Tay Bridge at Dunkeld, + some salmon fishing notes.
A fine seven-arch bridge spanning the former ford at Dunkeld.
Completed in 1809, by Thomas Telford.
The Tay shown here is at low Summer levels, a time for greased line salmon fly tactics with small single-bend flies like Dunkeld or Blue Charm.
A.H.E. Wood pioneered these light greased silk line techniques on the Dee in Aberdeenshire. Also widely used on the Tweed, and elsewhere. Transforming salmon fishing from the former heavy sunk-line ways employed previously, using deeply sunk large "flies" averaging 2 inches in length.. These two waters being those producing more and higher average weight salmon than most other East Coast salmon rivers.. Salmon fishing these days is now the palest shadow of what it was in Wood's day. Massive high seas overfishing of both salmon and their prey species, plus the effects on purebred wild stocks of mass escapes of low grade farmed salmon from ill maintained seawater pens.. all have combined to reduce salmon runs to the point where now only a few relatively productive rivers have any legal right to take even a few salmon for the table. These pressures began in the 1960s when the salmon disease UDN (Ulcerative Dermal Necrosis) first appeared in our rivers. The Edinburgh Government still does nothing to curb the blight of salmon farming on our sheltered inshore waters, mainly since against all biological advice it backed this "new industry" - now largely owned by Norwegian investments with no interest in the preserving the formerly massive asset of huge stocks of Scottish wild Atlantic salmon that was then the envy of all Europe. Anglers from the rest of the world used to visit Scotland annually for our salmon fishing, bringing in huge revenue to the country's economy generally and to the rural economy in particular. Mostly all gone now.
Tay Bridge at Dunkeld, + some salmon fishing notes.
A fine seven-arch bridge spanning the former ford at Dunkeld.
Completed in 1809, by Thomas Telford.
The Tay shown here is at low Summer levels, a time for greased line salmon fly tactics with small single-bend flies like Dunkeld or Blue Charm.
A.H.E. Wood pioneered these light greased silk line techniques on the Dee in Aberdeenshire. Also widely used on the Tweed, and elsewhere. Transforming salmon fishing from the former heavy sunk-line ways employed previously, using deeply sunk large "flies" averaging 2 inches in length.. These two waters being those producing more and higher average weight salmon than most other East Coast salmon rivers.. Salmon fishing these days is now the palest shadow of what it was in Wood's day. Massive high seas overfishing of both salmon and their prey species, plus the effects on purebred wild stocks of mass escapes of low grade farmed salmon from ill maintained seawater pens.. all have combined to reduce salmon runs to the point where now only a few relatively productive rivers have any legal right to take even a few salmon for the table. These pressures began in the 1960s when the salmon disease UDN (Ulcerative Dermal Necrosis) first appeared in our rivers. The Edinburgh Government still does nothing to curb the blight of salmon farming on our sheltered inshore waters, mainly since against all biological advice it backed this "new industry" - now largely owned by Norwegian investments with no interest in the preserving the formerly massive asset of huge stocks of Scottish wild Atlantic salmon that was then the envy of all Europe. Anglers from the rest of the world used to visit Scotland annually for our salmon fishing, bringing in huge revenue to the country's economy generally and to the rural economy in particular. Mostly all gone now.