£1620 raised for the Missing Salmon Alliance from a raffle to win fishing on the River Conon
John Macaskill is the Head Ghillie on the Upper Fairburn and Coul beats on the River Conon in the North of Scotland and along with fellow Ghillie, Erin Hunter and the proprietor, David Flux chose to support the Missing Salmon Alliance in an initiative to offer access to prime salmon fishing during a prime time of the season to junior and local anglers. We spoke to him about the initiative and why they wanted to support the Missing Salmon Alliance.
John Macaskill
Please tell us about who you are and what you do?
My name is John Macaskill and I am the Head Ghillie on the Upper Fairburn and Coul beats on the River Conon in the North of Scotland. I have been the Head Ghillie here for two years after having previously worked on the Brahan beats on the River Conon and the Dochfour beat on the River Ness.
Please tell us a little about the estate, the river and the beat and the work you normally do on it?
Together with fellow Ghillie Erin Hunter we look after four rods and approximately 1.5 miles of river on Upper Fairburn and five rods and approximately 2 miles of river on Coul starting from below the Tor Achilty dam to the mouth of the River Blackwater. The River Conon is Ross-shire’s premier salmon and sea-trout river with a catchment area of over 440 square miles (over 1100 sq. km) that extends to the west almost to Kinlochewe and to the north west as far as Beinn Dearg, just 5 miles or so from the west coast.
The Conon system includes a number of tributaries including the Orrin, Blackwater, Meig and Bran as well as many large lochs such as Glascarnoch, Fannich, Luichart, Garve, Achonachie and the Orrin Reservoir; some of which were created or enlarged by development of a major hydro-electric scheme in the 1950’s that transformed the river system.
The Conon River itself runs for about 15 miles (23.5 km) from the outflow from Loch Luichart to the junction of the Conon estuary and the Cromarty Firth near Dingwall. Today the most productive salmon fishing is in the main river from below Loch Achonachie to the Cromarty Firth, and in the Blackwater tributary below Loch Garve. Average annual rod catches for the Conon system are typically 1200 - 1500 salmon & grilse per year.
Please tell us about the initiatives you have launched this year and why they are so important to you?
This year on the Coul beat we have organised two new initiatives. We are very fortunate to have Mr David Flux as the Coul proprietor and at the end of last season we discussed that we wanted to create an opportunity for local anglers to be able to access prime Salmon fishing during a prime time of season. This was to show our appreciation for the local anglers who supported us last year by renting fishing at the beginning of the 2020 season while we were under localised travel restrictions of five kilometres for all anglers. While lockdown was very difficult in many ways this created a lot of opportunities for people to gain access to private beats which they had never been able to access before. Therefore, building positive relations between private beats, angling clubs and all local anglers alike.
With this in mind we decided to make the first week in July available to local anglers on a raffle ticket style ballot with all monies raised going to a worthwhile cause. By splitting the week in half, we created the opportunity for eight individual winners. Four rods fishing the first half of the week and another four rods fishing the second half of the week. Tickets were priced at twenty pounds each and we managed to raise a tremendous £1620.00 for the Missing Salmon Alliance.
I must thank all the local people who made this idea such a great success by buying raffle tickets and supporting such a great cause.
Our second project this year was to create opportunities for junior anglers to get the opportunity to access prime salmon fishing also during a prime time of the season. At Coul we realise the importance of trying to encourage and educate the next generation of young anglers, not just about fishing but about the conservation of our iconic species the Atlantic Salmon. With this idea we set aside a week's fishing in August and approached all our local angling clubs and asked them to nominate a junior member to come out for a day's fishing and casting instruction. This has been very well received by all local angling clubs.
Why was it important to you to support the Missing Salmon Alliance?
We decided to support the Mission Salmon Alliance as I feel we are at a crucial time in the survival of the Atlantic Salmon. I feel we are at a critical point where we need to do everything we can to help protect, sustain and potentially increase the numbers of returning Atlantic Salmon numbers to our rivers. Never before has it been so important to research and try and understand what is happening in our rivers and out at sea, gather evidence to be able to make changes and also to educate people in the best practices to help and protect Atlantic Salmon.
On my beats we have been very fortunate to be involved with the Missing Salmon project which has provided very interesting results and as we head into the next stage of the Likely Suspects Framework it will hopefully provide us with crucial evidence to move forward with.
On the formation of the Missing Salmon Alliance, I think it is a tremendous movement to bring the Atlantic Salmon Trust, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Angling Trust, Fisheries Management Scotland and the Rivers Trust together. This can only put us in a much stronger position to help us reverse the decline in wild Atlantic Salmon around Britain and make sure the future generations have fish in the rivers for years to come.
“I can only say how delighted we are at Coul to be able to support the Missing Salmon Alliance and look forward to the great work that is going to be done in the future. Also a big thank you once again to all the people who have supported our projects this year.”
As an Alliance of five organisations, we will build on the existing work of our partners and maximise our impact by taking a coordinated approach and vital action in order to halt and reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon.
The goal of the Missing Salmon Alliance is to build an evidence-base to influence national and international decision-makers to regulate activities that adversely impact wild Atlantic salmon.
The Missing Salmon Alliance
The MSA is comprised of the following members:
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Atlantic Salmon Trust, the Angling Trust with Fish Legal, The Rivers Trust and Fisheries Management Scotland.
https://www.missingsalmonalliance.org