So far this morning I’ve had 12 calls relating to work issues, mostly from the River Ayr bailiffs. At their request I’ve been asked to remind anglers that any sea trout caught should feature in the end of year catch returns regardless of whether they returned or not and regardless of the size of the fish. Whitling/Finnock, call them what you want, are still sea trout and therefore should be included on the returns sent to the DSFB at the year end. This is not discretionary but a mandatory requirement. I would add that the Ayr DSFB spent a large sum of money stocking sea trout fry to the river over a 5 year period recently and catch returns and smolt trapping failed to show any significant improvement however recently a few more sea trout are reportedly being caught. Similarly all salmon caught whether killed or not must be reported. To manage a river properly accurate information must be provided to the Board.

A small sea trout / finnock caught at dusk about to be returned.

Another issue that came up this morning was the illegal removal of gravel from spawning areas on the Glenmuir. In the third incident of this kind this year, this morning Bailiffs caught someone removing gravel from the river without landowner permission. A tractor and trailer was used and the tractor was seen in the water. Diesel/oil was leaking from the tractor. Bailiffs will look at the evidence collected and decide how to proceed. Four weeks ago, another incident was discovered that had led to the river being blocked by disturbed gravel. The persons responsible were spoken to and the problem rectified. I will speak to SEPA regarding unauthorised gravel extraction on Monday.

The gravel extraction site after it was ‘restored’ 4 weeks ago. Before bailiffs intervened, the entire river was left flowing through mounds of gravel. This activity can be highly detrimental to spawning at the back end of the year.