The Tweed Trout & Grayling Biologist, Kenny Galt, has recently produced the 5th Newsletter from the Initiative reporting on the results from the 2007 season Catch Log Books returned to him. Angler catch returns are vitally important, as catches provide a sample of what is in the Tweed River System and can be used, amongst other things, to monitor the health of our fish stocks.

The catch rates recorded in the 2007 log books show that the trout catches in 2007 were generally better than those in 2006, while the Grayling catches were generally worse. The biggest increase in trout catches appears to be in the “medium” and “smaller” sized waters of the Tweed catchment with the Upper Tweed, Whiteadder and Leader all showing significantly improved catches, while the catches from the Middle and Lower Tweed only improved slightly or stayed roughly the same. The one exception to this is the River Teviot, the catches from which were heavily influenced by changes in the fishing methods used in the returned log books between 2006 and 2007 (this shows why numerous catch returns are needed so that biases, such as those caused by fishing method, can be averaged out), although the Teviot did see a significant increase in the catch rate of “takeable” trout. Grayling catches appear to have dropped significantly in the “larger” channels fished (Middle and Lower Tweed) while improvements were seen in some of the tributaries.

A pdf of the full newsletter is available to download from this article

PLEASE KEEP A CATCH LOG BOOK
As angler catches can be biased by weather, time of year, fishing method, angler ability, etc., the more catch returns the Initiative receives from each area of the Tweed catchment the more accurate the results will be (large amounts of catch data allow biases to be averaged out). If you would like to keep a Catch Log Book for the 2008 season, please contact Kenny Galt, who will be pleased to send a copy to you:

Tel: 01896 848271
Email: kgalt@tweedfoundation.org.uk

Or, you can visit http://www.ttgi.org.uk/ and fill in the simplified catch return online for day fishing visits.