Spey-Fishery-Board-Annual-Report-2013-Web

Part 2Fisheries and Conservation2.1 Salmon and Grilse CatchesIn common with many other Scottish salmon rivers, 2013 was a challenging year for anglers. Low water, withwarm water temperatures, are some of the causes which are likely to have had a depressing impact on catches.Reported rod catches for the Spey amounted to 5,780 Salmon and Grilse caught, which was below the 2012catch of 7,490 (Figure 4).The early part of the 2013 season produced a spring catch (between 11 th February and 30 th April) of 437 fish,similar to the 441 caught for the same period in 2012. A further 923 fish were caught in May and 1, 091 in June.This brought the catch for February – June to a total of 2,451, slightly below the 2,605 caught during the sameperiod in 2012. Catches in July were disappointing, at 884 (2,175 had been caught in July 2012, making it themost productive month of that year). The catch figures rose to 1,228 in August (against 1,631 in August 2012)and continued at this level in September with a further 1,217 fish being caught, slightly above the 1,079 caughtin September the previous year (Figure 5).As in previous years, the catches by river section are depicted in Figure 6, but 2013 will be remembered bymany throughout Scotland as a difficult year for salmon angling.5,780 Salmon and Grilse were caught in 2013, of which 5,069 were voluntarily released. (Photo: Mark Melville, HeadGhillie, Delfur Fishings)19