Well the new season opens on the 15th; the last couple of weeks has provided plenty of fresh flushes of water including a decent spate ……. hopefully this may have encouraged trout to begin feeding?

Best of luck to all our members and visitors in the 2017 season!

The DAA would like anglers to watch out for salmon parr; we are a little concerned about the apparent lack of salmon parr observed by anglers last year (they are normally something of a pest at certain times for the trout angler). Through the season the RFFT will be carrying out their routine electro-fishing surveys of the river but it will be useful to get any anecdotal observations you may have. We will include a short online survey to the website once the season is underway.

Identification of salmon and trout parr can be a wee bit tricky so for advice take a look at this page:

http://www.fishingnet.com/parr_recognition.htm

Salmon parr can normally be distinguished from young brown/sea trout by:

• the more streamlined shape,
• deeply forked tail, longer pectoral fin,
• lack of orange on adipose fin,
• smaller mouth, sharper snout,
• only 1-4 spots on gill cover (often one large spot),
• well defined parr marks.

We would also be grateful of any records of smolts caught (time and location). Very little is known about the smolt runs in the Forth catchment and the RFFT are trying to build up a more detailed understanding.

Tight Lines