A walk up the lower River Fiddich in good conditions revealed quite a lot of redds with the occasional fish still spawning. The average size of the fish was high, most were double figure fish with only a few grilse to be seen.
A very big redd on the Fiddich. Probably more than one pair of fish involved to make a redd of this size. A single cock fish can be made out to the left. No shortage of top quality spawning gravel in the lower Fiddich.
On the right bank of the Fiddich there are the remains of what looks like infrastructure associated with an old water power system.
This structure looks like a sluice to control water levels in a lade. Perhaps there was more than one water powered machine in the system. Warning: don’t go walking in the woods in this area at night, the place is littered with traps like this!
The remains of the water lade along the right bank
There must have been a weir where the water was taken from the river and sure enough a short distance upstream there were the remains of what could have been such a thing.
The remains of an old weir?
Due to the steep terrain I returned to the Craigellachie to Dufftown path from where I spotted a pair of salmon spawning.
I arrived just as they mated but too late to get the money shot! This photo shows the hen burying the recently laid eggs with gravel.
Click here to see a short video clip of this pair of salmon.
Redds were present throughout the lower few miles of the Fiddich, salmon and sea trout, never in abundance but there was the odd cluster of three redds or more but mostly single redds.
A single salmon redd in good fry/parr habitat in the Fiddich.
There was a more than adequate number of redds to be seen in the lower Fiddich but it will be one of the last places in the catchment for a dip in juvenile densities to occur. Other more peripheral areas in the margins of the catchment will be the first to respond if the low numbers of adults seen over the last couple years continues.
Spey Fishery Board
