Catch and release
Programme
The Tay
District Salmon Fisheries Board quite
rightly promotes a catch and release
programme throughout
the River Tay District. They opperate a
"varied bag" limit during the season.
The programme started
in the 1999 season and continues to this day.
Why Catch and Release
Multi Sea Winter salmon stocks (prminarily
spingers) are, as we all know, under pressure.
There are more anglers and our
equipment
is
more effective, resulting in more fish being
killed and thus further reducing discrete stocks. Protection
of these fish is imperative. if not for our own
sport, but in accordance with legislation.
The Tay
District Salmon Fisheries Board has sought
to protect such salmon cohorts by introducing
a new Conservation
Code for 2008.
As an added incentive the Board are
offering sweat
shirts for anglers who have released Tay springers.
Guidelines to aid success in
catch and release
| Catching the fish |
|
Landing the fish |
Use
approppriate tackle. Treble hooks and even
doubles are not conducive
to catch and release. The use of barbless or
micro barbed single hooks is recommended,
as they make the removing
of the hook easier. As a minimum please only
use singles. |
|
Use a fine knot-less meshed
landing net and ensure the fish remains
in the water. Keep the fish in the water. Beaching
a fish on gravel
is not acceptable as it causes abbraision
to the
skin and will in all likeleyhood cause infections
which will kill it before it spawns. |
| Playing the fish |
|
Handling fish |
Try not to play the fish
to exhaustion but reel it in as soon as
possible. Use lines commesurate with the
size of fish you wish to catch. Playing
a 20lb fish on light lines is not sport
if you want to release it. Move
the fish out of fast flowing water if possible. |
|
Gaffs
of tailers must not be used.
Never pick up
a fish and hold it by the wrist (tail)
as this will break its spine. Pictures
of fish held by the tail are dead fish. |
| Removing the hook |
|
Reviving the fish |
Wet
your hands, a dry bare warm hand can cause
abrasion and
shock which later leads to infection. Remove
the hook gently, if possible remove the
hook using forceps or a hook disgorger,
taking care not to squeeze the fish. If the
fish is deep hooked cut the line as close
to the hook as possible
|
|
Support
the fish, in a current, facing upstream and
allow time for the fish
to recover and swim away on its own. Do not
throw the fish into the water.. |
| Recording
fish |
|
|
Do
not weigh the fish but estimate the weight
of the fish from its length. A live estimate
is better than a dead record. Take pictures
of the fish in the water. |
|
|
See also
The
Tay Foundation and
the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board have, as
a joint initiative, "purchased" leases
of commercial netting operations that operated
within the Tay Estuary and river. This has allowed
salmon and sea trout, that would have been taken
by nets, to reach their spawning grounds
|
