TROUT & SALMON

The voice of game-fishing since 1955

LAST NIGHT, I SAT DOWN — IN FACT, I NEARLY lay down — to cast at trout feeding on shrimp in less than a foot of water. They were so close I could have speared them with my five-weight. They were brazen and impossibly difficult. If they’d had fingers, I think they’d have shown me a couple.

But I love it when fish challenge you. It elevates the modest fish you would otherwise take for granted and reminds you that you’re not as smart as you think you are.

It was nearly dark at Rutland Water, and the temperature was in the low 20 deg C — shorts-and-wellies fishing. After days of heat and seemingly months since a westerly wind brought rain, I am hoping things will change, to avoid this season going the same way as the last. It’s only mid-June and already I’ve heard that a prestigious Spey beat has suspended fishing for salmon due to low water. The Wye has followed with fishing suspended below Hay-on-Wye. I hope others soon realise that fish welfare is paramount.

I’d like to remain upbeat, but I must also report that a new, more deadly strain of Saprolegnia has been discovered. Fisheries Management Scotland (FMS) is now clear that some strains of Saprolegnia can be primary pathogens for fish — as opposed to secondary infections — and that they can be transferred between rivers. It is seeing more aggressive isolates than ten years ago and worryingly, in some rivers, mortalities of 80-90% of returning salmon. Will better biosecurity measures for all water-users become a priority?

I’m hoping FMS will explain this new threat in detail to T&S readers. Can it affect sea-trout? It might explain an incident on a recent trip