Smolts rising and feeding on Grannom caddis

by | May 3, 2017 | Conservation

As normal in May, the Grannom hatch has commenced and this evening I watched smolts rising for these emerging caddis at Catrine on the Ayr. It is both fascinating and worrying as there are still hundreds of smolts in the voes but we are attempting to encourage them...

Smolt sampling at Catrine

by | May 2, 2017 | Conservation

We had an afternoon of sampling at Catrine after we stepped in and electrofished those we could from the lade. Currently many smolts are  stranded with nowhere to go until modifications to the intake to the smolt trap are completed and proven successful.  Our thinking...

Adders abound!

by | Apr 28, 2017 | General

Over the last few weeks we have been up at Loch Doon on a daily basis checking our smolt trap. An increasingly common site are adders (we’ve seen one every day this week). Adders are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and are a UK Biodiversity...

Kayak Training Day

by | Apr 27, 2017 | General

Today was the Kayak training day. Four of us headed to Castle Semple Loch this morning to go through some Kaya safety training to ensure Health and Safety compliance when performing bird counts on the rivers. Unfortunately we had to leave Gillian behind manning the...

Catrine Smolt Trap on the river Ayr

by | Apr 26, 2017 | Conservation, General

Smolt trapping to assess the effectiveness of migration at the Catrine Dam Hydro system well underway, so far there not been many fish in the trap. This new and until recently untested trap is not a conventional design and getting smolts into the trap has been easier...

Smolt Trapping

by | Apr 20, 2017 | Conservation, General

Another busy day today with 2 smolt traps in action at present. That’s quite a commitment from a small organisation such as ART as the two traps are approximately 30 miles apart and each requires a daily visit from the team. The Loch Doon trap isn’t likely...