River Don 2015

« **Reply #25 on:** 24/02/2015 at 21:09 »

Cheers Liam. Dee has been a little slow the last few days after a decent start in opening week, really hoping for a decent run this year.

Ben

« **Reply #26 on:** 28/02/2015 at 10:49 »

Fished Kintore on Friday and the Manse this morning still nothing coming through the system & on reports from that Beat of anthing yet

« **Reply #27 on:** 04/03/2015 at 07:23 »

Fished at Kemnay after work yesterday (Tuesday). This time last year I saw a fair few kelts splashing about and even the odd fresh fish. Yesterday I saw nothing, not a Scooby! The water looked perfect to me, up but running clear, with a nice flow to it.

I gave up at 5.30 when it started to snow on me.

« **Reply #28 on:** 09/03/2015 at 07:47 »

Fished Kemnay from 1 until 5 on Friday. Terrible wind, although it was down stream off my left shoulder, so castable.

River running high but clear, no touches but at least this time I saw a fish crash out twice, so I know there is at least one there!! Bit depressing really.

« **Reply #29 on:** 09/03/2015 at 09:12 »

Out doing some casting yesterday with the tournament gear, lovely pleasant morning and flies in the air. Counted one LDO and some small black things, not long now

Ben

« **Reply #30 on:** 09/03/2015 at 17:02 »

Small black things catch fish

« **Reply #31 on:** 16/03/2015 at 09:14 »

Out on the Don over the weekend, Stoneflies, Midge and a couple of olives seen. Heard but did not see a few trout move, too.

Cheers

Ben

« **Reply #32 on:** 16/03/2015 at 22:27 »

I've been out a few time as well, starting to see a bit of fly life and also a few trout. Unfortunately also spoke to an old guy who'd taken a large brownie a few weeks ago, said it was 4lbs but someone else who had seen it said it was nearer 8lbs. Does put you off the ADAA a bit as seen quite a few nice fish end up in carrier bags last year as well.

« **Reply #33 on:** 17/03/2015 at 08:06 »

HI Andy

I hear you and agree

but you can't blame the club, the rules state all brown trout over 18" must be returned, not all the other beat owners on the river even state this. Its very hard to enforce and like most rules relies on individuals following them. So blame the people not the organisation.
The fish, if it was kept, was also taken out of season so also breaking more of the rules of the club , the PO and the national laws, if it was silver then its classed as a crime, just a pity the same doesn't seem to apply to Gold.

We are supposed to live in more enlightened times, but a lot of people still require a bit of re-education to realise that the rules have changed in the last 20 years. Not quite sure how you can do this beyond mentioning it to people.

Sandy

« **Reply #34 on:** 17/03/2015 at 08:19 »

Quote from: Andyf on 16/03/2015 at 22:27

I've been out a few time as well, starting to see a bit of fly life and also a few trout. Unfortunately also spoke to an old guy who'd taken a large brownie a few weeks ago, said it was 4lbs but someone else who had seen it said it was nearer 8lbs. Does put you off the ADAA a bit as seen quite a few nice fish end up in carrier bags last year as well.

Hi Andy, I know you probably don't have a name, but I would be letting the ADAA committee know. If they are not told, they cannot do anything about it.

« **Reply #35 on:** 17/03/2015 at 10:28 »

Sandy, I'm not blaming the ADAA but it was ADAA water and therefore a member. Unfortunately over last season and now this there seems to be quite a number of people fishing the ADAA beats who either don't know the rules or chose to ignore them.

Rob, I did say to the guy that it was out of season and the fish should have been returned but usual response, fish swallowed the rapala and nothing else he could do. Unfortunately I did not ask for his name and membership details at the time.

« **Reply #36 on:** 17/03/2015 at 12:35 »

Quote from: Andyf on 17/03/2015 at 10:28

fish swallowed the rapala

I am guessing he had not converted the Rapala to fit with ADAA rules of only one treble on a lure. I think the rules say that even dead fish must be returned out of season??

A real shame

« **Reply #37 on:** 17/03/2015 at 13:53 »

Quote from: Andyf on Yesterday at 22:27:28

Does put you off the ADAA a bit as seen quite a few nice fish end up in carrier bags last year as well.

As others have said, the rules are there, and we rely on our members to abide by them. There is an ADAA disciplinary committee, and they have and will take action, such as annulling membership, on breaches of rules. There are watchers and bailiffs, but we also rely on other anglers to keep us informed of rule breaches.

I'm happy to take forward, anonymously, any concerns or noted rule breaches
iain

ps - Our return rate for Brown Trout was 95% last year; see the full catch report doc via http://www.adaa.org.uk/#!catches/cq4e

« **Reply #38 on:** 17/03/2015 at 21:03 »

Iain, i would be interested in knowing how the figures are established. You are stateing 95% return rate, from where are you getting this figure. I take it this is from the few members who actually log returns. I'm all up for promoting the ADAA but to be honest find numbers like that very optimistic.

« **Reply #39 on:** 17/03/2015 at 21:16 »

Disgusting behavior chapping a trout out of season

. I remember one of martins reports on fishpal last year saying there is still some eegits out there that will chap every thing.

« **Reply #40 on:** 18/03/2015 at 06:59 »

Quote from: Andyf on 17/03/2015 at 21:03

Iain, i would be interested in knowing how the figures are established. You are stateing 95% return rate, from where are you getting this figure.

hi Andy

I'm catch returns convener for ADAA. Last year, we had 2,268 returns (ie 2,268 fish), with 200 different anglers recording at least one catch.

I summarise the recorded catches; there's a field where the angler records if they kept or released their catch, and I use that to derive the figure. You can see my summary for 2014 in the PDF on the page I linked to in my previous post.

For browns, we had 904 recorded catches, of which 862 (95%) were returned.

cheers
iain

« **Reply #41 on:** 20/03/2015 at 16:14 »

Walking the dog along the river bank today around 1.15. Finally saw a couple of trout rising, both rose a couple of times before I moved on. Didn't see what they took, but there were a couple of olive duns on the water, and the rises were fairly solid, so I'd suspect that it was LDOs.

... only a couple of weeks to go now!

« **Reply #42 on:** 20/03/2015 at 19:57 »

It would be a lot easier if everything was just catch & release. Only other option I could see would be tags for all species and for it to be mandatory to carry a scale & tape in the same way as it is to carry a permit.

ADAA do take positive steps to make sure that their members are obeying the rules in my experience but, there are a lot of members and a lot of water and like any organisation or association, there will be a few numb skulls. The majority should not be tarred with that brush and, there are still plenty of butchers fishing on non ADAA waters pretty much unchecked,

As far as big fish go, there is still this misguided nonsense about "cannibal trout" and I still hear it from some who really should know better.

Quote

For browns, we had 904 recorded catches, of which 862 (95%) were returned.

I'd be absolutely astonished if that was the real total, Iain, and I'd be very surprised if the locations and weights were accurate in the case of good fish. Not really sure that the current method or channels for recording trout catches really encourage accurate submission of data. It's a little different for migratory fish.

Cheers

Ben

« **Reply #43 on:** 21/03/2015 at 00:08 »

Human nature dictates that some will not bother with reporting a catch or three so the figures will be about 5 to 10 % higher even without that the figures still show almost 50% increase in trout and a 50% decrease in salmon. Will be interesting to see what this years brings

« **Reply #44 on:** 21/03/2015 at 07:38 »

Quote from: Cosun on 21/03/2015 at 00:08

Human nature dictates that some will not bother with reporting a catch or three so the figures will be about 5 to 10 % higher even without that the figures still show almost 50% increase in trout and a 50% decrease in salmon. Will be interesting to see what this years brings

Not sure if it has been noted in this years thread yet but please use common sense when reporting catches here or anywhere else.

Everyone likes to read a good fishing report but photos should be cropped to not give away exact locations and pools should not be mentioned.

Cheers

Ben

« **Reply #45 on:** 22/03/2015 at 14:16 »

Not sure why your quoting my post in reference , subject as nothing to do with your announcement

« **Reply #46 on:** 22/03/2015 at 17:26 »

My "announcement", was regarding using common sense when reporting catches here or anywhere else. Your post made reference to not people possible not reporting all catches, I know that to be the case and at times, there may be good reason. I'm sorry if you do not see a connection there, I did not realise the need to be more explicit and will be sure to take that into account next time I quote you. You're right about it being interesting to see what comes of this season though.

Cheers

Ben

« **Reply #47 on:** 23/03/2015 at 07:53 »

Quote from: Ben_D on 22/03/2015 at 17:26

Your post made reference to not people possible not reporting all catches, I know that to be the case and at times, there may be good reason.

Which in itself is breaking the club rules and I believe it is a legal requirement to submit catch returns for migratory species......

« **Reply #48 on:** 23/03/2015 at 08:50 »

Quote from: Rob on 23/03/2015 at 07:53

Which in itself is breaking the club rules and I believe it is a legal requirement to submit catch returns for migratory species......

Pretty much anywhere in Scotland it's a legal requirement to provide an accurate catch return of wild and migratory salmonids for government records.
To knowingly provide false information on a return is... errrr....... an offence.

I appreciate the topic at hand is emotive, especially when it comes to the Don, but the problem of falsified or 'creative' catch returns is not a uniquely Don issue.

In line with previous years, and as Ben has stated, forum members should ensure that common sense or caution is used when posting updates with regard to where and when you have caught that trophy fish or had a belting day in 2015. It's good to share, but not too much

H

« **Reply #49 on:** 23/03/2015 at 10:01 »

Thanks Hamish

Rob, I was referring to brown trout for which there is not a legal requirement to report catches. Reporting migratory catches is as you rightly state a legal requirement but they are often there one day and gone the next from a particular lie. Brownies not so much.

Cheers

Ben