DO YOU FISH LOCH KEN? YOU COULD WIN A £50 TACKLE VOUCHER!

SFCA would like to ask you to support the Loch Ken Fisheries Study currently being carried out by Galloway Fisheries Trust as part of the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership Project. Among other things, this project will gather information about coarse fish and fishing in Loch Ken to help improve the future management and promotion of the fishery.

The current phase of the study runs up to July 2017, and Galloway Fisheries Trust will be gathering information in a number of ways:

Loch Ken Angling Record

GFT has drawn up a short questionnaire called the ‘Loch Ken Angling Record’. You can download it here [Loch Ken Angling Record] or get a hard copy from Loch Ken Holiday Park at Parton or J R Hopkins Newsagents and the Post Office in New Galloway. Completed Records (including nil returns for blank days) can be emailed to mail@gallowayfisheriestrust.org (please mark “FAO Rowan McCleary”) or handed in at one of the outlets listed above. All completed forms GFT receive up to the end of June 2017 will be entered into a monthly prize draw for a £50 tackle voucher.

“Creel survey”

GFT staff will visit the loch one or two days per month to carry out an interview-based survey of anglers. Please take a few minutes to talk to them if you meet them at the waterside.

Matches

GFT hope to attend a number of matches on the loch this year and will be seeking your support by allowing access to your catch after the weigh-in for data collection.

Seine netting

The project also involves small scale seine netting surveys, which enable GFT to sample juvenile fish without harming them and collect data from some areas not used by anglers. Two seine netting days were carried out in 2016 and a third will take place during summer 2017. Please be reassured that these are bona fide scientific surveys conducted carefully to minimise losses among the fish concerned.

There is very little science available concerning coarse fish populations in Scotland and the SFCA therefore welcomes this study.  It is an excellent example of the sort of work that should be happening on wild fisheries throughout Scotland, though sadly this kind of thing is still all too rare.   If you fish on Loch Ken we would encourage you to give the survey your full support and co-operation.

If you would like to know more about the exercise please check out the GFT website http://www.gallowayfisheriestrust.org/loch-ken-fisheries-study.php and feel free to email GFT on mail@gallowayfisheriestrust.org if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. If you are interested in the other projects that fall into this development stage of the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership you can find out more at www.gallowayglens.org

Ron Woods, Policy Officer.

Tags: Environment, Protecting Fish