Angling Notes: The River Carron in the beautiful and remote Wester Ross region of the Western Highlands is one of Scotland's largest rivers, but like many rivers of its kind, it suffered a great decline in both salmon and sea-trout stocks during the 1990s.
Writing in the summer journal of the Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST), Bob Kindness from the Seafield Centre said catches dropped to an all-time low of five salmon, one sea trout and one finnock in 1999. The river as a fishery had died, he said.
While various reasons for the collapse were offered, the end result was all too obvious - a lack of returning adults led to a loss in juvenile production. However, since the quality of the habitat was good, there was no reason why a healthy juvenile population could not be supported.
The answer, therefore, was to instigate a re-stocking programme, using appropriate stocks, at a proper level and adopting a suitable stocking pattern.
The first problem was choice of stock, as gathering up wild spawning salmon as a source of eggs was not an option. After much deliberation, it was decided to create a captive broodstock by gathering eggs from a number of wild salmon and rearing a percentage of them through to full maturity.
In the case of sea trout, as it was not possible to catch any from the Carron, sea trout from Loch Coulin in the Ewe system, provided a near-perfect alternative. Both types were very similar and could be described as a "standard West Coast".
Simple earth ponds were built for the sea trout, while the salmon enjoy a combination of GRP tanks and rubber-lined rearing channels. Both species are kept entirely in fresh water.
The strategy adopted was to release as many fish into the system as possible and all freshwater stages were chosen from eyed eggs to smolts. Since 1995, one million salmon and 1.5 million sea trout, at various stages, were released into the Carron.
"The level of recovery has been as dramatic as the initial decline and exceeded all our expectations," Kindness said. Last year's catch alone was 141 salmon, 162 sea trout and 317 finnock.
An obvious benefit of the programme has been the overall improvement in rod catches. This is exemplified by one party having their best week in 38 years of fishing the river while another group equalled their previous best week since 1984.
Another benefit is that the number of fish spawning naturally will increase greatly. This is helped by a 100 per cent catch-and-release policy in operation for both salmon and sea trout.
Also, the three lower beats are available to visitors on a cheap day ticket basis, thereby making the river a real community asset. In addition, the biodiversity of the catchment is benefiting with the Carron now one of the richest in the West Highlands.
The River Carron as a game fishery has experienced a remarkable turnaround and, although not completely back to its former glory, is certainly heading in the right direction. Reasons for the improvement are two-fold, according to Kindness.
On the one hand, rather than dwelling on the past and arguing about who to blame for the decline, the Carron proprietors took the pro-active approach of regenerating juvenile stocks, thereby re-establishing a smolt run.
And secondly, marine survival has improved to such an extent that the increased smolt run is generating an increased run of adult fish back to the river. Without this, the increase in returning adults, as a result of stocking, would have been more modest, according to Kindness.
The net result is simple - the River Carron has risen from the dead and come back to life.
• South Shore SAC is holding an open shore competition, incorporating a Leinster League qualifier, at Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, on Sun, Oct 2, fishing 1pm to 6 pm. Contact 01-8407802 for further details.