James Beeson looks inside a new salmon hatchery on a Cornish river.
AS YOU ARE reading this, somewhere in the St Neot River (or River Loveny as it is also known) 30,000 salmon fry will be darting back and forth above the gravel in some streamy flow. They will grow from fry to parr to smolt and face the dangerous migration to sea. Plenty will perish, but hopefully many will return to the river to be given a helping hand in completing their natural destiny. The St Neot is a tributary of
Cornwall’s River Fowey and if you were to trace it upstream from the confluence near Two Waters Foot you would quickly come to the 900- acre Colliford Reservoir. Below the dam, nestled in a gorge of gorse and bracken, is the hatchery that raised the fry. Originally set up to produce the trout for Colliford, the hatchery was mothballed in 1999. It re-opened in 2016 with more than five years of funding from South West Water. While South West Water (SWW) continues to own the site, it contracts the operation of the hatchery out to the Fowey Rivers Association Limited (FRA Ltd).
In recent years hatcheries have been closing across the UK, whether due to the operational costs, which are high, or as a result of increasingly sceptical scientific opinion that hatcheries are limited in helping the recovery of self-sustaining wild salmon stocks. Under these circumstances, South West Water, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Fowey Rivers Association (FRA) deserve great credit for taking the initiative and starting a new project – a good example of local partnerships working well – though without the support of the EA the project would not have been able to go ahead.
Denne historien er fra December 2017-utgaven av Trout & Salmon.
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Denne historien er fra December 2017-utgaven av Trout & Salmon.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Mr Goldhead And The Grayling
Lawrence Catlow fishes the rapidly recovering River Irfon in Powys.
Moody Beasts
Stan Headley searches for the elusive sea-trout of Loch Ailsh in the northwest Highlands.
Alone On The River
Cliff Hatton encounters a mighty Wye salmon.
Hop To It
Richard Donkin has a no-nonsense approach to tackle and amphibians.
River Blackwater
THE BLACKWATER rises in the boglands of County Kerry, and although the peaty tinge it carries gives rise to its name it also flows through limestone and that helps it to support a diverse range of fly-life which provides plenty of sustenance for salmon parr and trout. The river is one of Ireland’s most productive salmon fisheries, along with the River Moy.
Hampshire Avon
THERE CAN be few places in fishing more famous than the Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon, even Mr Crabtree has fished its illustrious waters. Two seasons ago an enormous salmon of 40lb was caught in the spring at the Royalty and big salmon are regularly caught in the early months of the season.
A Strange Kind Of Magic
Charles van straubenzee introduces a salmon fly that combines the most unlikely colours and materials to deadly effect.
A Deep-Water Experiment
Stan Headley hatches a plan to catch three species of fish in one day at Loch Calder in Caithness.
Rutland's Old Warriors
James Beeson enjoys supercharged surface sport with Rutland Water’s fry-feeders.
Plucked From The Jaws
Looking for affordable back-end sport? Andrew Flitcroft recommends the challenging Chollerton beat on the North Tyne.
