[Hamish Young]

OK, I am officially a wee bit confuddled.....

Sitting on the throne last night I picked up the most recent copy of FF&FT and found myself on Brucies page. In that spread was a piece on the electro-tagging of some 'larger' trout done on the Deveron (actually in a tributary of the Deveron) with the purpose being to track their movements over the space of a year.

Genuinely it is quite interesting.... but..... I thought it was common knowledge that 'larger' brownies tend to be somewhat migratory within the rivers of our part of the world (I include the Hydro rivers up here in Inverness-shire), opportunistically feeding on what's best available throughout the river system. Certainly it's been my view for some time - since moving to Aberdeenshire in the '90s anyway.

In Brucies piece this migratory activity appears as something of a revelation - but is it Not in my book.

Now why have I posted this in the Don section Well, it is my experience that larger browns are very much migratory on the Don. Sometimes better fish appearing in 'odd' places because of river height conditions (ie. trapped by lower water well upstream).

I thought this was common knowledge by most Don anglers.... is it ???

[Sandy Nelson]

I thought this was common knowledge by most Don anglers.... is it ???

It is with this one

Cheers

Sandy

[Mike Thornton]

The Don bailiffs regularly tagged large brown trout while catching salmon for the hatchery in their fish trap at Strathdon. It was regularly proved that these big trout ran up to Strathdon, even from the lower reaches of the river.

[Mike Barrio]

Yes, that has always been my experience on the Don Hamish

Cheers
Mike

[Allan Liddle]

Hmmm not as common a perception as you'd think Hamish.
I've completed a bigger article on it for next month.

Been working with the MFTI guys for over two years now and the research actually throws up more questions than answers.
The main thing it really highlights is just how much we take our resident trout for granted.

If we don't look after 'em then we all know what can happen, yes it would take something catastrophic to end it all, however this already has in many places (the most recent is the confirmation of pike having been introduced to Lochindorb. Yes the fishing will get really good for a few years before the inevitable and this water ends up the same as Morlich, Garry, Callatter, Rosque etc)

[Simon]

Very interesting. I had no idea about this. Also, Lochindorb is one of the waters I intended fishing in 2015. Is it still worth a visit now there are pike in it?

[Hamish Young]

Hmmm not as common a perception as you'd think Hamish.

That's what intrigues me Allan, where do people think they've come from if not elsewhere in the system I have the benefit of an educational grounding in fisheries management I suppose but it struck me very early on in my Aberdeenshire residency that there was no way the big browns we used to see on the Colquhonnies waters of the Don were 'resident' but were in fact itinerant and feeding opportunistically throughout the river. Of course I had no real way to prove the theory then; but the more anglers I spoke to the more plausible it appeared to be. Essentially all I did was apply knowledge I already had on the feeding behaviour of larger trout on loch systems (especially Loch Shiel) and applied it to a river and bingo presto hey what do you know It was a logical deduction to make and I am surprised - very surprised - that it's perhaps not one most anglers would make who fish a river in the north for trout regularly.

I'm genuinely interested in the work and I very much look forward to seeing a more comprehensive article

Shocked to hear some retard has put Pike in to Lochindorb 

H

[Peter McCallum]

Bob Wyatt wrote somewhere about fish running up the Lonan burn from Loch Assynt in a spate to feed and dropping back when the water dropped. 

[allabootthetroot]

 with mixed spawning between  brownies and sea trout would they move up steam together or simply pair up on the spawning redds.

[Hamish Young]

Potentially, both 

[Allan Liddle]

That's what intrigues me Allan, where do people think they've come from if not elsewhere in the system I have the benefit of an educational grounding in fisheries management I suppose but it struck me very early on in my Aberdeenshire residency that there was no way the big browns we used to see on the Colquhonnies waters of the Don were 'resident' but were in fact itinerant and feeding opportunistically throughout the river. Of course I had no real way to prove the theory then; but the more anglers I spoke to the more plausible it appeared to be. Essentially all I did was apply knowledge I already had on the feeding behaviour of larger trout on loch systems (especially Loch Shiel) and applied it to a river and bingo presto hey what do you know It was a logical deduction to make and I am surprised - very surprised - that it's perhaps not one most anglers would make who fish a river in the north for trout regularly.

I'm genuinely interested in the work and I very much look forward to seeing a more comprehensive article

Shocked to hear some retard has put Pike in to Lochindorb 

H

A background almost everyone else doesn't have H and you are very correct in your assessment. I've followed this theory for a long time with no real way of proving. Common perception is that big trout will take up the best positions and exploit it, add to this the thinking that they are always there and will come onto the feed as required.  EG 'There's a big fish under that tree / in that back eddy.' We've all heard this and given the right conditions this will most likely be the case. Essentially though just because big fish were in a given bit of water one day doesn't mean they're there the next and the Deveron work is helping prove this.  I'll say more once my piece comes out. 

[Allan Liddle]

Bob Wyatt wrote somewhere about fish running up the Lonan burn from Loch Assynt in a spate to feed and dropping back when the water dropped.

Happens in a lot of our water all the time Peter, why do you think I fish way up in the head waters in big water?  Also waters that run in / out of lochs offer the opportunity to the Stillwater trout to test out the streams, similar to sea trout movements in and out rivers from the sea, as well as the opportunity to feed in these burns.  I've encountered big numbers of fish more than ten miles from a loch that were simply not there before and are gone again directly after a spate.

[Allan Liddle]

with mixed spawning between  brownies and sea trout would they move up steam together or simply pair up on the spawning redds.

What's the difference between a sea going brown and a resident in fresh water?  About a fortnight 

[Rob Brownfield]

Aberdeen Uni did some radio tagging of Trout on the Don in the 90's. There must be something written down somewhere?? One of the students at the time was a member of the Grampian Pikers and had photos of some very big Don brownies taken well upriver. They also did surveys on Kinord, Davan and possible Skene.

For years I fished, walked and "snorkeled" a tiny burn in Angus. I could jump across most of it and the biggest "pool" was around 6 feet deep in normal conditions and perhaps 20 feet long. Real "worming" water and a great pool to lay in with a wetsuit and goggles and watch the trout.

75% of the time the Brownies were 3-6" long and could be seen as clear as day. However, towards October, these fish seemed to melt away, to be replaced by big headed "monsters" of around 20-24".

I had always thought that these bigger fish had moved up from the main river (Lunan) to spawn and possibly feed on the smaller brownies. As the spring came, the bigger fish left and the smaller ones appeared as if by magic.


On the issue of Pike and Lochindorb, it surprises me that the existence of Pike had been "confirmed" as I had been informed of pike being present by members of the RAF Kinloss angling club way back in the late 1980's who fished it both for trout and pike.

[Allan Liddle]

News to me and I fished with all the Kinloss guys throughout all the 90's and early 2000's when I ran the Moray Fly Fishing League but might be true, however I do know they fished Morlich, Laggan, Insch and Garve for both species.
Local scientists suspect they've been in around ten years, introduced possibly from the Aviemore area.  Whatever the case then it means the trout fishing will get really good before the biomass tips in favour of pike and trout fall into minority, exactly the same as the other waters where pike have been introduced (Skene, Morlich, Garve, Callatter, Alvie, Insh, Achnalalt etc) unless some form of management of the pike takes place.  Sadly as the loch isn't run as a trout fishery anymore then it'll simply be left to fate and time to dictate now.

Pike are a magnificent fish there's no denying this, and a species I like to catch, however there's also no denying that selfishness, greed and ignorance are the actions of those who illegally introduce them to waters where they didn't exist before.  After all do we not have enough easily accessible and well spread pike venues already without adding more? 

Why don't we stick grayling in the Don, Deveron, Spey and Dee to see what the outcome would be?  You'd be guaranteed world class grayling fishing that's for sure but I bet you would get a far bigger reaction to this than that of someone putting pike into a wild trout loch.  Sadly the outcome is very different, grayling would co-exist to no real detrimental effect on both resident or migratory stocks, pike on the other hand...............