Salmon Fly Tying For Beginners

by | Feb 6, 2013 | General

I made a Blog post about this before Christmas and had a few people interested. I had tried to secure a small amount of funding which would enable us to purchase some tying equipment and materials however the application has been rejected.   I would still like to...

Doon Egg trial is under way

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Conservation, fishing, General

Weather once again threatened our planned work on the Doon. It was bad enough struggling with high water all summer but on the day we planned to plant the egg boxes in the river, we were subjected to blizzards. No matter what, we were going ahead with this today if we...

Egg Trials

by | Jan 13, 2013 | Conservation, fishing, General

As the River Ayr has been suffering from poor juvenile stocks for the last few years, we have been researching possible causes for this problem for some time. In order to determine what life stages are most affected, we decided to plant egg boxes out at key points...

Landslide at Catrine

by | Jan 9, 2013 | Conservation, General

During the holidays I received a call informing me of a landslide upstream of Catrine Dam. Over a week since the incident took place and the bank is still moving. I’m not sure who owns the woodland at this point but I do feel that there are implications for the...

Salmon spawning on the Ayr Catchment

by | Dec 18, 2012 | General

As regular readers will be aware, I’ve been checking for spawning activity on several Ayrshire rivers this season. So far there has been little to report but thankfully at last the fish seem to be doing their thing. Whilst out and about taking conductivity and...

Stripping fish

by | Dec 17, 2012 | Conservation, fishing, General

Last Saturday we intended planting egg boxes across the Ayr catchment to help to identify where the problems with poor stocks originate. As arranged we arrived at Boreland Hatchery at Cumnock at 9.30 but by then it was obvious that the previous evening’s rain...

Good News for Anglers

by | Dec 13, 2012 | General

I had a telephone call from the office of Adam Ingram MSP today. The office was looking for contact details of Angling Clubs in the Carrick and Cumnock and Doon Valley area so that a letter could be sent to confirm the Scottish governments position on the widely...