Crammond Angling Club have taken the brave descision to go 100% catch and release for all species on their club water. Their Chairman explains why.
The River Almond, which runs through the previously industrialized belt of Central Scotland to its mouth on the Firth of Forth on the outskirts of Edinburgh was once classified as the most polluted river of its size in the UK. This was due to the shale oil and paraffin industries that proliferated along its course but the creation of the Forth Purification Board saw the start of this improvement. Thanks mostly to the industries that relied upon its water falling into decline, the River Almond has improved vastly over the last 30 years. What was once a “dead” river was re-stocked with Brown Trout and Salmon back in the '60s by members of Cramond Angling Club. Over the years, with careful monitoring and habitat improvement projects, the population of Salmonoids gradually increased to today’s levels and although the Salmon run can't match those of the more illustrious East Coast rivers such as the Tay, Tweed, Forth and Spey a move in the right direction has been made.
Back in 2006 the Club asked its members to observe a voluntary Catch and Release policy for the brown trout and kill limits for migratories were decreased. The result was a spectacular rise in the brown trout catch rate (admittedly the new C/R policy cannot be the sole factor) and a slight increase in migratories was the result although we do accept that Salmon runs are cyclical. The next stage was to take things forward in order to ensure Salmon stocks were protected and give the migratories the best chance of getting to the redds. After viewing the results of an electro fishing project done on the perceived spawning areas we were perturbed to find that very few parr and smolts were seen. The view was taken that this may be due to habitat competition from the vast number of Bullheads that were found in the river or other factors we were unaware of. Somehow we had to do something in order to get the smolt and parr numbers up.
Club members were canvassed on the riverbank and through the Club members forum and the view was taken to put the issue to the membership at the 2011 A.G.M with a proposed policy of total catch and release for Brown Trout, Sea trout, and Salmon on the Club's 6.5 miles of water. The argument that the club put forward was as follows: we think in these situations, it's probably wisest to follow the precautionary principle. We know next to nothing about the key ecological variables, bar the facts that the population is small. There are serious obstacles to movement up the river, and that juveniles of certain age classes are completely absent.
Given these, it is reasonable to assume that single fish can make substantial differences to the population as a whole. That is not to say they definitely do. It is to admit we know far too little about the system to be confident that it doesn't. So we're faced with a choice: gamble by killing some fish, which might be ok, or might not. Or stop killing, which we know to carry zero risk. The membership decided to take the zero risk option and a total catch and release rule has been imposed on Cramond Angling Clubs managed water. A massive step in what we believe is the right direction and a move that will hopefully further restore the river Almond.
Millar Haxton Laing
Chairman Cramond Angling Club
Further details of Cramond Angling Clubs Initiatives can be found HERE