Another trip south to check the smolts traps this morning. It was yet another chilly day, has there been a warm day this year? But the burns had dropped and the traps were fishing fine.

There were 11 salmon smolts and a single trout in the Truim trap, hardly worth marking such a small quantity, so they were measured, the 10th one scale sampled then released on their way.

The Truim smolt trap catch this morning

The Tromie was better with about 150 fish in the trap, the best haul so far this year. 92 of them were unmarked salmon including quite a few small 1 year old parr, the smallest of which was 48mm. I have a lot of respect for these small parr, they have survived the first year and I know from scale reading in Ayrshire that fish like that can grow very quickly in the next year(s) to make good 2 or 3 year old smolts.

Some of the Tromie catch this morning. The small parr are in the left bucket; they are too small for mark and recapture work. Also in the left bucket are the previously marked and now recaptured smolts. The right bucket contains some of todays marked fish.

On a Monday we mark the smolts in a different position from that used during the rest of the week. This morning we were still catching some of the smolts released back upstream last Monday. The Monday release point is 2.7km upstream of the trap. 11 of last Mondays marked smolts were recaptured during the week, 5 on the next day but there were 2 yesterday and 2 today. At a few hundred metres per night this is a slow migration; there are about 130km to the sea from this point. All of this suggests to me that the main smolt run is yet to happen. The highest river temperature recorded at the traps so far this year is just over 5oC, my hunch is that there will be a big run as soon as the temperature rises.

After the smolt traps it was back to the office to work on my London presentation before a dry run this afternoon. I have some work to do now with some final tweaks but almost ready to go.

And to end another busy day I was shown a video in which I was named checked; several times, by Hilter of all people. See you in court Duffer!

Spey Fishery Board

Spring arrived all of a sudden on Speyside at the weekend, unfortunately it was accompanied by heavy rain and both the Truim and Tromie traps were out of action for two days in the big water. They were operating again on Sunday and ready for the daily inspection on Monday. Normally we go to the Truim first but slow moving traffic on the A9 prompted a quick change of plan so the Tromie was visited first.

There were a few more in the Tromie trap.

185 fish in the Tromie trap

Most of the catch were trout but there were 64 first capture salmon smolts, the highest daily catch of the year. The water temperature went above 8 degrees at the weekend but the relatively low catch for the conditions suggests that we had missed a lot of smolts in the high water. The first capture smolts were ventral marked and released at the upper release point.

Tromie birch buds just about to open. With the sudden arrival of spring the tree buds were opening and the first flush of green was apparent on many trees on the route up to the traps. The Tromie release point is at an altitiude of almost 1000′, spring is just a little later up there.

Most of the fish trapped were trout ranging from small one year old parr to adults of 300mm. Establishing whether any of the trout are smolting is always a matter of debate. We reckon most of the trout from these upper tributaries are destined to be river or loch resident trout but the occasional one exhibits some signs of smolting, e.g. silvering. The one photographed below was a distinct black band on the edge of its tail, this is a feature I have always associated with smolts.

Black edge to trout tail – a sign of smolting?

The Truim trap took a battering again at the weekend with the smolt box lid swept open and got bashed. There were very few smolts in the trap yesterday. This year we have trapped less then 200 in the Truim, this compares to over 5000 trapped last year. It is looking increasingly likely that we have missed most of the run in the frequent high water events.

There were a lot of  mayflies hatching yesterday and the birds (female chaffinches) were having a field day catching them in mid air as they emerged from the river. One mayfly managed to avoid the avain threat and landed on the record sheet.

I think this is a March Brown, it has the characteristic light patch in the middle of the wing and there are faint dark blotches on the femur. Slightly surprising to see them in an upper tributary rather than the mainstem.

It looks like 2013 will be one of those years when we don’t learn much about the characteristics of the smolt run.

In the afternoon we had a committment in the lower river at Spey Bay with an electrofishing demo as part of the “Really Wild Fest”. I had anticipated that a rise in the river was likely and had forewarned the organisers that we may struggle on the day. This turned out to be the case and it was impossible to electrofish with the river up 2′. In the flooded side channel, where we had intended to do the demo, there were many smolts/parr rising. We tried to catch a few with the electrofisher but to no avail, the current in the Spey even in these side channels is deceptively strong. Still it was good to see plenty evidence of smolts there and also on the Easter Elchies beat.

Lower Spey birch, not really much between here and the Tromie timing wise despite nearly 900′ difference in altitude

Spey Fishery Board

Up to the smolts traps yesterday for my weekly stint. Conditions had improved and both traps were operating. We checked the Truim first as always. There we found a few smolts and a good size trout of about 1.5lb. Judging by the bulge in its belly there may have been a few more smolts earlier! The Truim has for a long time been famed for the occasional large trout. It is an important trout spawning burn and I suspect they delay their return to the river to coincide with the smolt run.

Nice trout from the Truim, it looks like it is recovering condition well after the winter.

At the Tromie I lifted the lid on the smolt box and was pleased to see quite a few fish.

How many fish do you think are in here?

It was clear that most were trout but we found 48 salmon smolts. 17 had been dye marked before so they were released downstream, the others were marked with a dye spot close to the ventral fins. The Monday, ventral marked fish, are released further upstream than normal to provide some info on migration speeds. Normally they are marked close to the pectoral fins.

Ventral marking salmon smolt

Selection of trout and salmon from the Tromie. There were quite a few one year old salmon parr in the trap. In Ayrshire we also noted a big movement of salmon parr downstream in the spring. This may be an important re-distribution period as the departing smolts leave lots of vacant habitat.

Some of the smolts were silvering up nicely.

Silvery salmon smolts

So the catches are picking up but in the Tromie trap only about 190 salmon and trout have been captured to date with less in the Truim. The fear is that we missed a lot in the big spate last week but the temperature is still low. On Monday the river water temperatures were 4.6 and 5.1 oC in the Truim and Tromie respectively. Previous experience has shown that temperature is an important trigger for migration with 8 oC often stimulating big smolt runs. We will find out soon.

How many fish were in the Tromie trap?

There were 138……………………… always more than you think.

Spey Fishery Board

How well do you know the Spey catchment? I still have lots of places to visit some of which are quite spectacular, including this tributary. Can you name it?

Can you name this Spey tributary? Salmon spawn here but not in big numbers nowadays.
I will let this run to the weekend unless someone gets it right!

Spey Fishery Board

In 2012 Jock Royan organised an auction on The Salmon Fishing Forum http://salmo.proboards.com/index.cgi . The funds raised in the auction were donated to the Spey Foundation with the proviso that it was allocated to habitat improvements.

I am now pleased to say that the donation has been invested in fencing on the lower Glenbeg Burn, works which will compliment fish passage improvements installed on the A95 culvert just to the south of Grantown.The culvert was constructed in the early 90s with the promise that baffles would be fitted. It took almost 20 years but the job has at last been completed.

A little about the Glenbeg Burn first. It joins the Spey on the left bank a short distance upstream of Grantown, the site thereby fulfilling Jocks request that the project should benefit as much of the river as possible. Habitat quality is excellent in the upper reaches although the spawning gravels are probably of a size more suited to trout with the occasional area of larger grade. In the not too distant past salmon were regularly seen spawning on the moorland fringe, several km upstream.

Excellent habitat in the upper Glenbeg Burn. Salmon used to spawn up here and beyond

Further downstream the gradient was a little lower but the bankside cover was extremely good.

Very good habitat in the middle reaches of the burn. As in many Spey burns in this part of the catchment the natural birch and alders along the banks are present in ideal density to provide a good balance between light and shade.

All the Spey burns in the Grantown area are potentially very productive so it is important that fish are able to penetrate as far as possible to spawn. Our electrofishing results show a dramatic chane in the fish population above the culvert compared to below. There is a low population of salmon upstream, largely sustained by stocking although in some years a few salmon must get through the culvert to spawn.

The Glenbeg Burn culvert under the A95 is 38m long and has 0.7m of fall along its length. When we surveyed it before the installation of the baffles the maximum depth in the centre of the channel was just over 2″ and the water speed 2.1m/sec (showing my age with the mix of imperial and metric!), technically too fast and shallow for salmon or trout to pass, although the occasional fish was thought to make it through. Those measurements were taken at low flow, at higher flows there would be a greater depth but even faster water speeds. Salmon and trout are good at long distance swimming and short bursts but not so strong in the middle distance events. 2″ water is simply not deep enough for a salmon sized fish to generate sufficient propulsion to overcome gravity and the flow of water down the culvert. Scottish Government guidance states that for a culvert over 30m in length the maximum permissable water speed for salmon is 1.75m/sec for salmon over 55cm and for sea trout size fish it is 1.25m/sec.

The Glenbeg Burn culvert before the baffles were fitted: too fast and shallow

Duncan Ferguson, Spey Fishery Board Operations manager, liaised with Bear Scotland who fitted the baffles with funding from Transport Scotland. 26 baffles were fitted at 1.5m intervals. The baffles were steel plates bolted and grouted to the culvert floor. Bear Scotland have the contract to maintain the trunk roads in this area and were very helpful in this instance.

Bear Scotland contractors fitting the baffles. The burn was dammed and overpumped to maintain a dry working zone.

Baffles fitted, water now significantly deeper, slower and with lots of resting places

Measurements taken after the fitting of the baffles showed that the water depth had doubled and the maximum water speed was 1m/sec. It will improve further once some substrate (cobbles, gravel etc) starts to accumulate between the baffles, roughening the flow even more.

Salmon and trout were always able to spawn below the culvert but there are about 2 miles of really good habitat upstream that we wanted fish to reach, hopefully some ancestral memory to spawn in the upper reaches remains within the stock.

The field below the road was used for grazing and silage and was unfenced on one side. The forum donation was used to fence the other bank to exclude stock access. A water trough was fitted with a feed from the burn.

Glenbeg Burn fencing. This will protect and improve the habitat downstream of the culvert.

Fencing further downstream

Once complete a photo shoot for the local press was arranged. The story made the sports page in the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald a week later. I guess the editor wasn’t sure if this was an environment or a sports story but plumped for the later.

From the left:Duncan Ferguson, Grant Mortimer, Liz Henderson (Spey Catchment Initiative), Hugh Adcock (Strathspey Angling Improvement Association) and Brian Shaw

This was a great wee project and all at the Spey are very grateful for the donation from the forum which we think has been invested wisely. Thanks also to Bear Scotland and Trsonport Scotland. This was a real team effort with the bailiffs assisting with the fencing.

Spey Fishery Board