by Stuart Brabbs | Sep 12, 2015 | Conservation
Struan and I collected a trailer load of willow ahead of upcoming work at Kilkerran on the Girvan and other areas on the Ayr that would benefit from some bankside cover. Our thanks to the Bullen’s of Stair House for permission to harvest some willow there. We...
by Stuart Brabbs | Sep 7, 2015 | Conservation, Invasives
It seemed inevitable that the dreaded Himalayan balsam that pollutes every other Ayrshire river would appear in the Ayr catchment and it has. Last year we reported finding balsam on the Coyle at Broomhill fishery where it seemed to have come in with top soil. That was...
by Stuart Brabbs | Sep 7, 2015 | Conservation, Electrofishing, General
We were on the Lugar and upper Ayr today selecting and surveying sites ahead of experimental gravel cleaning that we intend to undertake along with the RADSFB bailiffs shortly. SEPA asked that we establish a base line against which we could assess improvements which...
by Stuart Brabbs | Sep 2, 2015 | Conservation, fishing, General
After considerable time in planning and negotiations with SEPA, we finally commenced the work at Culroy on the Culroy Burn in the Doon catchment. This work is supported and funded by the River Doon District Salmon Fishery Board in an attempt to improve both water...
by Stuart Brabbs | Aug 28, 2015 | Conservation, General
Under licence from Marine Scotland, we have stocked a few trout into the Dippol Burn near Auchinleck today. Water levels in the Stinchar were too high to allow our planned electrofishing to take place so we decided to head to the Lugar instead to capture wild trout...
by Stuart Brabbs | Aug 28, 2015 | Conservation, fishing, General
It’s a bad sign when the River Stinchar is suffering from pollution incidents on a regular basis and very worrying when we see fish numbers falling in some areas, possibly as a result. It’s not just pollution that causes concern and we do see other...
by Stuart Brabbs | Aug 25, 2015 | Conservation, fishing, General
The new deflector appears to have helped slightly but more needs done in my opinion. I filmed the top baffle in the fish pass for an hour and a quarter this afternoon in a falling water when salmon would normally be expected to be running and indeed were, with a...
by Stuart Brabbs | Aug 24, 2015 | Conservation, General
The long awaited deflector at Catrine Dam is having it’s first test this morning with a small spate that is underway. We visited the site this morning just after 9.00am and the river was in good flow although nothing extraordinarily for the Ayr. The height on...