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Latest News.
Update: 19:00hrs, Tuesday 9th March 2010.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful so far this week and it is forecast to continue through to the weekend. It has peaked about 6°C most afternoons with a sharp frost a night. The river level is running about 10 inches but the water is barely above freezing. There is still a great deal of snow on the ground.
A few hardy anglers have been down to the river this week. Kelts are still being caught but no sign ( as yet) of any fresh fish.
I'm afraid that's about it for now.
If there is any news, I'll post it here.
In the meantime, tight lines and best wishes.
Jimmy Mitchell.
Update: 12 noon, Saturday 6th March 2010.
With our extended and severe winter, I have no news to tell you from the river. There is still lots of snow on the ground, however the temperature is currently above 6°C and it is melting. In fact, today is our warmest day since early December! I gather that it might even be slightly warmer tomorrow and I would expect that the ice and snow on the river will melt and allow access to the river for next week.
I still haven't seen any spring birds as yet. The waders should have been here over a week ago. However, I did see a crow building a nest in Grantown yesterday - so perhaps spring is on the way.
Just for your information in case you are a new visitor to our site and are hoping to come and join us, permits are always available and can only be bought in person with cheque or cash at Mortimers shop in Grantown High Street. We have been experiencing some problems with the FishScotland website trying to arrange some bookings for our waters!
I attended a Cairngorms National Park Determination Meeting yesterday in connection with the Muir Homes application to build nearly 200 homes in front of our town's wonderful Caravan Park. You will be aware that I have been battling against this with fellow campaigners for nearly three years now. I am delighted to tell you that the application was thrown out and that The Mossie has been saved for the time being.
As there is no news from the river and, at the risk of this page becoming a local news and weather service, I thought I might just tell you about a major event in Grantown which occurred yesterday. As can be seen in the pictures, below, Grantown's largest shop was destroyed by fire. It is the Beale & Piper furniture shop only a couple of doors away from Mortimers. I understand that the building has been completely gutted and that Grantown's High Street remains closed this morning for fears of the building callapsing. Fortunately no one was hurt during the incident.
Click the weather symbol for the BBC 5 day forecast for Grantown.
This link will give you a more detailed 3-day Grantown forecast.
Click on the above link for information from FishSpey.
Update: 10:00 hrs, Monday 1st March 2010.
A change in the month but no change in the weather! I am afraid that the river has not been fishable and conditions have not improved at all.
For the visitors amongst you who are not local, I must tell you that it snowed continuously from last Wednesday to Friday and that Grantown was effectively cut-off from the rest of the world. About 27 inches of snow fell during this period.
Temperatures were below -10° last night and are set to drop well below this tonight. The forecast suggests that it will stay cold and clear until Wednesday when we may receive some more snow.
So, I'm afraid that the river will remain un-fishable for another week!
If there is any change to this, I will let you know.
Update: 16:50 hrs Wednesday 24th February 2010.
It has been quite cold with three out of the last four nights dipping to a full -16°C. The temperature has risen today with the arrival of more snow! Of course, all of this means that there has not been anyone fishing and so I have no news for you.
I would like to be able to tell you about some action on the river, but I seemed to have turned into a weather reporter!
Usually, the wading birds including Oyster Catchers, Lapwings and the likes would be arriving in Strathspey towards the end of this week, but if any of these birds do manage to find their way to the Strath, I'm afraid that they will just starve.
Update: 12:30hrs, Sunday 21st Feb 2010.
No fresh fish, as yet! Conditions are very cold and are set to remain that way for the rest of this coming week. The temperature dipped to a full -16°C last night and we are told to prepare for severe frosts every night this week. (The night time temperatures are always significantly lower in Grantown than are forecast.) Still, we should see quite a lot of sunshine!
The local anglers amongst you will know that there is still 5 or 6 inches of frozen snow on the ground. So, if you are brave enough to head down to the river, be careful on the banks.
Update: 17:00hrs, Wednesday 17th February 2010.
There was about 8 inches of snow on the ground this morning. I am pleased that it has been a beautiful day with clear sunshine which has helped to melt some of the snow.
I had heard that there were anglers at the Long Pool and so I took a slow wander down with my camera. I was just in time to see local member Dave Woodcock, landing a kelt. Dave was assisted by another of our local members, Bob Hall. (See pictures below.)
Dave Woodcock hooks a kelt at the Long Pool.
The fish is quickly landed and hooks removed.
The fish is returned straight away to the river.
So, there was fishing today after all, but still no fresh fish to report.
The weather forecast which I have seen suggests that we will see a lot of sunshine during the next few days with night-time frosts. There is a possibility of snow showers on Saturday.
Update: 18:00hrs, Tuesday 16th February 2010.
The only news I have for you is the weather. It's snowing again! There is about 7 to 8 inches of snow lying at the moment but it is snowing heavily and is forecast to continue doing so until 03:00hrs tomorrow and so it is unlikely that there will be much fishing done for the next few days. Keep posted on this page for further updates.
Update 14:00hrs, Saturday 13th February 2010.
No news to report, as yet. I did manage to have a wee walk on the Upper castle Grant beat yesterday but there was not an angler in sight! I suppose that if there are no anglers, there wont be any fish! The only thing of interest which I saw was a group of 11 Hooper Swans. They are most probably from Iceland and seem to have taken a liking to the Long Pool. (Apparently the collective noun for swans is an eyrar of swans - but I'll spare you any more of that for now.)
Anyway, back to the fishing. No fish declared as yet and, to be honest, it might be into March before there is any action. Hopefully someone will manage to prove me wrong!
There are still lots of kelts around and if you hook one, do your best to pull it straight in and get the hooks out without removing it from the water. This will give it a better chance of survival. Remember that it might just return in 18 months and weigh upwards of 30 lbs.
Weather wise, there is no change for the foreseeable future. It is remain cold with snow showers and night time frosts.
We have received a couple of nice pictures from local member, John Gray, who was fishing at The Lurg on opening day. One of John's pictures is displayed below. (Thanks John. It looks as if I might be out of a job soon!).
The Lurg on opening day 2010 ( Photo. John Gray)
Update: 10:00hrs, Friday 15th January 2010.
I have spent some time bringing this site into this new decade - I hope that you like it!
Grantown, like the rest of the UK, has been experiencing some decent winter weather for the past four weeks. Alas, I have been unable to get close to the river but you will see, below, a couple of recent pictures of Grantown in the snow.
Teams of diggers and tipper trucks were called in to clear the High Street.
Grantown's Square.
We have had a new brochure produced which now includes a detailed map of our fishings on the Rivers Spey and River Dulnain. If you would like a glossy A3 sized copy, please send us your details via the contact us page. Alternatively, our brochure can be downloaded and viewed/printed from the three pdf files as follows. (Remember to set you printer paper orientation to 'landscape'.)
Click on each of the three images above to download our new brochure.
A matter which you should all make yourselves aware of is Lyme disease. With the kind assistance of local member and GP, Dr Boyd Peters, I have produced an information report dealing with the facts and health risks associated with ticks and Lyme disease. Importantly, it contains information about when to seek medical assistance. This short and easy to read report, including photographs, is in pdf format and can be downloaded by clicking here.
o O o
Some slightly older news.....
A major threat to the juvenile salmon population in the Spey system is that of the Goosander. They are reckoned to eat their own weight in fish every day and are being seen in ever increasing numbers on the Spey. I have seen many families of 8 or more Goosander throughout our waters last year. The Spey Fishery Board are given an annual licence to cull some of these birds, but as the licence only ever specifies very small numbers, (ie. 14 or so), and as this licence invariably arrives after the breeding season, this cull is having little impact. For your information, the male and female Goosanders are pictured below. (The male is black & white).
o O o
In Autumn 2008, I was very fortunate to be invited to join the Spey Fishery Board, (SFB), as they went about their work. Naturally, I took my camera along and took a few snaps. I have singled out ten photographs, ( now on our Photo Gallery page), which should be of interest to you.
You will be aware that, amongst other things, the SFB net and strip some salmon of their eggs and milt and then fertilise the eggs under artificial conditions, (in a bucket!!). This process results in a success rate of over 98% of the eggs being fertilised . This is a whole lot of fertilised eggs when you consider that a hen fish produces over 500 eggs for every pound that she weighs. Of course, this process is far more successful than in the wild where less than 2% of all eggs are reckoned to get fertilised!
The 'donor' fish are always returned to their river of origin after scale and DNA sampling and they are always 'tagged' for future reference.
The fertilised eggs are held in irrigated holding tanks at the SFB Hatchery until they hatch as alevin and are then 'planted' into pre-determined areas of the river of their parents' origin to preserve the genetic integrity of the salmon stocks for that particular river. The SFB release millions of healthy young alevin into the Spey system every year.
Here's an interesting fact for you. The Spey Fishery Board stocked direct tributaries of our own SAIA water in 2008 with 105,000 salmon fry. This was part of the re-stocking programme last year in which they introduced 1,560,000 fry to the Spey and its tributaries!
o O o
Incidentally, there is no need to book your permit, just call into Mortimer's in Grantown's High Street and pick it up. To keep our costs down, it can only be paid for with cash or cheque.
Please read the important information, (below), about a parasitic fluke, Gyrodactlyus salaris.
Gyrodactlyus Salaris.
There is grave concern about a parasitic fluke, Gyrodactlyus salaris, (GS), which lives on freshwater fish. It is less than 1 mm long and is barely visible to the naked eye. It can be carried by brown trout, rainbow trout and other fish but is lethal to Scottish Salmon.
GS is native to rivers in Sweden, Finland and Russia where local salmon have evolved a resistance to the parasite. During the 1970's it was accidentally spread to rivers in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France and Portugal. The U.K. is currently GS free.
GS rapidly infests juvenile salmon causing mass mortality. In Norway, infected rivers lost 98% of their salmon within 5 years. Fishing in infected rivers becomes unfeasible due to lack of fish and restrictions on anglers' movements.
GS is most likely to be introduced to the U.K. by the movement of live fish from the continent. GS can survive for 5 to 7 days without a host, (fish), in damp conditions. The parasite could survive on wet angling clothing, nets, waders or other equipment or on canoes, rafts or boats.
Once a river is infected, all fish must be destroyed to remove potential hosts. The Spey could easily be infected by anglers carrying the parasite from infected countries on their damp clothing or equipment including waders and nets.
If you have fished or canoed on the continent, please, please take the following precautions before visiting the Spey.
You will be asked to declare yourself GS free before you fish on the Spey.
......and finally, some older news.
An article from the Atlantic Salmon Trust deals with the catch and release policy and mortality rates of fish which have been released. It acknowledges that salmonoids are more susceptible to injury/damage than other fish when removed from water - if you can keep your fish in the water whilst removing the hook, the more likely it will be to survive.
Also, older style landing-nets with 'knotted' type nets are believed to harm fish in that they damage and remove scales. This leaves the fish prone to infection. So, if you are treating yourself to a landing-net, make sure that it's of the 'knotless' type.