Stock Improvement

THE LOUP OF FINTRY: RIVER ENDRICK

In our spring 2008 report we explained our rationale for stocking with fry and operating a hatchery and why the Loch Lomond system requires hatchery based help in the current climate. It will help you to understand things better if you read our spring 2008 report before reading this report.

In the spring report of 2008 we hinted then of another stage in our hatchery operations. So in this report we explain how we have added two more stages to our hatchery based work which we believe will boost the salmon stocks in the Loch Lomond system and hopefully provide increased catches for our members and permit holders and result in more salmon spawning throughout the system.

None of us on the committee of the LLAIA have blinkered views on the worth of hatcheries be it stocking with fry, parr or smolts. We are neither pro-hatchery nor anti-hatchery, we are here to manage the fishery and do what we believe is best for the system.

There are many stocking programmes and smolt programmes out there that others are doing and we wish them all success. However we believe we have the safest method in place taking into consideration all that is presently known. There are a number of scientists that do have entrenched viewpoints  on stock enhancement. We keep an open mind and we know only too well that it is easy to manufacture a report to suit your own views. It is clear from our dealings with a variety of scientists that being completely open minded about stocking can be a very difficult stance to take for some!

Look at the difference in size of these fish: They started off the same size but not all fish are equal? Do the much larger fish when they reach adults produce bigger eggs and more likely to produce better surviving fry in the wild?

There is no shortage of anglers with the exact opposite view that stocking works just by throwing fish into a river without due consideration of as many pros and cons as can be weighed up. Genetics will become increasingly important in the future but we are wary that some scientists could misinterpret  results and impose their own conclusions while we are at the start of this branch of science with a lot of work to be done before firm conclusions can be drawn that are accepted by all.

We asked the Scottish Office to fund a comprehensive and thorough evaluation of our specific programme and after five years we would then know whether it was good for the system or not. Unfortunately no money was available so we will be limited on our own valuation which due to lack of finance will not be as thorough as we would have liked.

In the Loch Lomond system we are fortunate (or just simply lucky) that although salmon stocking has taken place over a great many years from the main spawning stream for salmon (River Endrick) This present committee have always ensured that the resultant fry have been stocked into that same upper Endrick area.

There has been no mixing of upper and lower Endrick fish re-genetics. This is important as genetic evaluative work carried out to date has shown that there appears to be two distinct genetic groups, i.e. an upper Endrick group and a lower Endrick group, showing that any previous stockings over the last 100 years or so has not damaged the genetic structures in place within the river.

Our programme takes fully into account the genetics and puts our specific programmes in as good a position as can possibly exist with current knowledge available. But let’s be abundantly clear on this issue. If we waited for the advancement of science in the hope that all will be revealed we could be waiting a long time and meanwhile the threats to fish stocks continue. Given the choice of do nothing or do something we are pro-active on this one

We have tried to help the ordinary angler by incorporating as much information as possible in this website report, well aware that it is viewed by many people in all walks of life. We have nothing to fear in what we are doing and operate as always with a view to helping the system by ensuring we operate best practice whilst taking into account all known factors. The LLAIA as an association that manages the system is doing all it can with our limited resources to protect and improve fish stocks. We hope you find the report helpful.

Most anglers have heard of habitat work and some anglers just presume it is the answer to all of our problems without realising that all fisheries are not equal. Habitat work could mean one thing to one fishery and an entirely different thing to another. Much depends on your own individual system and whatever the circumstances are within each fishery.

SIWG Removing blockages from streams.

Over the years the SIWG have removed many blockages in various streams, some of the worst blockages were in streams on the east shoreline running into Loch Lomond. As well as this we have also been involved in the planting of trees in the main spawning headwaters of our most important streams. This type of work helps to redress a small part of the negatives that occur around the system.

SIWG: Tree planting to improve the habitat is just one way of improving things: But these days it is simply not enough!

The existing hatchery programme ie re-stocking with fed fry will continue and can mitigate against redd wash out and a host of other negatives. As always we will continue to review this programme and adjust wherever and whenever desirable with a view to operating best practice whenever possible.

Fishery Manager Angus MacRitchie stocking with fry: but more needs to be done if we are to see improved runs of fish in the future.

The Committee of the LLAIA have always kept a close eye on other developments that could boost fish stocks. A decade ago we were impressed by others who had started doing smolt programmes. After visiting many such fisheries and seen how they were doing things we left with a desire to go down that route and ultimately carry out our own smolt programme. However we decided to hold fire, wait and see how others got on with “their smolt programmes” and when the picture becomes clearer, operate our own smolt programme taking into account all that has been learned by others. This approach made sense and in any case we had major problems to sort out at that time, like a huge debt to sort out! We also had learned a lot about ownership of fishings and fishing leases to alert us of the absolute need to secure our own fishings by making sure the association had its own significant stake in the fishery before going down the route of expensive smolt programmes.

By 2008  the association had built up a significant stake in the River Endrick with the purchase of Drumtian, Wilsons, Cowdenmill fishings and Hunters fishings. With our own members security and control of such fishings now in the hands of those who care, protect and manage the river we felt the association could move on to a bigger development with regard hatchery operations

Fishing stretches bought outright:  Fly only restrictions on all stretches helps to conserve fish stocks on the River Endrick an SAC site.

It would be pointless introducing conservation measures if those measures could not be realistically enforced to any degree. Introducing measures that result in lost members results in lost income without which you cannot afford to bailiff and protect the fish! Our conservation measures have been measured and work effectively; we will increase such measures only when we feel it will deliver an improvement on the general management of the fishery re- fish stocks.

Despite our efforts over the years it was becoming increasingly clear that the continued build up of negative factors facing migratory fish stocks today, required more effort than what we were currently doing. With marine mortalities now having a major negative factor, fisheries that do not have an abundance of spawning streams available have to ensure they do more than just tend to a few habitat issues or just stock with fry to survive and prosper.

Observations out on the rivers and information from some electro fishing surveys clearly showed that to take a precautionary stance and in effect do nothing was simply burying your head in the sand. The normal hatchery operation we cover such as the rearing of eggs to fry and the stocking out of the fry during the late spring and early summer period gave a boost to the juvenile populations and since the fry were put out when the availability of food was more likely to be satisfactory the survival of such fish might well have helped in our efforts to improve matters. It also showed we were not prepared to let our system deteriorate like many of the Scottish North Western rivers and streams.

There is a lot of additional predation taking place by avian and by the likes of mink etc on our migratory juveniles, than was the case previously. By the end of a normal growing season what is left of our juvenile populations will go through the winter months mostly hiding in amongst the boulders and waiting until the waters start to warm up in the spring before resuming feeding and in most cases the fish will endure at least one more feeding season and winter before providing us with a smolt run the following spring. It is important to be aware that the committee see any of our hatchery based programmes as being an aid to compensating for all the current negative factors affecting our salmon stocks and not a substitute for the natural spawning that takes place each year. Whatever survives from the migration to the marine environment as salmon or grilse ultimately provides us all with sport and is the future spawning stock of the system.

It is generally accepted that during the first growing season the fry are most vulnerable to predation and surviving the first winter is difficult, this is a pinch point and losses are at their highest throughout these periods.

TWO NEW HATCHERY PROGRAMMES LAUNCHED BY LLAIA

Jon Gibb from the Lochy system inspects our first batch of fry given to him to rear for us in 2008. The beginning of a relationship that we hope will last for at least five years.

We have over this last two years worked hard in developing two new programmes to compliment and add to our existing programme. We believe both programmes will significantly boost our salmon stocks in the very near future. Since we do not have sufficient water to rear eggs beyond the fry stage we have worked out an agreement with Jon Gibb of the Lochy system for him to rear our fry to fingerling/parr stage as well as a portion of fry right through to the early spring period as pre-smolts.

The deal worked out gives us access to facilities we do not possess and provides management (looking after) of our fry by one of the most experienced men in rearing smolts derived from wild parentage in Scotland. It does involve us in a lot more work and a great deal of preparation that involves many aspects of fishery management to consider.

Once the committee had made its decision to go ahead with these two new programmes the real work then began.

It would be rather difficult to run either of these two new programmes if you do not have tanks that will contain the pre-smolts or fingerlings when they are ready to be collected and returned back to the Lomond system. Our first job was to source and purchase suitable tanks at reasonable cost. Our chairman managed to source such tanks through Jon Gibb and others which as it turned out cost us nothing! Our thanks to those who helped out in this respect; it is greatly and warmly appreciated.

Getting large tanks like these for free saved our association thousands of pounds.

Locating and sourcing the tanks  looked like it was going to be the easy part. What about getting them moved from the present site and transported down to their destination?

Hauled up a steep path and ready for transportation: Our fishery manager has a steady hand on things.

A contractor was sourced and as it turned out a pretty impressive man behind the wheel of the truck ensured operations went from being almost impossible to……very difficult!

 The large four metre fibreglass tanks get lifted onto the truck for transportation down to the Loch Lomond system.

There was also the opportunity of obtaining smaller two metre tanks for the same price (nothing) so we took a load of the smaller tanks as well.

These tanks could be very useful in the near future for LLAIA.

With half the battle underway the really difficult part was moving such large tanks by road up some of the narrowest single lane tracks……a job seemingly impossible.

We required three separate destinations for the tanks. One of the tanks was for the River Douglas and the local farmer had said that no articulated truck had ever managed to get up this single track road, but then they never reckoned on Sandy the driver who did not know what impossible meant?

One of the most exciting moments for us was when the big truck came up over the brow of that little single track road with our last tank destined for the Douglas…. Sandy the truck driver had achieved the impossible!

After a long and hard 16 hour day the last tank gets dropped off at the River Douglas

A lot of further work was carried out like seeking permissions for each tank on the River Endrick, River Fruin and River Douglas etc and the setting up of each tank into its final position beside the watercourses. This might at first seem pretty straightforward but as we were to find out it was one problem after another and one obstacle after another to overcome.

With foundations now in place the tank was put into position.

Getting a proper gravity flow was essential so in some cases the length of the pipes had to be pretty long to utilise the gradient of the river etc.

With water flows critical it was imperative to ensure that the gravity flow was going to be sufficient to hold our pre-smolts.

Each selected area was limited to where we could get sufficient gradient to obtain maximum flows. For that reason each area had its own set of problems to overcome.

The River Douglas had its own problems but the other two sites were even more problematic. On the River Endrick, just getting the hole dug to take the bottom pipe presented quite a problem for Angus, Matt and their helpers.

These were the stones removed just to get sufficient depth for our drainage pipes in one of our sites.

Many anglers don’t realise just how much work is involved and the many technical aspects that have to be overcome in order that we achieve our aims such as overcoming airlocks and in one case installing automatic back up pumps. In the case of the River Fruin tank position, we actually had to hire a pneumatic drill to bore holes in the rock to put up a perimeter fence to protect the tank from cattle etc. It is also planned to extend an existing electric fence to this perimeter fence to dissuade cattle from approaching.

Angus MacRitchie fishery manager technical guru and labourer…………Its easy says Angus anybody could do it!

On a more serious note, this work requires a lot of help and assistance as you will see ithroughout this report. It is to members credit that many of them came out to help even if it was only to lift tanks into position, it was help that was greatly appreciated and would not have been done without them.

We had to use a bed of sand and gravel on this particular site.

We have used a huge amount of piping fittings and loads of other items required to get the work done. Fortunately the association had purchased a brand new trailer in 2008 which has paid for itself many times over already.

Now finished, the tanks all have a filter system in place to ensure no pollution from the pre-smolts reaches the river.

The filter systems above were just another obstacle to overcome. If everyone took such precautions towards keeping our rivers clean we would have fewer problems to deal with! Despite the huge work involved we now have all practical operations under control and working as planned.

In moving towards a more complex and involved hatchery operations it is important to have the right gear to deal with the new set-up. The purchase of the new trailer and specially designed fish transporter tank allowed us to achieve our aims with getting the new stocking programmes under way.

The associations new trailer and fish transporter tank: Duncan Ferguson helps out and is seen here after picking up the fingerlings/parr from Jon Gibbs hatchery.

The new fish transporter tank: New design made of plastic and better insulated than existing fibreglass tanks.

The inside of the tank: Good design ensures no sharp edges etc.

Shipped over from Germany the transporter tank will last a long time. It was a new design specially built for the job in hand. Design was just completed in 2008.

HATCHERY OPERATIONS: Another level up with our fingerling /parr programme

Stocking with fingerlings / parr during the late autumn period effectively bypasses the critical mass mortality from predation in that first growing year. By that time the fish are much larger and stronger and more capable of surviving through the first winter to the second year growing season.In late October 2008 and 2009 we stocked the upper headwaters of the River Endrick with around 20,000 fingerlings. They were put above the Loup of Fintry an impassable fall that prevented migratory fish from accessing another two miles of valuable spawning stream and habitat.

River Endrick above the Loup of Fintry stocked 2008 & 2009

We also decided to purchase a new mini-trailer since the old one was just about to collapse with wear and tear. We once again got a great deal through Indespension in Milngavie (see Paul the manager) if you need a trailer.

The new mini-trailer to take fry and fingerlings to the stocking area.

These wee mini trailers are great and easy to move about and a vital tool for Angus to get about without being restricted by the much larger trailer’s double wheel base and longer length.

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Above the Loup has some great growing on habitat: Jim Freemen SIWG stocking the area at the end of  October.

One mile of this section has great habitat with the other mile currently rendered useless due to the present scheme of water abstraction from the River Endrick an SAC and SSSI site which holds the chief run of salmon from the entire system. Ironically this water abstraction takes place under low water conditions and has undoubtedly “a negative effect” on the production of smolts leaving the River Endrick. It is inconceivable that this water from the Loch Lomond catchment is being abstracted into a completely different catchment (Carron Valley Reservoir) and at other times of year compensation water is going down the Endrick (an SAC site) from Carron Valley Reservoir.

In utilising this extra valuable mile of water we effectively increase the nursery potential of the main spawning headwaters of the Endrick. Since we are stocking the area with fish at the fingerling/parr stage they are likely to do much better than if we had stocked the same fish as fry. We have little doubt that this stocking will add significantly to the production of smolts from the Endrick. In any stocking of this kind we believe that there will be a natural moving downriver of the surviving fish as they grow into much larger parr and this area will merge into the area below the Loup and help to ensure the upper river is achieving its maximum juvenile carrying capacity despite all the negatives currently being inflicted on the spawning streams.

The difference between stockings in the late spring compared to the late autumn period with fingerlings/parr is easily shown as we see in the two photos below.

Matt Stewart loading up Jon Gibbs transportation tank with our fry: These fry were being transported from the LLAIA hatchery up to Jon Gibb’s hatchery in the late spring of 2008.

Just take a look at the size of these fish being stocked at end of October 2009 compared to the photo above!

Note the huge difference a good growing season can make and the fact that all these fish are being put into a suitable stream and survival rates are likely to be so much better than stocking in the spring with fry.

Not all growing seasons are equal or so it seems. Last year was one of the poorest growing seasons for fish with water temperatures below normal. Our pre-smolts being reared for us did not reach sufficient size to provide us with pre-smolts that we would have utilised over spring 2009. Instead the parr have had to be held for another year and will be coming down to the Loch Lomond system as very large pre-smolts indeed during the early spring period of 2010.We should points out that  the 2008 growing season was the first time in roughly ten years that Jon Gibb could not produce S1 smolts.

Sometime in the early spring of 2010 we will be picking up around 16,000 plus S2 pre-smolts and around 8,000 S1 pre-smolts from Jon Gibb. They will be put into their respective areas.

 LLAIA our S2 parr in late October 2009 at Jon Gibbs hatchery

This year the growing season was more normal and the fingerling/ parr we picked up from Jon Gibb in late October were as you see in the photos of excellent size and superb condition.

The fingerlings/parr were from The River Endrick and the River Fruin stock.

The SIWG has just completed the stocking above the Loup with these superb fingerlings / parr during late October.  We are in talks with SEPA and SNH with regard the water abstraction scheme. If stopped as we believe it should be (read up on EEC directive re-cross water contamination) we will look towards stocking the area above the current abstraction which would further boost the smolt production of the River Endrick an SAC site.

The River Fruin has also been stocked throughout with this year’s fingerlings / parr and we are pleased with the effort.

As well as the existing programme and the two new programmes it is worth noting that the association committee are utilising the areas above impassable falls within our system. The River Douglas has an area of about three miles above the falls and we have stocked this area for a number of years now. We have taken returning adults from the River Douglas and used these returning adults’ progeny to introduce a smolt programme on that river. Electro fishing results above the falls have shown good survival rates of our stocked fry. Below the falls there are numerous salmon parr which we believe have come down from the stocked area to below the falls. There is very limited spawning area on this river below the falls. It is worth pointing out that scale reading from some of the returning adult fish captured by the SIWG has shown to have a high proportion of multi sea winter stock. Further scale readings and DNA would be useful. There is a Hydro scheme being built on the Douglas above the falls and there are facilities built into the new dam to allow fish such as brown trout or stocked salmon juveniles to migrate downstream without damage as they come over the dam.

Our large parr soon to become S2 pre-smolts in Jon Gibbs tanks 2009.

Permissions and other organisations involved: Since the smolt programme has been initiated a number of changes to the general working practices has been adopted and changes made by law. These changes are on-going and we expect increased scrutiny and protection against any possible threats to the well being of fisheries throughout Britian and not just Scotland wide. Whatever your perspective on these developments, they have been initiated to protect the interests of all fisheries particularly salmon and sea trout fisheries. We have no fear of such measures as they are for the general good of all fisheries and we have complied with a number of permissions already. SEPA for example have had to be consulted and applications for each holding tank applied for and the respective forms filled in etc. We currently have permissions for the Endrick holding tank and the River Douglas holding tank and we expect approval for the River Fruin holding tank well before we are ready to collect our pre-smolts. SEPA have indicated they do not foresee any problems with the Fruin application.

In August 2008 the movement of live fish act was introduced. It might be way overdue with the introductions of coarse fish over this past 30 years on Loch lomond and the River Endrick now well doumented, but it will help to prevent more introductions. Unfortunateley this new act means we have to get permissions to move our fry up to Jon Gibbs and back into the system. Last years applications were successful and the fingerlings/parr were stocked out as indicated in this report. The same with this years applications and other applications all related to the work we are doing to “improve the runs of salmon” into the Loch Lomond system.Collecting of brood fish is another application and SOP for our hatchery and other certificates are now required. These measures all designed to ensure that best practice are taking place all around the country. It is easy to complain about what some might feel are huge amounts of work (red tape) and does take up a lot of our limited time (resources) but they are introduced for a reason and there is a proven need for such measures.

We believe our permissions for the Douglas and Fruin are less rigorous and we expect to make progress more or less as planned. Marine Scotland (formerly FRS) and the Scottish Executive are involved in our applications.

With the River Endrick an SAC and SSSI site the permissions are far more stringent and involve SNH, Marine Scotland (formerly FRS) and the Scottish Executive.

Marine Scotland and the Scottish Executive have actually been very helpful in all discussions we have had with them, we do not foresee any major problems, just a hell of a lot of additional work to satisfy SNH concerns.

We have had permissions to collect brood fish from the Fruin and Douglas Water and hope the weather allows us a period whereby we can get brood fish.  There has taken place a meeting between all interested parties for the association to seek formal permissions for taking brood fish and address any concerns being expressed by SNH concerning the taking of brood stock from the  Endrick SAC. In effect we have the permissions to take brood fish from the Endrick but what we do with the fish has still to be formally decided upon. We see the current rainfall as the largest hurdle to climb right now!

Anglers will want to know will all this effort result in more fish returning to the Loch Lomond system and will it be to the long term benefit of the system. We don’t know just how successful any of this work will be? Within the committee we are confident that it will produce significant extra smolts leaving our system and therefore more adult salmon or grilse returning. It could well be that the fingerling / parr stocking might well produce better returns than the more expensive smolt programme but we don’t honestly know and neither does anyone else for that matter.

You might well ask, how does the imprinting work given that the fish are taken from each different part of the Lomond system and reared in a different water and then brought back down to the Lomond system. Firstly to be clear in some respects, we keep all three different stock separate from each other and likewise Jon Gibb at his hatchery.

They are separated at all times to be clear in this matter!

Another important point is that the Lochy hatchery is NOT on a Lochy water supply. This is something that has never given them concern. For instance the hatchery burn is not full of returning salmon!

The imprinting based on all available work done by others and scientific advice/reports etc is said to take place prior to the fish turning silver and beginning their journey downriver to the sea. In other words once the fish have donned their silvery coat they are imprinted wherever that occurs. This is why we must ensure that our smolts are back in our system prior to this taking place. To mitigate against competition from existing natural parr/smolts in the river, the pre-smolts are held in tanks and fed until they are acclimatised and imprinting has taken place. The pre-smolts are fed daily throughout that period. It is recommended that they are held in the tanks for at least three weeks prior to smolting.

The imprinting part of the smolt programme does give us added concerns and we do worry that those things are really that simple! In any new project being tackled for the first time we can only go on the advice of others who have been along this path before us.

Opinions will often be given by many people but at the end of the day we will be guided by the advice from those who run such programmes until science has categorically answered the imprinting life history of our salmon leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind.

It could well be that imprinting takes place from the day the fry hatched out and in varying stages throughout the fishes life the imprinting becomes stronger as each stage progresses i.e. the homing instinct improves through its life prior to smolting. This is just an opinion though, but it would explain why hatchery reared fish tend not to give as a good a return compared to natural wild stock on their first return (1st generation) but is said to improve from 2nd generation fish onwards. No absolute scientific evidence is available to prove this without leaving some doubt.

In carrying out such work we believe we have acted sensibly and with due consideration of any possible negative effects on the fishery. However as we gather more information we will be guided by that new information and adjust accordingly.

Despite all the scientific work carried out over the years there is still so much we do not know about the salmon. Questions like how many salmon are required to produce the optimum number of smolts? Does stocking of any kind work? Is there a particular type of fish genetically that competes and dominates over other fish?

In terms of stocking with fry we have conclusively proved without any doubt that stocking a virgin area with fed fry has resulted in a healthy population of different age structures of those resultant fry right up to pre-smolt stage in various parts of the river in question. We have further work to do to establish beyond doubt that it has resulted in decent numbers of those fish returning. Currently it does look positive but until fish that have returned are captured and DNA samples taken we cannot confirm…yet.

The River Douglas 2009: Salmon returning from the stocking by LLAIA?

There are so many variables in natural spawning and likewise in hatchery practice that always seems to further complicate things. For that reason we want to try and attempt to remove most of the doubt with regard our programmes. We are currently looking at the best method of evaluating our two programmes.

We believe our membership would very much prefer us to make the efforts we have made and give the smolt programme five years with ongoing evaluation rather than use such time effort and money in other directions like funding the installation of an expensive fish counter that in itself does not add a single fish to the system.

We will try when time is available to update everyone on our progress through this exciting period in the history of our association. Other work carried out in 2009 will be mentioned in due course. This is a very busy period for us now and we hope we have helped to inform our members and that of the public in this report.

The fishery manager and the committee would like to thank all members who have given such valuable help, either though the catching up of brood fish, fin clipping or assisting with the installation of the large tanks etc, it is very much appreciated

Merry XMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR

The SIWG Team:            End of November 2009

THE STOCK IMPROVEMENT WORKING GROUP
Hatchery Team

Matt Stewart (left) Angus MacRitchie (centre) and Jim Freeman (right) SIWG hatchery team 2008.

These are the main players in the SIWG hatchery team. A dedicated group of members all working hard for the benefit of The Loch Lomond system and the LLAIA members and permit holders.

 

Angus is our fishery manager. Years of experience and level headed.

Matt Stewart is one of the main dedicated helpers with looking after the eggs and fry.

Matt has been a member of the LLAIA for some years now. Matt has a nice gentleman like manner and has warmth of feeling that is immediately conveyed to the angler who by chance or otherwise meets up with Matt on Loch Lomond. Enthusiastic and philosophical he clearly enjoys every day he spends on Loch Lomond. He tends the eggs and fry with a care far above that which is normally seen.

Jim Freeman a member for many years and a great helper and friend of the LLAIA

Jim worked for the Glasgow Herald for many a year before retiring. He wrote many great articles on Loch Lomond. He now spends some of his spare time helping out doing hatchery work.

There are other SIWG members who are just as important, that help out during the catching up. Support in other ways also comes from committee members, chairman and vice chairman. Local farmers are also very helpful and often we find Angus or Matt being hurtled up the glen on the back of a quad bike or argocat with bucketfuls of fry to distribute in some of the streams upper reaches.

Why stock at all? It would take up a lot of pages here to explain in depth our reasons for having a hatchery and carrying out an enhancement program so let’s explain and try to be brief about it. Most river systems cover many miles of fishing’s as well as large spawning areas for their available fish stocks. Some river systems have a great deal of natural spawning and cover a huge geographical area. The Tweed system is possibly the best known and also probably the best managed system in Britain if not in Europe. The Tweed covers around 2,000 square miles which is blessed with a fairly large natural spawning availability. There is a great deal of publicity given to the recent surge in fish stocks on the Tweed system with the main reason being habitat work cited for this increase. Some of our committee have spoken to the people involved in such work, and have come to realise that the real improvement within the catchment area has been down to opening up previously blocked “natural spawning areas” that had been largely man made blockages (mostly road culverts and weirs put in for mills) done without due consideration of the fish life in those streams. Over 600 km of streams have since been cleared or opened up to allow the natural population of fish to reach these areas to spawn. There are few systems that could match the Tweed for the extent of natural spawning streams available for the salmon to spawn, never mind the removal of the Northumberland netting recently.

There are a whole range of systems from the superb level of the Tweed down to some that have a limited amount of available “natural spawning areas” for fish to spawn. Some of these systems have impassable natural falls that prevent migratory fish from reaching what would have been many miles of valuable spawning. The Loch Lomond System comes under that category.

 

The River Douglas. Miles of potential spawning available to the fish if only…….

Many years ago a well known fishery scientist carried out a desk top survey and found that the Loch Lomond system could support a huge amount of salmon and sea trout eggs above impassable areas on the streams running into the loch if stocked artificially with hatchery reared fry. Another scientist reckoned that the River Douglas would be suitable for salmon fry and could support an initial stocking of some 400,000 Salmon eggs. We mention this purely to demonstrate the potential that is missing from our own system.

These days with marine mortalities very high, the percentage of adult fish returning to the streams for a given smolt run are lower than what they were even ten years ago. So we must try to keep the balance in our favour or risk potential disaster.

Many of the small burns that run into loch lomond offer limited potential for surviving fry particularly in a severe drought. Whilst Loch Lomond itself offers a great big sanctuary for adult fish returning from their sea feeding excursion, it also offers accommodation for displaced fry and parr to grow on, as well as kelts recovering.

When nature is somewhat limiting in its offerings with regard access to natural spawning and knowing that the feeding zones at sea have decreased as a result of global warming, then other negative effects can have a disproportionate impact on our fish stocks. That does not necessarily mean any negative impact will initially be “seen to affect” the fish stocks. It just means we have to be aware of these factors and assess the situation at any given time. There are some items that have little instant impact initially on their own, but cumulatively they start to add up, the growing increase in protected fish eating birds and seals for instance and diffuse pollution of the land by farming practices, then the picture can change significantly. We have also had a number of major negative effects on the Loch Lomond system over this past 20 years where the impact on fish stocks can be seen more quickly. Fish Farms and the sea lice problems which mainly effect sea trout stocks, sheep dip and the destruction of both fish life and fauna within the affected areas, and problems with the marine survival of our fish stocks with mortalities very high compared to the fairly recent past. We at the LLAIA / SIWG are offering some assistance to re-dress the balance, by giving nature a wee helping hand. In doing so we have over the years helped to offset the imbalance that today’s current climate presents.

So every single year the SIWG set about to capture selected brood stock from specific streams, strip them of eggs and place them in our hatchery and use those resultant fry to stock the same stream, with some going to streams above impassable falls to maximise the available smolt production. As our understanding of salmon genetics has increased it is now our practice to ensure that only Endrick juvenile stock goes back into the Endrick and Fruin juvenile stock goes back into the Fruin etc. These fry in all probability would not have survived in such quantities as can be achieved in their controlled hatchery environment.

Matt removing the fry ready for transporting them to their new home!

When the numbers of returning fish from the ocean feeding grounds are low compared to the past it is important to maximise the resultant fry by avoiding the now prevalent flash floods (redd washout)and eel predation on redds etc. This allows us to supplement the natural spawning of both the areas where there is good spawning gravels and other areas that would be considered poor spawning habitat, but would be good for growing on fry and parr. This can only be a positive step. If the scientists are correct about the survival rate of smolts in the marine environment it means that only a fraction of the fish that would have returned as adults are previously returning! It is clear that during the good runs of the past, enough salmon and sea trout came back to fully utilise all available spawning within the rivers, this is not necessarily the case now to allow for angling and the variety of predation, and some of the other negative factors briefly touched on.

Such events give another positive reason to use a well planned stock enhancement hatchery programme to offset such natural events. We remain positive despite the challenges facing us as we do our bit to enhance the fish stocks. The sheep dip fiasco is now largely behind us, that has to be good news. The fish farms are still there but as we report, the slice treatment in the Argyll AMA (Area Management Agreement) with the fish farmers might well be having a positive impact on the Clyde estuary. Who knows what will happen with the marine climate as there is not much you can do with global warming is there?

As stated earlier, pollution, extremes of weather and predators such as seals and fish eating birds remain a threat, all having a negative impact. When you start to evaluate the situation you wonder why it is some scientists and other group’s state that you don’t need hatcheries or any form of enhancement through smolt rearing etc. It is precisely because of these impacts in our system that you DO need to re-dress the balance even if it means doing this artificially.

Many years ago a heronry was formed on a section of the river Endrick below Drymen. It was created (man- made) to assist the wildlife in that area! Are we to assume it is fine to assist the fish eating birds but not the fish! So we strongly feel that hatcheries are now vital to our needs.

 

 

These fry have responded well to first feeding and are healthy little blighter’s

Operating a hatchery from October through till mid June comes at a price. It is all part of the increasing running costs that the committee face as we try to offset the negative impacts. Neither is it all joy and excitement especially during the winter months as dead eggs have to be continuously removed. it can be a lonely and cold experience.

 

Angus transports the first- fed fry to the buckets ready for planting out.

Nevertheless once the eggs have all hatched and the temperature rises, conditions improve and once their little yoke sacs have been absorbed the feeding begins and the skill and dedication of our SIWG hatchery team comes into play big time.

Each trough is numbered to enable us to identify the eggs from different areas.

This year might well have caught out some hatcheries as the spring drought greatly reduced water supplies. Our hatchery already has a limited water supply so it is remarkable that we are still capable of producing fry under these drought conditions. The hatchery team liaise and work closely with each other to ensure this happens and a system has been devised and put in place to supplement the water flow to the troughs. As soon as the water supply goes down below a specified limit, three electric pumps automatically cut in and re-circulates the water. This is one of a number of safety features your hatchery team have built in to ensure the hatchery has worked satisfactorily over the years.

Looking after and operating a hatchery with the water supply we have is a skillful job, and as with most things in life, a degree of luck thrown in every now and again never goes wrong, if we are to be absolutely honest! i.e. regarding power cuts, droughts, floods, freezing etc.

This is the exciting part when you see the fry all looking healthy and everything is running smoothly.

Once the fry are fit and healthy which is usually sometime in late May the SIWG hatchery team start to get organised for the planting out of the fry.

Jim Freeman gets to work stocking the streams: River Endrick at Fintry Spring 2008.

The fry are carefully put out into the streams to hopefully grow into parr and then turning into smolts before heading out to the sea. Stock at too high a density and you simply throw away fry, stock at too low a density and you might not establish a decent head of young fish in the area stocked. It is all about getting the balance right.

The salmon fry are usually stocked in the main streams where they would naturally spawn.

The sea trout on the other hand are usually stocked in the small burns. It is vital to know where each species actually would spawn in nature. There are signs and clues to knowing this and gaining knowledge but practical work such as electro-fishing on the system you work in carried out by SIWG members, does speed things up somewhat.

Angus stocking a burn with sea trout : Spring 2008

One other important consideration in stocking is to ensure that if a poison such as sheep dip gets into a stream and wipes out all the fish we will have another stream close by that is healthy enough to allow us to remove some brood fish to strip and rear the eggs in our hatchery. The resultant fry will almost certainly be significantly more than would have survived if left in the original stream. The fry could then be stocked in both the original stream with excess fry going to the stream that was wiped out. This is providing an insurance policy against such disasters and is both sensible and practicable.

We have ensured the fish we had taken from the Douglas Water have been kept separate and are going back into the Douglas. This year the only stocking the Douglas is getting is derived from its own brood fish. The enhancement programme we have been running for the Douglas over this past five years is important to the system as it has established the success of the stocking policy. This knowledge improves our learning curve and along with other work being done gives us a greater understanding of the genetic makeup of our fish stocks. So far we are encouraged by the results and I’m sure the learning curve will continue as we adapt to any changing conditions. It’s a shame that certain people feel the need to run down the SIWG, the committee and the association at every opportunity. We research, we evaluate and we make decisions in the interests of the fish stocks and the membership.

As we continue to develop our stock enhancement program we hope it makes a worthwhile difference to the overall stock of young fish in and around the Loch Lomond system.

Some people take an entirely opposite viewpoint to hatcheries and their worth, but we believe that each system presents its own set of problems and circumstances. Only a fool would condemn all hatcheries and the work that takes place each year, just because some other system happens to have an abundance of natural spawning available. Each system has to be examined thoroughly, there is no one glove fits all scenario, we believe we are doing what’s best for the Loch Lomond system.

 

Stocking Sea Trout fry in small burns is crucial to the survival of our sea trout stocks. Spring 2008

Is stocking with fed fry enough? Will the stocking, along with the natural spawning provide sufficient returning adults to allow for the high mortalities at sea along with the other negatives mentioned and still supply a portion of fish to be taken by anglers and leave a sufficient stock of fish to populate at least all the available good natural spawning available throughout the Loch Lomond system?

That is a tough call to make these days. In an average year we might be fine, but what exactly is an average year? Does the number of fish caught always relate to the number of fish running?

There is sufficient evidence elsewhere to strongly suggest that some seasons the conditions overall for catching fish are more favourable than other seasons irrespective of the density of the runs of fish that year. A poor year for runs coupled with a favourable year for catching fish could seriously jeopardise our existing fish stocks. If that happened several seasons in a row we could be in real trouble.

From a committee point of view the LLAIA view the Loch Lomond fishery purely as a sport fishery. That means we will adopt anything within our means to ensure we have adequate stocks of fish to allow for poor marine survival, decent numbers taken by anglers and still have surplus stock to enable all good spawning areas to be fully utilised every season. We believe this can be achieved and financed by a business like approach to the running of the LLAIA and to the Loch Lomond system. As far as we are concerned, it is vital if we are to survive and flourish in the years ahead.

To achieve such a state of affairs we would have to significantly increase the numbers of smolts going out to sea. How do we do this if the numbers of returning adults might not be sufficient to allow for this?

To do this we would have to increase our salmon escapement capacity within the system. How? One way is to FORCE catch & release upon all anglers throughout the system over a period of years. Another way is to expand the hatchery to levels far in excess of our capabilities. Our water supply does not allow for this to happen. So we have to ensure it happens, HOW?

We already know how this can be done. Peter Lyons and Dave Sunman had seen how it was all done over in Ireland. Michael Brady went over to see hatchery expert Frank Reilly in Ireland and was shown round the whole set up from start to finish and the results it can produce. This all took place 12 years ago. Colin McCrory and Angus MacRitchie also paid subsequent visits and Angus and Matt and other committee members have also visited hatcheries within Scotland over the years. However this all takes money which was just not available until now, however we have now completed our Fishing’s reserve fund which will free up new funding for the improvement of stocks for the future.

We are now ready to move to the next stage in our stock enhancement plans and we are sure that our intelligent membership will by now suspect what we are thinking off, without us actually confirming it at this stage, however the usual ongoing research and costings are currently being fully investigated for value and feasibility.

We will confirm with the membership as soon as practicable when this research and costings are finalised, it is also sad that we have to be so secretive with our membership, and we apologise for this, but it is in the interests of the LLAIA. For the time being though we leave you with a picture of two of the main players in the SIWG who are quietly confident about increasing the systems fish stocks. The picture does suggest that these two men appear to be upbeat about the possibilities for our member’s future fish stocks.

 

Angus and Matt as pleased as punch……so far anyway?

Tight Lines to everyone, The SIWG TEAM.

After years of using the original set up installed at our Brood tank holding facility on the west side of the loch it was decided to carry out some much needed maintenance work on the existing brood tanks for this Autumns catching up.

The time and effort taken to gain access to the brood tanks to allow brood fish to be added or to check on the well being of the fish present or to ascertain when they were ready for stripping involved a lot of work removing metal grids tarpaulin covers, fine mesh netting and even chicken wire.

First we had to gain access to the brood tanks after this summers growth of brambles and tall weeds This whole area all had to be strimmed, this is a job that has to be done annually.

Materials were purchased and taken to the site and work commenced on the making of lids to fit both brood tanks. As can be seen below this job was successfully completed with one tank lid painted when these photographs were taken. The other tank lid has since also been painted.

The addition of these lids will make the job of the association members who assist with the hatchery work to be done more easily and efficiently.

Last years continual floods at the time of searching for brood stock gave the Stock Improvement Working Group a hard time. Safety of the group members must be paramount with the rivers and burns receiving regular and sustained downpours. The chances of getting a team together on a Sunday when the rivers were settled for only short periods, were few and far between over the six week catching up period from November to middle of December.

Having said that, the SIWG ended up with 28,000 salmon eggs and 43,000 seatrout eggs in the hatchery at the end of 2006. In view of the prevailing conditions this was a good effort. Well done to the association members who donned their waders to help out and a sincere thank you for your help in assisting to regenerate our migratory fish stocks.

The winter and spring proved to be mostly mild and the sea trout started to hatch in February with the first trough starting to feed by the second week of March. The salmon, who always spawn later than sea trout, started to feed by the second week in April. From May onwards into June we released the largest average-size of sea trout fry we have ever grown on. The salmon fry were also good and healthy when released into our rivers.

The hatchery team done an excellent husbandry job tending the eggs and fry daily, from cleaning screens, removing unused feed and eggshells, checking and regulating water flows and maintenance work on pipes and pumps throughout the hatchery year from the middle of October to the middle of June.

As usual the vast majority of fry were put into the rivers and burns upstream of falls that are impassible to migratory fish. This makes good use of often excellent habitat and feeding, of which we have a limited supply within our system. It also allows our hatchery reared fry to grow on to parr and eventually smolt without competing for food and territorial space. This avoids conflict with fry from naturally spawning migratory fish below inaccessible falls. All our fry were successfully released into our systems burns and rivers by the third week of June.

The L.L.A.I.A. has recognised that salmon and seatrout stocks in the Lomond system, as in the rest of Scotland, are not as prolific as they have been in the past, and to this end the Stock Improvement Working Group (S.I.W.G.) was set up.
This group of association anglers pull on the chest waders every autumn and having sought permission from riparian owners, visit rivers and burns within the Lomond system looking to catch Brood Fish for the hatchery. The method the group uses is Electro Fishing with one man on the probe and a team of men with landing nets directly below him waiting to net any fish caught in the electric field.
Well that’s the theory, in practise we have a saying that you are not a real member of the S.I.W.G. until you take a tumble into the icy November/ December water. We have had some spectacular falls into the rivers from members who only seconds before believed they were standing on good old terra firma river banks (could be a new Olympic sport!).

Despite these little setbacks, members thoroughly enjoy the day out and know they are doing their bit to ensure that the stock enhancement programme continues.