GPT
Active Member
Posts: 78
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Post by GPT on Mar 18, 2014 17:04:13 GMT
I noticed something interesting today whilst looking at the river levels on FishPal. It seems that as of Jan 2014 they have rebased the river level readings based on the lowest readings from summer 2013. Previously these were based on figures provided by SEPA that were, in some cases, significantly out of date. The net result is that for some stations the levels shown this year for a given physical river height differ significantly from that shown for the same height last year. As an example an identical river height at Boat o'Brig on the Spey will show 6 inches higher this year than it would have done last year. For some other stations the difference is as much as 8 inches. I don't know if this was a widely publicised change that passed me by or if it was one that slipped in under the radar. Either way I thought it might be good to share here. Please see here for the source and the figures for other stations (n.b. for some reason they have used different units for the absolute (mm) and relative (inches) readings): www.fishpal.com/shared/docs/RiverLevelChanges2014.txt
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conwyrod
Advisory Board
Autumn on the Conwy
Posts: 4,659
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Post by conwyrod on Mar 18, 2014 23:07:57 GMT
well spotted, the Boleside gauge on Tweed is 2" higher than before, which is a significant difference.
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Post by davidturtle on Mar 19, 2014 0:19:16 GMT
Or is that 2" lower, John? If GPT is correct in saying that Boat o' Brig on the Spey is quoting 6" higher than last year, then a minus 2" must mean lower- or vice versa. It is doing my head in but we will find out next week! Whatever the height at the fishing, it is in the lap of the gods and we have behaved so well over the past twelve months, we must be due a reward!
David
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herbie29
Active Member
14 lbs spey spring salmon
Posts: 495
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Post by herbie29 on Mar 19, 2014 6:24:49 GMT
Or is that 2" lower, John? If GPT is correct in saying that Boat o' Brig on the Spey is quoting 6" higher than last year, then a minus 2" must mean lower- or vice versa. It is doing my head in but we will find out next week! Whatever the height at the fishing, it is in the lap of the gods and we have behaved so well over the past twelve months, we must be due a reward! David It is a little confusing until you get your head round it. Take boat o brig for long periods last year there was no river level displayed as it was below there set point of zero in this case the spey at its lowest was 6" lower than last years zero point so they have recalibrated the zero point to last years lowest point. So in result a beat you have fished for years and you know that on that particular gauge that 1'8" was a perfect hight will now be 2'2" given that the off set is now 6"+ giving you a higher river level. On the flip side of the coin that gauges that never did desplay zero last year have now been reset to zero using a negative off set this will then represent the river apearing lower on the gauge that you were using. So if you have deen using these gauges all the time in the past as a reference especially to book last minute fishing you now need to take all the hights that you have noted in the past and then facter in the relevant off set to give you the new perfect hight for any perticular gauge you use. Herbie
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Post by Willie Gunn on Mar 19, 2014 8:32:07 GMT
Or is that 2" lower, John? If GPT is correct in saying that Boat o' Brig on the Spey is quoting 6" higher than last year, then a minus 2" must mean lower- or vice versa. It is doing my head in but we will find out next week! Whatever the height at the fishing, it is in the lap of the gods and we have behaved so well over the past twelve months, we must be due a reward! David It is a little confusing until you get your head round it. Take boat o brig for long periods last year there was no river level displayed as it was below there set point of zero in this case the spey at its lowest was 6" lower than last years zero point so they have recalibrated the zero point to last years lowest point. So in result a beat you have fished for years and you know that on that particular gauge that 1'8" was a perfect hight will now be 2'2" given that the off set is now 6"+ giving you a higher river level. On the flip side of the coin that gauges that never did desplay zero last year have now been reset to zero using a negative off set this will then represent the river apearing lower on the gauge that you were using. So if you have deen using these gauges all the time in the past as a reference especially to book last minute fishing you now need to take all the hights that you have noted in the past and then facter in the relevant off set to give you the new perfect hight for any perticular gauge you use. Herbie Or to put it even more simply, ask Mike or Robbie when you arrive at the hut. Thanks for the coffee what's the river doing?
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Post by davidturtle on Mar 19, 2014 8:55:44 GMT
Thanks, Herbie
And just to confuse the matter further, presumably you also need to take in all this into account when looking at the Farson web cams until they, too, are updated.
It will be interesting to learn whether or not the gillies had been made aware of the change on an "official" basis.
David
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Post by devronmac on Mar 19, 2014 9:42:13 GMT
David Mike Ewen and I have discussed this in the last week or so and he is aware of the difference...8 inches I believe at Rothes ?
Mel
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Post by devronmac on Mar 19, 2014 9:45:30 GMT
David
Forgot to say...Tight lines next week.At least you should have enough water this year !............and there are a few fish about !
Mel
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Post by davidturtle on Mar 19, 2014 9:58:56 GMT
Thanks, Mel.
Will report back!
David
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Post by kenfisher on Mar 19, 2014 15:21:44 GMT
i was down the Spey last season in Aberlour and it was quite high and dirty , i went into the takle shop in Aberlour and there was a chap buying flies , i said to him you will need something bigger than that , he replied that he had checked the levels on the fish spey site and Aberlour was clear and falling , it never seems to be acurate .
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herbie29
Active Member
14 lbs spey spring salmon
Posts: 495
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Post by herbie29 on Mar 19, 2014 17:01:51 GMT
i was down the Spey last season in Aberlour and it was quite high and dirty , i went into the takle shop in Aberlour and there was a chap buying flies , i said to him you will need something bigger than that , he replied that he had checked the levels on the fish spey site and Aberlour was clear and falling , it never seems to be acurate . It is quite accurate in it's own right but you just need to know how to read the site the whole river as it just shows the one time in the morning and in the evening but if you take the weather into account and you check the other sites on the spey you can work out what is most likely to happen . If the upper station's are showing a higher river than the station you are looking at then you are most likely going to have a rising river later that day and the rate that the upper stations have risen at can help determine if it is going to be dirty or stay relitvly clear. All this along with farson digital river level camera's and you have a better idea of what the river is doing. Herbie
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conwyrod
Advisory Board
Autumn on the Conwy
Posts: 4,659
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Post by conwyrod on Mar 19, 2014 18:58:40 GMT
Or is that 2" lower, John? If GPT is correct in saying that Boat o' Brig on the Spey is quoting 6" higher than last year, then a minus 2" must mean lower- or vice versa. It is doing my head in but we will find out next week! Whatever the height at the fishing, it is in the lap of the gods and we have behaved so well over the past twelve months, we must be due a reward! David Yes it's a bit mind bending but in the case of boleside I think it means that for any new reading the river level will be 2" lower than it used to be, if you follow me!
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Post by acercon3 on Mar 19, 2014 20:21:42 GMT
Glad to see this being discussed here.
I noticed that the Fishpal level recorded for Parkhill on the Don was a liittle strange the other week but could not quite fathom out why.
I checked a manual record that I made a couple of years ago which showed levels from the SEPA website in mm and compared these levels to Fishpal levels in feet and inches. I did this so that I could quickly get a feel for the SEPA height against my main point of reference which was of course Fishpal.
By my reckoning the current Fishpal levels for Parkhill are approx 2 inches lower than would have previously been recorded. I also have a feeling that Kemnay may be showing a similar differential.
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Post by G Ritchie on Mar 20, 2014 20:03:32 GMT
Or is that 2" lower, John? If GPT is correct in saying that Boat o' Brig on the Spey is quoting 6" higher than last year, then a minus 2" must mean lower- or vice versa. It is doing my head in but we will find out next week! Whatever the height at the fishing, it is in the lap of the gods and we have behaved so well over the past twelve months, we must be due a reward! David The height on the Rothes gauge yesterday stayed level all day at 22 inches. The level at Aberlour was 1.245 metres on the SEPA gauge and 2ft 9in on FishSpey, while the height at Boat o Brig was 0.804 metres on the SEPA gauge and 2ft 6in on FishSpey. This should give you some idea of how the heights vary from the previous settings. Best of luck next week.
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tenet
Active Member
Posts: 431
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Post by tenet on Mar 20, 2014 20:20:46 GMT
All fairly academic if you are travelling anything up to 500 miles to fish.
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Post by davidturtle on Mar 20, 2014 23:42:48 GMT
Thank you, Graham, for your good wishes and for the specifics for R&A which I can relate to. Hope you had a good day in good company.
I see that the river is rising but still time for it to drop by Monday with colder weather on its way! When travelling the best part of 650 miles, we could do with a hourly update during the previous week as anticipation levels give rise to an unhealthy perusal of internet data when I should be working. Email traffic with GPT also reaches a crescendo!
David
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Post by devronmac on Mar 21, 2014 15:40:49 GMT
Level at R&A when I left the river last night was 31 " and rising. I don't think it has dropped much today. As you say colder weather is on the way. Hope you don't experience the snowstorms you had last season but that we get lots of frosty nights.
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