Big old trout from the Spey. We will read the scales in a day or two once they have had a chance to dry out, I suspect it will be 7-8 year old.

We took some photos, a few scales for ageing then had a look at its stomach contents. The stomach was opened from the rear end and was found to be completely empty all except for a salmon smolt in its throat. The smolt had been swallowed tail first and it was already partly digested. It was a good size smolt of about 135mm. Scales were taken from the deceased smolt as well.

Big trout food. This one never made it to the sea: nothing new in that, always has happened and always will.

Anglers have reported catching good numbers of smolts on the river over the last couple weeks, including big sea trout smolts. This may appear late but when the Spey Foundation operated smolt traps in the lower river a few years ago smolts were recorded right to the end of June, although the peak run was in May. The sea temperatures in the Moray Firth as still below average (http://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Moray-Firth-sheet-pile-wall-Scotland/forecasts/latest) (colder than any other year between 1981 and 2005) so maybe these smolts have got it right?

Kevin Fryers Delfur

Peter Bailey Delfur

Robert Jolly

Teresa Jolly’s fish.

At Rothes Spey Board Chairman Alan William’s team managed to catch about the same number of fish but failed to get me even one photo! Alan himself caught two fish, his camera battery was flat for the first and for the second it was at home charging! How difficult can it be?
Graham Ritchie had a fine day on the little beat below Craigellachie landing two fish and losing a third all before coffee time.
Craigellachie managed a fish every other day. Wester Elchies; Sam tells me they had contact with quite a few fish but managed to lose the majority of them, landing just four. Carron the Alan’s Williams party fishing here caught six fish and even managed a photo of one of them Jan Sjaastad sent me this photo.

Jan Sjaastad Little Griggle

I hear rumours of decent catches from Tulchan but have no reports.
Grantown had a slightly quieter week than of late with eight salmon. The largest of these was an 11 pounder caught in Tarric Mor. During the latter half of the week, two sea-trout of 6 lbs and one of 5 lbs have been reported.

The Competition Rules are as follows:

The Savills Malloch Trophy entry form must be duly completed and signed as required and returned to the Savills Malloch Secretary as soon as possible and no later than one month after capture (except in the case of a November capture, where the entry form must be returned by c.o.b. on 7th December 2013). For entry form click here.

The fish must be a bone fide wild Atlantic Salmon; must be caught on recognised artificial fly tackle and artificial fly in an approved manner; and must then be returned safely to the water.

Full details including fishing tackle used (rod, reel, line, leader and fly) should be recorded as should the date, place and time of capture.

Witness/Photograph: The capture must be verified by a minimum of one independent witness and wherever possible with accompanying photographic evidence.

Weight: Ideally the salmon should be carefully weighed in either a weigh-net or with scale and net, the weight of the net being deducted.  The weigh-net or scales should be available for independent testing if required.  Alternatively Sturdey’s formula will be used to assess the weight of the fish in the event that the fish cannot be weighed.

Measurement: An accurate measurement of the length (from nose to fork of tail) and girth (around the body just forward of the dorsal fin) should be taken with a tape measure.  These measurements must be verified by the independent witness/es

The upper site was located on the woodland/moorland fringe and was typical good habitat found in most small Spey burns.

Polly, Steve and Michael surveying in a wee burn. Only trout were found in the upper reaches

Electrofishing this way involves a lot of equipment, hence the reason a lot of our sites are close to road bridges.

A wee brownie but it was the biggest found in the upper site. No salmon were found in the upper sites and it is unlikely that sea trout can reach there either. This is an adult resident brownie.

In the lower two sites we found quite a lot of fry, ranging in size from 23 to 35mm. Their small size made identification difficult but considering the size and distribution we thought all were trout. Many of the fry were so small they fell through the banner net mesh; just one of the reasons why electrofishing is not normally done until July.

A selection of trout, probably four age classes present, fry, 1+, 2+ and 3+ parr although that is still to be confirmed by scale reading.

It was an absolutely fantastic day to be out warm, sunny and a nice breeze to keep things fresh.  Great for electrofishing but not so good for fishing!

Despite this over the last few weeks there has been an increase in  reports of fish either dying or already dead, all of which have carried extensive white patches of fungus.

A sea trout of about 4lb with advanced fungus infection. This sea trout was reported in mid May from a lower river beat. There was still too much life in the fish for us to catch it but there is no recovery for a fish in this state. Fungus infection is usually secondary to some other initial damage, e.g. predator damage, catch and release handling, UDN, etc but it is next to impossible to establish the primary problem once the fungus takes hold. The sea trout pictured above had the top of its tail missing so it may well have had an encounter with a predator.

Fungal spores are everywhere, hence food left out in the kitchen soon develops mould from airborne fungal spores. It is the same in the river although the fungus spores are carried in the water, and any damaged fish is susceptible to fungal infection. This time of year always seems to be the worst for fungus but it usually clears up. It did last year following an increase in river levels and cooler water. We may well see an increase in affected fish in the next week or two but a change in conditions usually helps.

Similar fish have been reported from many rivers this year including the Dee, Tweed and Annan.

Daniel Greenham Broom

Tom Greenham’s fish

Nigel Boyd Beaufort.

At Rothes Mr and  Mrs Bladdon started the week at a gallop with eight on Monday, unfortunately they could not keep up that pace and finished the week with eleven. I hear the beat above started more steadily with three everyday till Thursday when they slowed a little. I was lucky enough to be invited to fish with Mr Francis Sandison at Upper Arndilly and was even luckier to take a fish from Heathery Isle to help boost the total towards seven. Craigellachie had about the same. Wester Elchies also started the week well with five on Monday, finishing the week close to double figures. I fished Carron with Mr Jimmy Jack and landed this fish from the Carron Pool on Saturday.

Ian Borthwick Carron

I hear that Ballindalloch had a fish close to 25lbs but have no further details.
Grantown was arguably the place to be last week especially if you were there on Wednesday, the total to Thursday morning when my informant went on holiday, was fifteen with nine of those landed on Wednesday. I understand most were taken on a fly and the  heaviest of which was a fifteen pounder from Poll Clach

This weeks sample came from the River Livet just above the confluence with the Tervie. Polly and Michael spent the afternoon picked through the sample and the next two days on and off identifying them. 1146 individual specimens were identified, typical of the number found in the Spey mainstem samples although the make up of the population was different.

The season of the year is important for invertebrate sampling. Some of the early mayflies and caddis will already have hatched so that needs to be borne in mind when analysing the results. On the other hand there were a few Blue winged olive nymphs (Emphemerillidae) present. They overwinter as eggs and appear as nymphs in the spring before maturing quickly in the summer with the hatch over by October.

The photo below shows the sample sorted into the different groups before identifying and counting.

River Livet invertebrate sample. Clockwise from the top left: mayflies; stoneflies; caddis – cased and caseless; diptera etc.

As can be seen from the photo the sample was dominated by mayfly and stonefly. 88% of the mayflies were baetids with a few heptagenids and the above mentioned emphemerllidae. There were almost 400 stoneflies although most were Leuctridae (Needle flies). There was only one of the large stoneflies – quite a lot less than found in the Spey samples although they are hatching at the moment. 60 caddis were recorded, again a great deal less than the 667 found at Castle Grant. None of the cased caddis were of the highest scoring species in the BMWP scoring system.

There were no shrimps nor snails, but in amongst the assorted tray were 38 Pediciidae larvae (Hairy Eyed Cranefly!)

So an interesting sample. I would have said there was evidence of some form of impact. The absence of large stoneflies and the high scoring caddis species, which were abundant in the Spey samples hints at organic enrichment. We need to take a sample from further up for comparison; what we found may be all the Livet supports, but I doubt it.

Polly and Michael showed considerable interest in this subject, they may regret it!

Henry Potter Delfur

Richard Potter Delfur

Rothes  managed into the mid teens and Mike tells me he saw more fish this week than the rest of the season. The Gordon Group had their usual week on a beat below the Fiddich nine fish were landed, top rod was Ken Asher who had three on Thursday.

Iain Kelly

Ken Asher

Evie Glass

At Kinermony the new gillie, Davie Brand had a good start; he netted his first fish by 9.30 on the Monday morning. 10 in total from 7lb-14lb. Phil Simmons had his first ever fish a 9lber in Boat Pool. Dave Johnson bagged a brace in a hot quarter hour. Ian Pawley had to wait till Saturday to take a lovely fish off the Rhynd. Host Peter Kyte took 6 during the week and lost another 4.

Peter Kyte Kinermony

Over the water Wester Elchies finished with nine with another six lost. Delagyle Pool was the most productive. Leonora Twynam landed her first salmon, a sea liced 8lber, in Pol Ma Cree on a Munro Killer. Rory Paterson (Delfur Gillie) also had his first Spey Salmon whilst having a cast during the evening. I assume he said it was good to fish a productive beat!

Henry Mountain 7lbs Delagyle

Leonora Twynam 8lbs Pol Ma Cree

Per Palm sent me this picture from last week at Phones.

Per Palm and Sandy Smith Phones

Lower Pitcroy had a good week with sixteen for the week. Nigel Bazzioman had the best estimated at 16lb. Alex Smith and James Holder who both broke their Spey ducks after several years of trying.

Nigel Bazzioman Lower Pitcroy

Alex Smith Lower Pitcroy

Grantown had an excellent week with at least twenty-three salmon for the week. The largest was a fish of 20 lbs caught at Clachan an Uaran on Thursday on a fly. There have been two others at 18 lbs, one of 16 lbs and one of 15 lbs. Sea-trout numbers are beginning to improve. Catch numbers are presently almost identical to where they were at this time in their 2010 and 2011 seasons way ahead of the 2012 numbers. It is really good to see fish in numbers being caught on the Association water and Grantown can rightly claim to be one of the best Association waters in Scotland.

The counts nowadays are completed from Aviemore downstream either by canoeing or by drive and walking, the method chosen depending on the weather, river conditions and the staff availability. The information collected during the counts is used to support the application for the sawbill licence which permits licence carriers to scare or control birds, by shooting if necessary.

The results for the March and May 2013 counts are shown below. The river is split into 10km sections e.g. the 110 section being the upper most counted section - above Boat of Garten, the 70 section between Castle Grant 3 and Advie Bridge and the 10 section 10 being downstream of Fochabers.

The results are shown as graphical form below:

Goosander count: number per 10km section

Merganser count: number per 10km section

Cormorant count: number per 10km section

Heron count: number per 10km section

Goldeneye count: number per 10km section

The total numbers counted during the March count were Goosander = 56, Merganser = 13, Cormorant = 12, Heron = 5 & Goldeneye = 167.

Goosander count: number per 10km section

Merganser count: number per 10km section

Cormorant count: number per 10km section

Heron count: number per 10km section

Goldeneye count: number per 10km section

The total numbers counted during the May count were: Goosanders = 33, Merganser = 2, Cormorant = 0, Heron = 3 & Goldeneye = 48.

It can be seen from these two counts that the numbers of birds on the river varies considerably. This variation can occur on a daily basis depending on factors such as the Spey river height, neighbouring river levels, presence of ice and inshore sea conditions.

The total counts for all species declined during the May count. Some of the birds could have migrated away from the area, be sitting on nests or moved upriver or into the tributaries to nest and rear broods.

In general the goosanders are normally more abundant in the lower river whilst mergansers are usually found around the Grantown area. Likewise more cormorant are usually found in the upper reaches as are the goldeneye which can be seen in great abundance upstream of Grantown on some occasions.

Four of these birds are primarily fish eating birds, although herons are quite adaptable and will even prey on ducklings. In a river like the Spey the most abundant and most readily available prey will be juvenile salmon with trout and eels secondary. The sawbills generally take smaller prey whereas cormorants are capable of swallowing a decent sea trout, small grilse or even a kelt. Goldeneye appear to feed on river invertebrates for which they must grub about on the riverbed?

I myself haven’t yet done an analysis of trends in fish eating bird numbers on the river but we do appear to have a healthy population!

There were a few seagulls upstream that seemed to be feeding on the hatch but no sign of swallows or martins - do they not eat them either? As with most things this spring the Grannom hatch is later than normal, in Ayrshire the end of April was the usual time for the Grannom hatch.

One of the many grannom sitting on the bridge structure