There is always a buzz of excitement when a large hen salmon or seatrout shows in the vicinity of the Electro - fisher, with everyone in reach trying to net the fish. No mercy is shown to anyone who fails to net a good fish, this invariably results in good humoured ribbing from the rest of the team. Sometimes there can be a glare on the water with only the man on the probe seeing a fish turn. That's when the air turns blue and the shout goes out for everyone to try and net a fish they cannot even see!

Click to enlarge! At the Catching-Up

Although members enjoy themselves it can be hard physical work, fish caught have to be transported in large buckets of water, sometimes over long distances to where a car and trailer loaded with a 1000 litre tank are parked. Brood fish are then taken to the holding facilities to ripen, separate facilities are avaliable on each side of the loch.

S.I.W.G. members built and constructed both these facilities and also converted a solid concrete building into a hatchery. The hatchery although dependent on pumped water has some automatic safety features built in by members, including a water re-circulating system that can operate in the event of the primary source pump failing and a battery back-up system that will operate in the event of a mains electricity failure.

Brood fish have to be checked constantly to ensure that disease does not break out in the holding tanks and treatment given if it does. Seatrout are ready for stripping first, starting early November, with the salmon ripening about early December dependant on water temperature. These fish are stripped, then after a period of rest, the kelts are carefully returned to their river of origin.
Once the ova is fertilised and placed in the hatchery troughs the eggs are tended almost on a daily basis throughout the autumn, winter and spring, removing any eggs that die. The losses are expected to remain within ten per cent of the original total of ova procured, this gives us a big edge on what would happen in nature.

This year (2005) we have had a total of 158,000 salmon eggs and 92,000 seatrout eggs. This of course means a total of 250,000 eggs!!! The hatchery is running at full capacity!!!
Last year (2004) we had a total of 110,000 salmon eggs and 111,000 seatrout eggs. This was due to a great effort from all those involved.
2003's tally was 56,000 salmon eggs and 82,000 seatrout eggs. This was achieved in spite of the wettest recorded November in the past 100 years, which saw the rivers constantly in flood!
The year before (2002) there were 105,000 salmon eggs laid down and 120,000 seatrout.
In 2001 the progeny of the 80,000 salmon eggs and 155,000 seatrout eggs were succesfully transfered into the rivers Endrick and Fruin as well as the Blane and Luss Waters. A few smaller burns were also stocked with seatrout.

When the fry have almost depleted their egg sack and are at the swim - up fry stage some are taken to a further facility for growing on, a large corrugated sheet metal hut, kindly made available by Glasgow University to the L.L.A.I.A. The S.I.W.G. repaired the roof and modified the inside to take three six foot square tanks, installed feeders and a water supply. Click to enlarge! Catching up!

These fry are fed on in batches for a few weeks at a time before teams of members plant out the fry into the streams from late April onwards, other swim - up fry are put out with a minimum of feeding, direct from the hatchery troughs. Great care is taken at this stage to distribute the fry in the shallow stickles over as wide an area as possible, to reduce competition for food and territory. Electro fishing in late summer over areas that were stocked has shown healthy numbers of fry surviving which we all hope will eventually result in an increasing return of adult fish to our loch and rivers.

Click to enlarge! Planting out the fry!

Click to enlarge! Improving habitat

The S.I.W.G. have also made a start to improving the habitat on some of the upper reaches of the rivers Endrick and Fruin and a major spawning burn on Loch Lomond. This involved planting deciduous tree saplings on the banks, to provide cover and shade for fish and to supply leaf fall. As the leaves rot down they feed the invertebrate life, and these in turn feed our Salmonid fry and parr. The improvement of habitat is very important, however this is a large task on a system the size of Loch Lomond, requiring fenced off river areas to be really effective and will be an expensive business.

However there is light at the end of the tunnel, a Charitable Trust, the Loch Lomond Fishery Trust is being formed. The L.L.A.I.A. as managers of the system will work closely with the new trust and it may well address habitat among the many other possibilities.