I have followed with interest over the past few years the recurring topic of the River Don and the no Sunday fishing law. I just thought I'd finally put down my thoughts on it.
First of all, yes I do attend the kirk but no I do not have an issue with Sunday fishing!
However, I feel that having the Sunday no fishing rule is beneficial for the river and if people are desperate to get fishing on a Sunday there are plenty of other options in Scotland. Also, at least it is not like the west coast of Norway where if there are salmon in the river it is a salmon river- period! this means you pay salmon prices and the season only starts on 1st June so you would miss any decent LDO hatch.
Anyway, the way I see it is that the public water on the Don probably benefits from the no Sunday rule as it reduces overall fishing pressure on the water. This would not be as true if the no fishing day was, say a Tuesday, as most people do not work on Sundays. Yes, it can be frustrating if you really want to fish the Don on Sunday but we can't have everything. Too much of our 'society' is based on a fairly selfish way of life and if it is inconvenient for us we tend to get upset about it. Whatever it maybe!
I guess what I am trying to say is that some enforced restraint is not a bad thing from a conservation point of view and has probably kept the fishing on the Don up to the standard that is evidenced by some of the reports this year. Having fished in the US on some of the rivers it gets pretty busy at weekends and even with C&R there is a real competition to catch LOTS of fish. I do not believe this is healthy for any watershed and this is evidenced by the fishries going down hill. Again, this is another topic about learning when enough is enough. Not that my catches are ever that large!
So, in conclusion, while I have the soap box, no Sunday fishing is not a bad thing for the continuing fishing quality.
Thanks for reading this!
Mike