Season Summary
2011 was a good season in many ways. Our total for the whole River totalled 575 (salmon & grilse), making it the 2nd best year in the last 10. We had fresh fish running off every tide from May right through to October and many of these were good sized multi-sea winter salmon. In fact it was best MSW salmon year since 1988. Our average salmon weight was just under 13lbs with 70+ fish at 15lbs and over. The 5 biggest fish weighed in at 29, 28, 28, 28 & 25lbs. May and June are typically the best months to encounter these large specimens. Our June salmon averaged over 16lbs and were in top condition offering up some tremendous sport to the angler. Grilse numbers were also encouraging just topping that of the MSW fish. Our grilse averaged 4.6lbs, which by today’s standards is very good. Another interesting statistic is the return rate of fin-clipped fish. A total of 35 hatchery reared salmon and grilse were taken…….these being the adult fish from the 2009 smolt stocking. This equates approximately to a 2% survival rate or 360 extra fish, (with weights up to 18lbs, 15lbs and 14lbs), and added an estimated 1 million extra eggs to the system. Although this can be seen as a low return, it has been estimated that smolts that have grown entirely as juveniles in the wild will fare no better than this on the west coast aquaculture zone. Also, this is the ‘untreated’ survival rate – we will know at the end of next year what the ‘lice treated’ rate is. From 2012 between 50,000 and 100,000 lice-treated smolts will be stocked each year along with a healthy stocking of fry in key underutilised areas of our catchment. We are looking forward to the results of this very considerable project.
I’d like to thank all our tenants and owners for making this a great season and I look forward to welcoming you back in 2012.
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2011 was a good season in many ways. Our total for the whole River totalled 575 (salmon & grilse), making it the 2nd best year in the last 10. We had fresh fish running off every tide from May right through to October and many of these were good sized multi-sea winter salmon. In fact it was best MSW salmon year since 1988. Our average salmon weight was just under 13lbs with 70+ fish at 15lbs and over. The 5 biggest fish weighed in at 29, 28, 28, 28 & 25lbs. May and June are typically the best months to encounter these large specimens. Our June salmon averaged over 16lbs and were in top condition offering up some tremendous sport to the angler. Grilse numbers were also encouraging just topping that of the MSW fish. Our grilse averaged 4.6lbs, which by today’s standards is very good. Another interesting statistic is the return rate of fin-clipped fish. A total of 35 hatchery reared salmon and grilse were taken…….these being the adult fish from the 2009 smolt stocking. This equates approximately to a 2% survival rate or 360 extra fish, (with weights up to 18lbs, 15lbs and 14lbs), and added an estimated 1 million extra eggs to the system. Although this can be seen as a low return, it has been estimated that smolts that have grown entirely as juveniles in the wild will fare no better than this on the west coast aquaculture zone. Also, this is the ‘untreated’ survival rate – we will know at the end of next year what the ‘lice treated’ rate is. From 2012 between 50,000 and 100,000 lice-treated smolts will be stocked each year along with a healthy stocking of fry in key underutilised areas of our catchment. We are looking forward to the results of this very considerable project.
I’d like to thank all our tenants and owners for making this a great season and I look forward to welcoming you back in 2012.
More...