell to the effect that the Status Quo should stand and a vote be taken at this meeting by a show of hands. This went to a vote and the amendment was approved.

Item 5 Chairman’s Report was presented by M Brady to a background of interruption and ridicule with many of the above prominent in their disapproval.

By this time it was obvious that certain elements of the members present were dissatisfied with the present committee and intended that they be removed.

The Committee proposed a vote of Confidence, which was subject to an amendment proposed by Alan Millar seconded by Davy Thomson that the members present had no confidence in the Committee. This went to a vote resulting in the vote of no confidence being approved by 83 for 69 against.

The Chairman then declared that as a result of the vote an EGM would be called and notification of date, time, etc notified by the secretary to members at the soonest possible date. Nominations should be notified to the Secretary in the usual manner.

The meeting was then closed and the Committee and a large number of members left the hall.

According to various sources and information available on www.robbieredball.net  the stage was then taken by M McCormick as spokesperson for an Alternative Committee. This illegal and unconstitutional meeting proceeded to elect Malcolm McCormick as President of the LLAIA, with Gary Weir as Vice-President  with a committee including John Clark, and others as yet unknown, they also appointed a secretary and treasurer

THIS IS THE LEGAL POSITION

 Anyone not complying with this stands in legal breach of the terms of membership of the LLAIA and stands in peril of the law.

In accordance with the constitution any members intending to stand for the committee have to notify their intentions by 31 December prior to the AGM. No such notifications were received.

The recently deposed Committee were elected at the EGM of 2008 all with terms of office of 3 years. The Chairman and Vice-chairman were elected at exactly the same time and for identical terms.

None of the sitting committee was therefore due for re-election at the AGM nor had any notification of any intention to stand by others been intimated.

It is therefore impossible that any alternative committee could be elected prior to an EGM and without due notification to every member of the LLAIA in accordance with the Constitution.

Until an EGM can establish and elect a new Committee and Office bearers, any attempt by anyone other than the bona fide Secretary of the LLAIA to interfere in LLAIA matters, EITHER PROCEEDURAL, CONTRACTUAL, FINANCIAL, OR LEGAL OR ANY OTHER VEXATIOUS ACTS WHICH DAMAGE THE REPUTATION, BUSINESS, PROPERTY OR ASSETS OF THE LLAIA WILL ATTRACT ON THE PERPETRATORS THE SEVEREST PENALTIES LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE.

Every member will be contacted by the secretary to notify date, time and place of the EGM and will receive confirmation of all nominations for election to the committee. The secretary and only the secretary shall set a date and venue for the EGM.

The secretary can still be contacted as usual but can engage only in matters not prejudicial to the conduct of impartial elections. He can engage in no activities not related to enabling the EGM or normal LLAIA business and can use no LLAIA resources for anything other than official business.

We will keep all members abreast of develpments as they occur.

                                                                                                                           Michael Brady Secretary LLAIA

AGM / EGM

The AGM was due to be held on 24th February but has had to be postponed due to fire damage at the Partick Burgh Halls. This despite it having been booked shortly after the day of last years AGM. It will now be held on Thursday 19th March 2009 at Woodside Halls.

Apologies to members for the delay but it was completely out of our hands.

There has been a constitutional amendment proposed by a member.  The constitution states that any proposed amendments have to be received by the secretary before 31st Dec ie 30th Dec is drop - dead date.

The member’s e-mail was received on 1st January 2009 and by post on 6th January 2009

The view of the committee is that the member’s proposals are largely designed to remove Michael Brady (Chairman and Secretary and Angus MacRitchie (Fishery Manager) from office and by inference the whole committee. We do however agree that the constitution requires to be modernised and as such have called an EGM to deal solely with that subject.

It is therefore the intention of the Committee to present a number of Constitutional amendments to the forthcoming EGM in 2009.  These amendments will be submitted for consideration well in advance of the EGM along with the already proposed amendments and any other proposals submitted in writing four weeks before the date of the EGM. They will be constitutionally competent and will be approved by the LLAIA lawyer prior to presentation to members.

We feel this is the only way to get the Constitution modernised sensibly rather than have a single vote on the proposed amendments at the AGM – even if it were rejected by the membership there would still be a real need to modernise the constitution and an EGM would be required for that purpose anyway.

The date of the EGM is still to be set and is dependant upon booking a suitable venue but it will be some time after the AGM. Members will be informed at least one month before the date of the EGM.

                                                                                              THE COMMITTEE LLAIA.

It is always greatly satisfying for your committee to see the LLAIA going from strength to strength as each year passes by.

It is also nice to see fish stocks producing good sport for anglers on the loch for a change. Increasing our stake in the fishings by purchasing stretches of salmon fishing is crucial for us to ensure that whatever work we do for the system we have not done so without at least ensuring we have guaranteed fishing for our members in the future.

Increasing migratory fish stocks is uppermost in many fisheries agendas nowadays. Achieving success by carrying out planned improvements whatever those improvements might be has never been easy, in fact very few fisheries have managed to significantly improve their salmon and sea trout stocks over the years. Whatever method or combination of methods are used to improve the fish stocks, there will always be those who think you have got it all wrong and they have the answers. We believe you only get out of the fishery what you put in, unless your fishery is blessed with extensive and outstanding areas for fish to spawn and a habitat that is suitable for the purpose.

For a number of years now we have carried out our own stock enhancement work and have been quite pleased with progress despite the set backs we have mentioned in the past (SHEEP DIP) which are happily sorted and less likely to occur in the future.

The main challenge for your committee now is to see if we can up our game in the face of increasing negatives in the marine environment and closer to home in the freshwater environment and do what most other fisheries have not been capable of doing and start to significantly increase our fish stocks on a year on year basis with the odd mishap that is naturally occurring in nature.

We hope to ensure that our current good years are our poor years and that the good years are much better than anyone could envisage under the current climate.

We are pleased with the Douglas project so far. We now have five miles of water utilised with young salmon fry. We are very pleased with our current progress this year with our other plans. The whole committee are confident that what we are doing now will give us the best opportunity to increase our fish stocks and to enable us to do so on a year on year basis. Our target is to beat each decade of catch returns moving from the lowest decade to the next highest until we reach the seventies and who knows even the sixties. Many of our members laughed when we first took over the running of the LLAIA and the system and declared that we would pay off our debts and eventually start to buy our own fishings. No one laughs now ……..do they.

As each year moved on we were making good progress and every year since then we have continued to make progress. Last year some members became impatient believing that the money the LLAIA had saved each year was not being spent. Patience is a virtue, little did they know that we were indeed making every effort to secure fishings and any setbacks we had would eventually be overcome.

Now look at the LLAIA. We are fast becoming a far more professional organisation gearing up for the future with confidence.

The new LLAIA van signage: A more professional image now standard.

This is the first van to get the signage. The rest are following within this next few days. All three vans will help to promote the association and the system. Spreading the word that the association offers some of the best fishing available for the price and a well run management team ensuring that the waters are well looked after compared to other waters.

The sign of a well run organisation: The new look LLAIA vans.

This new image and professional look is now standard throughout our operations with the new bailiffs patrol boat and engine looking the part. Our members must surely be starting to be very proud to be part of this association.

Investing for the future: The new LLAIA Bailiffs Patrol Boat 2008

This website continues to improve with absolute cracking articles on trolling for salmon with tobys. How to fish the sprats and how to dye them. A classic article on dapping and how it is done. The latest edition how to fly fsh loch lomond for sea trout.

The killer flies? What works and how to fish them: See the article on fly fishing.

We hope to have more articles to cover the Endrick and fruin and the river leven. We are developing and improving all the time. New members can now access vital information.

Fishing loch lomond is made easier now by the deal made between LLAIA and the boatyard at Balmaha. No need to purchase a boat or worry about moorings. For £300 per year we can get you a hire boat to use virtually every day between a maximum of three members joining together. That works out at £100.00 per season! Grab the deal now and enjoy some superb fishing for the next 14 weeks.

The hire boats at Balmaha: Boats that are reliable just use your own engine or hire one.

IMPROVEMENTS TO THE RIVERS:

RIVERBANK WORK: The bankside work that was carried out out on the river leven earlier in the year has highlighted the ever increasing needs place upon the llaia when managing such a huge area of riverside.

Riverbank Work is one area that can only be addressed by the llaia committee or bailiffs when time allows. Hence a lot of good work was done recently on the river leven. Some people seem to forget that the committee function is not to see that all the stretches are all manicured for members to fish. Nice as it might be there are far too many more important things to deal with that take priority.

The committee will balance the cost of all work to be done and all necessary preventative work. crucial work such as bailiffing and enhancement type work such as hatcheries and stocking take priority and rightly so.

There are projects that are important though and require our attention. That is why we continued ahead with the Cowdenmill fishings parking for our members this year.

We used 40 tons of type one aggregate: Making the car park at Cowdenmill fishings 2008

A member tries out the new car park: July 2008 Cowdenmill fishings LLAIA owned.

As well as the 20 tons of stones and 40 tons of type one we also laid down galvanised wire mesh to lay the stones on top. The area was all strimmed and weed treated prior to the laying of stones. Though we suspect that annual weed treatment will be required.

The entrance area at the barrier has been cut and pruned/strimmed to improve viability.

There is still plenty of work reqired to do on this new stretch now owned by LLAIA but that will wait for the time being as other matters get attended to first. It is important that members can park their cars now and at least fish the stretch which is over one and a quarter miles long.

We will be extremely busy over this next couple of weeks. Night bailiffing patrols and so forth are essential. So please do not expect the incidental work to be attended to over this period. Currently the runs of fish have been most encouraging this year so far. It looks like the summer salmon runs are continuing and could even merge nicely with the arrival of our grilse runs and sea trout runs. Things are indeed looking good for the rest of the season. We will give another report in the next couple of weeks but please appreciate the committee has its hands full with the new project well underway.

THE SCOTTISH GAME FAIR: The Scottish game fair was held last weekend. We are pleased to report that member Ryan Brady (chairmans son) entered for the Juniors Trout distance /salmon distance and trout accuracy competitions on the Saturday and won the Juniors distance salmon casting competition and the accuracy casting competition. The tackle used was supplied by the sponsors Orvis.

The trout distance was won by a cast of 38.3 yards, Ryan was second with a cast of 38.2 yards. the rod was an 9ft 6 inch Orvis and Orvis wonderline.

The salmon distance was won by Ryan with a cast of 49.6 yards. The salmon distance was with a suppled 15ft Orvis rod and standard Orvis spey line. As far as we gather no junior has ever cast more than 42 yards at previous competitions.

On the Sunday competition the organiser’s decided to change the rod used for the salmon distance to one of 13ft. This was because the marker buoys only extended to 45 yards which would make it difficult to judge any distance beyond that. Long distance casts would then be restricted by the rod length. Ryan’s cast on the Saturday prompted this change of tactics.

Member Ryan Brady wins the Challenge trophy at the Scottish Game Fair July 2008
Ryan chose to enter the mens section on the Sunday giving another Junior the opportunity to win something.

The mens salmon distance casting competition on Sunday was won by Ryan with a cast of 41yards. Ryan also won the mens Challenge trophy for the most points on all three categories. The rod used was 13ft supplied by Orvis with an Orvis fly line.

Well done young man.

PROMOTING THE LLAIA: Several new members took advantage of Ryan’s offer to give them free tuition when they join the LLAIA. It is important for our association to encourage the right type of new member to our association and we are certainly moving in the right direction in this area.

New Memberships taken out through the secretaries (generally about 90% of total) are up from the previous year. The committee fully expect the association will prosper in the years to come.

Tight Lines The Committee LLAIA

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