The Devon Angling Association

The Devon Angling Association held its Annual General Meeting on 13th January at the Royal Arms in Tillicoultry, and despite the foul weather and horrible road conditions there was a healthy turnout of members.

David Mudie, our hard working and dedicated Secretary reported to the meeting on the activities of the Association during the past twelve months. In summary the  issues covered were:

• After a fine start to the season the long dry summer resulted in increasingly difficult fishing on the river.
• Only 5 salmon and 6 sea trout were caught, however a number of fine brown trout were caught particularly in the first third of the season.
• Anglers at Glenquey had a fine season with 389 fishing sessions, of which 242 reported their catches (974 trout caught with estimated mean weight of 0.62lbs which included some fish in excess of 2lb)
• The Devon was one of the four host venues for the Stirling International Angling Festival’s Five Nations Flyfishing Competition where teams from Scotland, Ireland, England, France and Belgium fished the Devon, Carron, Carron Reservoir and Lake of Menteith over two days. Despite the organisers providing a supplemental stocking of Howietoun trout, the very low water conditions resulted in very few fish being caught. DAA members who assisted by acting as controllers however received master classes in casting and fly presentation by some incredibly skilled anglers
• There will be work carried out by the River Forth Fisheries Trust to improve the effectiveness of the fish pass at Dollar Weir in the early 2015. The improvements are now designed and a contractor has been appointed to complete the works.
• The application by CEMEX to extend the existing planning consent for a sand and gravel quarry in Glenquey (a consent that was originally granted in 1964) was rejected by Perth and Kinross Council. The DAA along with local residents, local community councils and Clackmannanshire Council had objected to the scheme. It is to be seen whether CEMEX will decide to appeal the refusal.
• Fish Legal are acting on behalf of the DAA in matters relating to pollution and fish kill in the Devon caused by Scottish Water’s  Glendevon Water Treatment Works.
• The DAA engaged the University of Cranfield’s River Restoration Centre (http://www.therrc.co.uk/)  to undertake a survey and report on the condition of the Devon. This was a substantial investment which will be used to inform and assist in improvements to the river to the benefit of the river’s fish and associated flora and fauna.
• An unidentified fish species has been observed in the river particularly around Dollar on a few occasions. There are suspicions that they are Sparling [  http://www.snh.gov.uk/about-scotlands-nature/species/fish/freshwater-fish/sparling/ ] .
• The DAA will once again be carrying out two modest stocking of the river and Glenquey. It is likely that from now that the stock fish going into the river will increasingly be sterile triploid fish (this is recognising the advice of the likes of the Wild Trout Trust and likely regulatory advice)
• The work parties have once more completed another year of hard graft clearing falling lumber (in time for the latest storms!), clearing the spawning burns, building stiles/bridges, cutting paths etc

DAA treasure Alan Armstrong presented the accounts to the meeting and recommending that there was no requirement to increase permit prices.

DAA members from the floor made a number of a valuable contributions to the meeting. This included a discussion on stocking policies and probably of greatest note was a passionate discussion about encouraging younger anglers to the river and how the DAA address some of the associated issues (particularly relating to the safety of youngsters on the riverbank).  As a consequence of this discussion it was resolved that:

• Junior season permits will be reduced to £5.00
• The DAA committee will explore in advance of the 2016 season alternative permit options (such as family permits) and how permits are sold to juniors

Apologies a mistake was made in the previous post!

The Devon Angling Association AGM will be held on the 13th January at 7.30pm at the Royal Arms, Tillicoultry

For most of us this is a time for banking the fire, dreaming of next seasons glories and tying those killer patterns that will land that dream trout …….. but our dedicated work party team are still out doing all sorts of important work on the river and up at Glenquey.

This is a really good time of the year to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the work parties. Their work is often unheralded and unnoticed,  but is massively important in maintaining the fishery habitat and access to the water. They routinely:

• clear blockages to the spawning burns
• clear the fish pass at Dollar
• strim access routes along the river
• remove fallen trees and flood debris from the river
• clear areas of Himalayan Balsam
• install bridges across burns
• install stiles
• loosen gravel on known redds
• assist with Fisheries Trust  electro-fishing surveys
• distribute stocked fish

DEVON ANGLING ASSOCIATION AGM 

The AGM will be held on 13th December January 2015 at the Royal Arms, Tillicoultry at 19.30hrs

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.153921,-3.7495352,3a,75y,90h,98.97t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1seCFxdhezBsiDyWBoSs9NnQ!2e0

MIGRATORY FISH – 2014

The prolonged drought through the summer months extended to the very last week of the season and resulted in barely three days of fishing where there was chance of landing a fish. In the end only five salmon and six sea trout were landed. It was a frustrating end to the season as clearly at the season closed there was no shortage of salmon running the river.

For 2015 we collectively need to prey for rain!

On a more positive note a number of salmon anglers reported seeing some very large trout heading upstream to spawn!

DOLLAR WEIR

The River Forth Fishery Trust have appointed a contractor to complete improvements to the fish pass at Dollar Weir which will be completed in 2015. This will hopefully have a positive impact on not just Salmon  migration but also the river’s resident Brown Trout.

GLENQUEY

We are happy to report following a prolonged campaign by local residents led by Malcolm Best,  proposals to extend planning permission for a sand and gravel quarry in Glenquey have been refused by Perth and Kinross Council.

It may come as a surprise to regulars at Glenquey that planning permission was granted in 1964 to win sand & gravels in the valley below the reservoir. The planning issues relating to the most recent application to extend planning are very complex and came to the public domain long before our website went live. The DAA registered an objection to the proposal and have continued to support objections to the scheme.

If the developer decides to appeal the refusal of planning permission to the Scottish Government the DAA will be asking members and visitors  (regulars or otherwise) to register their objections.

Glenquey is a very precious place which anglers cherish and we should do everything in our power to protect!

2015 PERMITS

Permits will be distributed to stockists in early March 2015

LAST BUT NOT LEAST THE DEVON ANGLING ASSOCIATION WISHES ITS MEMBERS, FRIENDS AND VISITORS A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND PROSPEROUS 2015 🙂