British Anglers Secure Delay Of Salmon Season Opening - Fish Too Stressed By Weather, They Say - BBC

[hatrack]

The traditional start to the salmon fishing season is to be delayed by two weeks in parts of Perthshire because anglers have claimed it is too early. The head ghillie on the Newtyle beat of the River Tay said they must respond to climate change.

He said the traditional mid-January start was creating too much stress for the salmon whose spawning patterns seem to have been delayed by warmer winters. Other fishing beats will begin the season as normal.

At Kenmore on the upper Tay the season has begun with a party in mid-January for almost a century and a half. Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board sees no reason to change the practice, as breeding or spawning is usually over by then.

Fisheries manager David Summers said: "The Tay has some of the earliest runs of fish in Scotland and that's the reason why even since the 1860s it was felt appropriate to have a very early start in the Tay season."

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6261029.stm

[Kagemusha]

1. ...Now that you mention it, weren't the 1860's particularly cold?

I mean, a short term blip in that direction in a longer term trend.