I dropped in at Galston to see if any fish were moving through the upper two fish passes on the Burnanne. The pool below the Cemetery Road Bridge appears once again to have filled with gravel and the entrance to the fish pass may not be easy found. I suspect also that there is a fair amount of gravel within the fish pass that should be cleared asap but couldn’t be sure due to the high flows. I will check again as the levels drop back. Below the rock armour, the pool did appear to have some depth and perhaps the entrance to the fish pass should be modified to allow salmon and trout easier access from the deeper water. Again, I’ll check on this in lower flow and if necessary suggest to East Ayrshire Council that a modification could be beneficial. This should be a very easy adjustment to improve the effectiveness.
The Cemetery Road Bridge Fish Pass. It appears to have a fair amount of gravel and sediment built up within it and may benefit from clearing. The pool below has once again filled at he entrance to the fish pass. This was always a concern we had over the modifications and it may warrant a small adjustment next year to improve things now we have established how the dynamics have changed since it was rebuilt
The upper fish pass near Cessnock Castle was in need of a bit of attention when I got there so I put on the wellies and set to clearing the loss material from the pass. I should have put on waders and will next time! 40 minutes later as the light was fading, I felt I had done as much as I could. At least fish could pass and the entrance flow was a bit more defined. Club members at Galston reading this… please keep an eye on the fish passes as they do need a small amount of regular maintenance especially at this time of year when fish are migrating.
The upper fish pass was full of mixed sediments and branches and would have been very difficult for salmon to pass through
As the light disappeared and my feet finally lost all feeling, I decided it was time to head onto my last stop of the day at Catrine (more on this another time).
Hi Stuart,
Your right on all accounts I fear, and the pool below both pass’s could do with being deeper in lower water conditions for access at lower levels in my opinion,(but am no expert), however I followed up on the work you had done( thanks) and have subsequently cleared both passes of all the gravel and rocks etc (even they big boulders) are out the top pass which was a bit of a challenge !! as of last Sunday morning the 14th, I will get up and check again over weekend as there has been a bit of rain last nite, but hopefully this might have allowed a few fish up through.
Well done Craig. Your efforts are just in time and will bring rewards.
If the entrance to Cemetery Road fish pass was to be modified to discharge to the deeper are of the pool, i think this would improve the operation of this pass. Unfortunately when the modifications were done, the Council department didn’t take specialist advice on the design and subsequently failed to maintain the pool below the pass. They were warned that this was essential but we are now in the position that we will have to go back to them with another small modification to try and improve the structure. I do feel that it is their responsibility to improve this and will be taking this to them in the New Year.