Well the season is over and an interesting Season it has been what with moving the tickets from Morisons to the Beauly Centre, the change in ownership of the Caravan Site and the Mealloch being inaccessible!

Returns : All returns – including non-returns – must be with us by. 31st October. You can delivery them to the Beauly Centre which will be open until Thursday 30th October or deliver them by hand or post to John Szarkiewicz or any other Committee member. You will recall the Committee decided earlier this year that anyone not getting their returns in on time will forfeit their membership and will need to reapply via the waiting list. This will be strictly and impartially enforced.

AGM : The AGM will take place at 7.30pm on the 13th November in the Committee Room in the Phipps Hall. As in previous years the Pipe Band will be practicing next door! Apart from the usual AGM Agenda and Presentations this year we will be looking to make a decision on which Trout Competitions the Club should enter. Currently we pay the costs and expenses of teams entering the Loch Meig and Loch Watten Competitions. The Committee will have a proposal as to how we should operate in the future.

Competitions : The Club competitions took place at Achagour Fish Ponds, Nairn. The winner of the Senior Competition was John Gunn with a 3.5lb fish. The winner of the Junior Competition was Brandon Ironside. Our thanks to Darkie Skinner who donated the rod which went to the Junior Winner and to Syd Pennington who paid the £110.00 for the transport for the Juniors.

Donations: And whilst we are on the subject of donations our thanks to Alan Cadden and Murph MacLean for their donations to the Club.

Access to the Mealloch : Anyone trying to access the Mealloch will have seen that the gate has been welded shut. This was done by the Community Council in an attempt to stop people dumping and motor cyclists using the area. However they failed to discuss this in advance either with Lovat Estates or ourselves. This is now being put right – a ‘kissing’ gate is under order and we hope the problem will soon be resolved. It does however mean that there has been no access to the Mealloch for most of the season.

Sea Trout Survey : We need names of anyone who regularly fishes for sea-trout and who’d be happy to log their catch. The Moray Firth Sea Trout Project is carrying out a survey and needs input from sea trout anglers.

Electrofshing : In the last Newsletter it was reported that NBFT had offered to fund places on the electrofishing courses. This offer was taken up by Michael Whitaker. Below is Michael’s Report on his experience. NBFT are expecting to fund another place next year – so anyone who wants to be on the list for this could you please let us know.

I attended the course from Wednesday lunchtime 25th June to Friday evening the 27th June 2008. Approximately a dozen people attended of which the majority were from fishery boards. At 67 years of age I was probably the oldest by some 30 years. However providing you are reasonably mobile, age proved to be immaterial –so don’t be put off. The course is SVQ Level 2 with the addition of a First Aid Course on the first afternoon.

The ‘Save a Life First Aid Training’ was well run by the Moray Firth Training Group. I found it particularly useful since my last first aid training was in the boy scouts. A comprehensive handbook is handed out to all participants at the end of the afternoon. You are not tested on this part of the course.

The second day took place in college and provided a basic understanding of the theory of electrofishing and of the health and safety issues associated with electrofishing surveys, as well as practical experience of using the Scottish Fisheries Co-ordination Centre(SFCC) Protocol in the field. At the end of the day there was a written assessment concentrating on health and safety aspects, for which the pass level is 90% to become SFCC accredited.

The electrofishing protocol represents a consensus view by SFCC members on the best way to obtain quantitative and qualitative population estimates of juvenile salmonoids in small to medium sized streams. Use of electrofishing for other tasks, including stock assessment in main river stems, stock assessment of other species, fish cropping, broodstock capture, electrofishing from boats, etc are not covered by the course.

The third day was spent near Carrbridge on a small tributary of the Dalnain and was hands on and covered an electrofishing demonstration and practice, electrofishing assessment, survey setup and processing assessment/fish identification, survey and processing assessment. A verbal assessment is carried out at the end of the day.

I found the whole course fascinating and very informative and hope to assist with electrofishing surveys in the future. The course was very well run and I can recommend any member to participate if the opportunity arises and they can spare 2.5 days.

Finally a special thanks to Hughie Matheson for his support.

Wendy
(harpew@dsl.pipex.com)

Yes I am still looking for e-mail addresses!!