August monsoon on the Dee

With two big spates in the same week, our trip to the Dee last week (August 2008) was wetter than usual. The fish didn't mind. They were taking advantage of the big flows and tearing up the river as fast as their fins could carry them. I think some of them were veterans of Rob's salmon survival game.

It made tactics interesting. Big fly or small fly? Floating line or intermediate? Sinking tip or no sinking tip? Start casting or have another cuppa in the hut?


The problem with sinking tips, to my mind, is that while they get down to fish that may be resting close to the bottom of the river, they are not crossing that wider cone of vision on the surface.

In the spring when the water is colder and the fish less willing to move far to a fly, the sunk lure is often essential. But in summer when running fish are moving quite close to the surface a sunk line could be fishing beneath them.

It doesn't help either when the water colours up in a spate. I change my flies and my approach too often - I know I do - but I do think you have to keep ringing the changes. It's a matter of degree and I need to be a little more patient, sticking with a fly for the length of a pool at least.

All the salmon I caught and hooked last week (OK we're talking three here) took a surface fly on a floating line (with a Maxima leader in preference fluorocarbon). The only fish I caught on an intermediate line were sea trout. I realise this is not statistically significant, nor is it typical.

My friends on the next beat were catching fish with a mixture of approaches although they too were often struggling in the conditions.

What this says, I think, is that there is no text book approach. Luck and persistence continue to play a big part.



End note: Gill's dad, Alan Barraclough who has been my fishing partner for the past 14 summers in Scotland, has decided his fishing days on the Dee are over. At the age of 82, wading was getting difficult. He isn't hanging up his rod altogether and plans to be fishing on the Tay again come the spring. I'll miss him and will always be grateful for the opportunity he gave me all those years ago to try my hand at salmon fishing.

Rodless fishing

No rod? No problem!

Splitters

One of the most disappointing presentations at this year's CLA Game Fair was the debate on angling unity which I can only conclude after the events of recent weeks, is anything but.

The presence on the platform of Mark Lloyd, executive director of the Anglers' Conservation Association alongside Paul Knight, executive director of the Salmon & Trout Association, did little to remove the impression that the unity initiative has been dealt a damaging blow by the withdrawal of the S&TA from the merger.

Both executives had supportive words for each other and Knight had an explanation of sorts in that the S&TA had just been granted full charity status so, he argued, needed to remain outside the new structure. If that was the case, why did it commit itself to merger in the first place?

Judean People's Front

It's only a few weeks ago I was joking about fishing organisations resembling the Life of Brian Monty Python sketch where the Judean People's Front tries to present an image of unity that is far from the truth.

Sadly I did not realise how close I was to reality. The unity initiative prompted Jonathan Young, the editor of The Field, to commission from me an opinion piece asking whether the same might happen in shooting.

The article had to be scrapped shortly before publication in the August issue after the S&TA announced its withdrawal from Unity.

As I pointed out in the article, no-one was saying that unity was going to be easy. Fishing has experienced a number of abortive attempts to create broader representation in the past.

Fresh impetus

A fresh impetus emerged after Lord Moran’s review of salmon and freshwater fisheries in England and Wales ten years ago paved the way for the co-operative body, the Fisheries and Angling Conservation Trust (FACT) in 2005.

It soon became apparent that there were significant overlaps in the work of this group and that of its supporting organisations, hence the merger initiative among six (now five) of those groups.

Imagine pulling together the respective web sites, governing bodies, administrations and their respective marketing departments, memberships, fee structures and benefits. Petty rivalries, internal politics and personal egos had been buried to secure the big prize of a single powerful representation covering a whole series of angling issues - or at least that was story presented to me.

“Laying aside personal differences and hundreds of years of history to pursue this single overriding vision was a big ask,” said Mark Lloyd, speaking just a few weeks ago before the S&TA decision pull out. “But there has been the will to do it,” he said. The words ring a little bit hollow now but Lloyd shouldn't be blamed. He has worked has hard as anyone to make Unity a reality.

Better positioned

The result, he still argues, is a body that should be far better positioned to represent the 1.8m anglers in England and Wales than anything existing at present. While the combined membership of all the participating groups is no more than 25,000 individuals, the prospective body remains confident that it will provide a range of organisational benefits capable of boosting that figure to 100,000 on a par with the bigger field sports associations.

My Field magazine article had asked whether the fishing initiative could be the start of a trend across all field sports? Goodness knows there are enough organisations out there, from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) with an annual turnover of around £7m and 125,000 members to the comparatively tiny Shooters’ Rights Association.

For those of us who engage in field sports the landscape can sometimes appear unclear, not to mention the competing demands on our pockets. As a paid-up member of three different fishing conservation associations and trusts, I had been mightily relieved that one set of subscription fees would be saved in the fishing merger.

Then a few days ago my annual subscription reminder notice for the S&TA popped through the letter box. Too late. I have resigned my membership and with it my committee membership of the Surrey branch.

Shooting merger

So could there be any merit in discussing a merger in shooting? One big difference between shooting and fishing, arguably, is the greater polarity of interests across shooting. While the nature of fishing means that all anglers are trying to catch wild animals, it is possible to go target or clay shooting without having any interest in pursuing game. I heard a target shooter at the Game Fair making it quite plain that he had no truck with killing animals.

Target shooting organisations based in Bisley – the National Small Bore Rifle Association, National Rifle Association and the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association – have been holding talks on closer co-operation for about a year now but have yet to reach agreement.

“I know that hasn’t been an easy process,” says John Swift, chief executive of the BASC. “This has been driven in large measure by the coming Olympics and opportunities for funding. But I think there will always be a distinction between the competitive target shooting disciplines and what might be called the country shooting interests – wildfowling, deer stalking management and so forth.”

Political focus

He also points to distinctions of function between organisations such as the BASC with its strong political focus, and those such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, that are research focused.

“There are similar divisions to this in most countries and I don’t see it as a practical option to merge those organisations,” he says.

The problem with large organisations, he says, is that they are vulnerable to splinter groups emerging after they have formed (back to The Life of Brian). On the other hand, there is nothing like a strong combined body for tackling the biggest political fights, argues Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance. Fewer issues have inflamed the passions of country lovers more than the Fox Hunting Bill.

The Alliance is committed to seeing through repeal of the Foxhunting bill under a future administration. If it succeeds, what then? Hart points out that the Alliance is about far more than fox-hunting. Just now, for example, it is campaigning against the closure of sub post offices in village communities.

But he doesn’t discount closer co-operation between organisations in future and thinks the days of the single-issue pressure group could be numbered. “Shooting is just one part of the jig-saw,” he argues. “I think there is considerable scope for closer working arrangements than is currently the case.

Future of shooting

“There are obvious attractions in merger such as saving overheads on administration and marketing, and providing just one insurance arrangement. The only thing standing in the way of that happening is the internal process. You need to look at the overall objectives of an organisation and may need to set aside some issues.

“The future of shooting, I believe, would be better served in one body rather than interests being broken down in to many smaller bodies. Unless we take a more co-ordinated approach the Government can hold a telescope to one eye when it faces the countryside lobby.

“A whole way of life is under threat and we shouldn’t forget that,” he says. Neither should we forget the broad constituency of field sport enthusiasts. It's good to hear some open-mindedness in shooting, the sort I had believed was making such significant strides in fishing.

Angling Unity is still going ahead. But, make no mistake, the withdrawal of the S&TA is a serious blow and no amount of warm words at the Game Fair can disguise that.

Always take the weather

There's a bit of a kerfuffle in the Daily Telegraph today where Devon tourism managers are criticising weather forecasters for undue pessimism (that is forecasting heavy rain when there won't be much. I'm aware that anglers often want some rain). I think there is something in this.

Just before going up to the Oykel - a spate river - I looked at the weather outlook in the Telegraph funnily enough.

There were black clouds over the area, some of them with rain underneath, on every day of the coming week. I was rubbing my hands in anticipation.

In the event we had blistering sunshine the whole week. I couldn't have changed my fishing dates in this instance - besides, as the report said, the fishing was pretty good from the previous week's spate - but suppose I had been going to Scotland on spec, in the hope of catching some good spate conditions towards the end of the week? The forecasters should own up to the imperfections of forecasting beyond a day or two and admit to the imprecisions of their science.

Saturday: looking at the weather today the Telegraph map is again dominated by rainclouds with showers, only you can also see a few little suns poking from behind the clouds. At a glance you would think it would be pouring down everywhere. In reality there has been the odd light shower on a dull day - no sun. I think the problem lies with the symbols - they give the impression of heavy rain when it simply isn't happening.

N.B. If you are at all interested in weather lore you might be interested in some additions I have made to my archive, covering notes on Bill Foggitt, the Thirsk weather sage.

The Salmon King

As an antidote to the same old stuff they were pedalling at the game fair this year (see previous note) I would recommend Crawford Little's article on Colin Leslie, the retired Tay ghillie, featured in the August issue of Trout and Salmon Magazine.

Fishing magazines are often criticised for running similar material year after year but, when you think about it, the way we fish has not changed radically over time. Neither have the fish. That great new pattern promoted as this year's "wonder fly" may well resemble those that have gone before.

Leslie makes the point in the article with a swipe at Alistair Gowans who created the Ally's Shrimp (if you read that article, incidentally, I can tell you that I am not impressed by wobblers and other fancy attachments.

The T&S article doesn't name Gowans (did they think he might sue?)but Leslie, quite rightly, points out that the Ally's Shrimp is simply a hybrid of the General Practitioner. "I fished those flies before he was born," says Leslie.

I love the article because it gives a flavour of the banter and rivalry between ghillies. Indeed some of the current Tay ghillies were scoffing at Leslie's book title, "Scotland's Salmon King" when I met them in the spring. "Aye ye'll be wantin' to meet the sage o' Cargill," said one of them, stifling a giggle.

What Leslie doesn't point out in the article is that the vast majority of spring salmon caught on his ghillied beat, Cargill, would have fallen to the Kynoch killer - a plastic fish lure harled from the back of the boat.

He is pretty scathing too about the Spey cast. But I think a well executed Spey cast is still worth learning and vital for rivers where no back cast is possible.

Like many other Tay ghillies he swears by high strength Maxima line and I think he has a point as I discussed in my Oykel blog here.

His memories of fishing shrimp - he says he introduced the method to the Tay - brought back memories of my own. When I first went up to the Tay in the late 70s, part of the tackle were jars of dyed prawns and buckets of worms. Those days certainly have gone on the Tay and will not return.

There is some great advice about how to fish a fly and a spinner - he is a strong advocate of the sinking tip, even in summer (but then the Tay is a big deep river). he also worries that anglers can sometimes fish too small and I would agree with that.

Lelsie caught a number of big salmon in the 40 lbs class and one of 56lbs which was such a poor specimen, he said, he fed it to the chickens. This fish, I notice, has not made it into Fred Buller's Domesday Book of Giant Salmon (mentioned here).

I'm not saying that everything about a ghillie's job is perfect but spending your life by the river, catching big salmon, drinking whisky and chatting with interesting people, knowing that you're the expert who they must respect, well there are worse ways to make a living.

I haven't read Scotland's Salmon King (Melrose books) yet but it's on my list.