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Post by John Gray on Sept 21, 2007 9:26:20 GMT
The River SpeyIn the 2006 season, something in excess of 1200 sea trout were recorded on the association beats at Grantown and Boat of Garten on the upper middle Spey. Although sea trout stocks have declined over the years on the Spey, as they have on most other UK sea trout rivers, the Spey is still capable of giving excellent sea trout sport through June and July. What other UK sea trout river can challenge the Spey for the title "Britain's best sea trout river"
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Post by adipose on Feb 12, 2011 11:14:01 GMT
John, I agree that the Spey is in the top rank, but so are other East coast rivers such as the Dee, Deveron, South Esk, and one shouldn't forget the Kyle of Sutherland where catches are returning to levels not seen since the 1960s. While I agree that the Spey will always be in the front rank of UK rivers, sea trout have often been seen as a nuisance species. At Delagyle in the 1970s the ghillie, Dan Murray, used to put local rods on the Delagyle, Polmachrae and Dallbrek pools after the salmon rods had left the river at about 5pm. those local anglers were highly skilled and took a lot of sea trout (and not a few salmon). But the estate barely bothered to record sea trout catches, which were regarded as a nuisance! How times have changed, thank goodness. Adipose
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Post by sinkingtip on Feb 12, 2011 13:00:32 GMT
But the estate barely bothered to record sea trout catches, which were regarded as a nuisance! How times have changed, thank goodness. Adipose Conversely, on Tweed, which as we all know can produce some heavy sea trout (6lbs +), in the past they were occasionally recorded as fish.
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Post by adipose on Feb 12, 2011 14:07:45 GMT
Ron Cambell has said that Tweed has at least two distinct populations of sea trout, unlike most of the other Scottish east coast rivers, and perhaps more like rivers further south where double figure sea trout are not rare. The very big sea trout of the Till, Blackadder and Lower Tweed appear to use the North Sea's continental waters as their main feeding area. The Living North Sea project should tell us more about these heavyweight multi spawners. As for our Scottish east coast sea trout, where a good one is anything over 4lbs, and a double figure fish a rarity, the Project may reveal more than we currently know on where they feed and the range of prey species they use at different stages of their life cycle. Meanwhile similar projects, the Celtic sea trout project and the AARC project are looking at all aspects of the lives of sea trout. There is no doubt that we have neglected this important species, and it is now catch-up time. Last week there was an AST gathering of the UK and Ireland's top sea trout scientists in Bangor to work out ways of coordinating research efforts. About time! Adipose
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