Once the trout and salmon seasons finish up here, a few rivers dont allow wading.
I understand it is an attempt to protect the redds. This greatly effects grayling(fly) fishers.
Two questions,
1) What real damage does wading do?
2) Is it hypocritical of salmon anglers to be tit deep on the opening day?

Your thoughts please.

__________________
It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

M,
This ban is due to some idiots "shuffling" for Grayling and thus we all get tarred with the same brush.The damage caused by someone wading very deeply will be minimal to redds as they , IME , are in shallow ( 2-3 foot deep ) water.Shuffling can lay waste to yards and yards of suitable redd water and is rightly banned by most clubs and the Grayling Society
Regards
Rob

__________________
on the banks of the River Dove-walking in Isaac's footsteps

'Shuffling' has probably been practised on a number of rivers; but I have only heard of it being done on the upper Clyde, and that was a few years back, when I might have had the 'gen' from an old friend who went up to the Crawford area to fish for trout, quite a while ago. I think it was banned, but the lads from ower the Border would know better. It was a method of ground-baiting, I understand, and I have an idea that 'cad' baits were used to catch fish on trotting tackle. Shuffling certainly puts a lot of invertebrates into my nets while monitoring. A 3-minute kick sample can produce hundreds of baetids, caddis ( cased and uncased ) stoneflies, shrimps etc. A party of shufflers, or one doing it over a period of time -- not a nice thought!!
TC

Damaging redds is a criminal offence, walking on them is enough to damage them.

Most redds are in the upper reaches of rivers though some are in the lower and middle reaches of rivers, it is these lower and middle reaches that salmon redds will be damaged by salmon anglers wading during the Spring but all anglers should avoid redds.

Hi.
Spot on RPS, I used to be an honorary water bailiff. Also, used to fish in the 1960s, before UDN, for grayling, mainly with bait. My best grayling were often found in vacated salmon redds, and even then, I kept my feet well away from the redds which I was monitoring. Salmon are far too valuable for their nurseries to be put at risk.
TC

you must be some age

Hi' Mike,
Thanks for the correction. I have big fingers, must have hit two keys. I am 73, I only feel like I'm 83.
Cheers,
TC

yeah im not the best at typing myself!
i am always very weary when wading in early season. and i actually thought about how it would be better to ban wading or at least advise people to keep it to a minimum on mid-upper reaches of the moyola until at least mid-may. myself and another club member discussed it when putting out dollaghan fry and i was told that even when they hatch and when they are fry they will still take cover under gravel for a decent time after, only coming out to feed. so the salmon could well be under gravel until june! (they dont grow as quickly as dollaghan)

Yes this may be true, but no-one can be saying that the water is automatically this deep when you go to wade it. You will (unless it is deep bankside) have to wade through water 2-3ft deep to get here and most people would probably do this without thinking and it wouldnt cross their mind that their may be redds where they are walking.

"honorary water bailiff"

Defined as…. Someone who gets paid nothing for hard labour, gets lots of abuse but little thanks, voluntarily risks getting beaten up on umpteen nights per year and risks car vandalism through to bricks being chucked through house windows. Derives some satisfaction from seeing the river maintained and protected.

I can’t imagine why more people don’t see the benefits.