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April 22nd 2010: Change in Spring Measures - Total Catch and Release.
From April 22nd to June 30th 2010 ALL Salmon should be returned, unharmed, to the water. An announcement was made on rivertweed news .
Background
Spring Salmon form a separate and distinct stock on Tweed. It is imperative to ensure adequate reproduction so that the stock can sustain itself. The recent evidence is that, even with the River’s existing Spring Conservation Measures, barely enough Spring Salmon get through to fully stock their spawning grounds; in some years there may have been insufficient numbers. To allow the Spring fish to achieve their best spawning potential it is necessary that all the caught fish are returned, unharmed, to the water. Evidence from previous tagging on Tweed showed that only a very small proportion of released fish (less that 3%) are caught a second time.
The NEW Measures - Implementation
These Measures apply to 30th June 2010 on the whole of the Tweed catchment regardless of whether beats have a full-time boatman to verify rewards.
- Anglers must return all Salmon caught up to the end of June.
- Anglers returning a Salmon may claim a ‘reward’ from the R.T.C (restricted to one per person per season).
- All Tweed in-river netsmen return all Salmon and Grilse caught before 1st June.
In addition for 2010:
1.The killing of any fish which should have been returned under these rules will not benefit the angler; the carcase will become the property of The Tweed Foundation. Mostly this will involve “mercy killings” – fish which had to be killed because of the amount of bleeding – but this will apply equally to any other fish which are killed or cannot be revived.
These fish will be used to further The Tweed Foundation’s scientific knowledge of our Spring stock. The dead fish MUST be delivered to The Teviot Smokery which will:
- Provide The Tweed Foundation with the length, weight, scales, and any tissue samples they require from the fish;
- Smoke the fish, which will be given to The Tweed Foundation.
The fish will then be used by The Foundation to help raise funds (as a raffle prize or otherwise), or be donated to an appropriate cause. The Teviot Smokery has generously agreed to smoke these fish free of charge for The Tweed Foundation.
2.Guidance on Spinning There is a view that old Springers are more likely to be caught in low water after 1st July (when the Spring Conservation Measures end) by spinning. Where proprietors wish to do so, they can restrict spinning on their beats to comparatively high and coloured water conditions at any time of year, and perhaps especially in the period 1st July to 14th September (after which spinning is illegal) when the Spring Conservation Measures are not applicable. Old spring fish, caught by any fishing method after 30th June, should be returned as they will have become coloured and increasingly mature.
REWARD CLAIMS
Salmon fishers may claim one reward per season - from the following list - for returning a Springer, unharmed, to the water; this applies to all registered Tweed fisheries except those in the tributaries and Upper Tweed that have not signed up to the Conservation Payment Scheme:-
* A Sweatshirt with “Tweed Spring Salmon” and the year of the scheme embroidered around the Tweed logo;
* A Poloshirt with “Tweed Spring Salmon” and the year of the scheme embroidered around the Tweed logo;
* Alternatively, the salmon fisher may choose not to claim a reward but to ask the RTC to make a donation of £5 to The Tweed Foundation in support of its scientific and conservation work on the river. A fisher who catches and returns more than one Springer may elect for a donation to be made on more than one occasion.
To claim a reward for returning a Springer, unharmed, to the water:
- A claim must be made on the correct Reward Claim Form for the year, containing the name and full address of the rod.
- Completed forms should be with the R.T.C. within two weeks of the rod returning the fish.
- It is the beat’s responsibility to ensure that claim forms are completed correctly and submitted to the R.T.C. timeously.
- If a rod, or the beat on behalf of a rod, wishes to query non-receipt of a reward this should be done no longer than a month after the fish was returned.
- The closing date for receipt of reward forms is two weeks after the end of the scheme (which closes on 30th June). No reward forms will be accepted after that time, nor are there any rewards held in stock to send out.
- Rewards cannot be purchased from the R.T.C. under any circumstances.
- Rewards will not be given unless all the above conditions are met.
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