Important Salmon News and Final Days of Online Auction

Fishing Friends:

Roe Pot Pool on River Dee in Banchory, Scotland

For a number of years in the early 2000s I fished the River Dee in Scotland.  The Dee is one of Scotland’s three big rivers and has the distinction of King Charle’s Balmoral Estate being the headwaters beat.  Fishing was quite good at that time there was almost a euphoria about the fishing.  It was very hard to book a rod on any of the better beats.

In recent years the Dee has been on a downward spiral and a number of conservation measures have been employed.  In this link you will see that the Dee River Board has partnered with the Atlantic Salmon Trust to begin an enhancement program to stock by using both rebuilt kelts and hatchery grown wild smolts as broodstock.  The Atlantic Salmon Trust refers to these concepts as follows:

“Both of these approaches to wild fish repopulation place an emphasis on maximising wild spawning behaviour and wild hatched juvenile salmon, care and attention to preserving the Dee’s genetics portfolio within its salmon subpopulations to enable them to adapt to future environmental change, and minimising the negative impacts of domestication associated with traditional hatchery practices.”

It certainly is positive to hear these words from the AST.  It can’t help but reinforce the very similar message that the MSA has been using to try convince the DFO to permit us to stock fry from the wild smolts we have grown to breeding size in the MSA’s hatchery – essentially the same technology that the MSA is proposing.

The MSA US Online auction is coming down to the last three days.  All bidding ends at 6:00 PM on Sunday the 11^th. We now have opening bids on all but a handful of items, but some of those are our most valuable.

Here they are in order of the opening bid price:

• Country Haven trip opening bid $1,900, the retail value is double that. Country Haven provides a very high degree of angler satisfaction as evidenced by its long list of returning clients.  They have not only excellent water available for early run and summer salmon fishing, but they have the best selection of water in Rapids if there is low water during the fall season.  If there is a specialist in Cains River fall fishing this is also Country Haven.  I do expect that there are some good bidders waiting in the weeds trying not to show their hand on this trip… I can tell you that if I didn’t own my own camp on the river.  I’d be a bidder on this one.
• Sutter Salmon Club opening bid $1,700 retail value about double that. Sutter’s is one of the premier fishing clubs on the Miramichi.  The members only use a portion of the possible fishing time, and days are made available to purchase for non-members.  Sutter’s is about 35 river miles above the head of the tide and is well-positioned for both early summer and fall fishing.  The club owns several of the finest salmon pools in this section of the river.
• Cains with former Ambassador to Ireland opening bid $500 Dr. Martyn Vickers and his cousin Kevin – the ambassador – will take you on an unforgettable June trip down the Cains from Shinnickburn to the mouth. These men have life-long family connections to the area, and the trip will be great fun to say the least.
• Duck hunting on the Great Marsh opening bid $400. This cabin and blind have been in Andy Dumaine’s family many, many years.  The hunting is good, but this trip would be worth it just to see the incredible views and wildlife of the Great Marsh.
• Day of spring fishing for two anglers opening bid is $200 per angler for a day of spring salmon fishing from a boat in the Upper Blackville area of the SW Miramichi. This is another great deal that I can’t believe hasn’t yet been gobbled up.
• Two different classic bamboo fly rods opening bids of $225 and $180 respectively. Full listings are on the auction site.  Steve Hibbard’s family has fished the Miramichi for several generations and these rods were handed down to Steve who has now donated them to the MSA.  I researched the prices on the internet and with consultation from antique tackle enthusiasts.  These should be excellent bargains.
• Iris Ciecko photo opening bid $90. Iris has won more MSA photo contests than all other contestants combined.  This is another wonderful photo of the Miramichi.  Free for the price of the frame.

Raffles – we do now have enough bids to cover our costs on all the raffle items.  I have looked at the ticket sales on each item, and all of them are far below the maximum ticket sales.

The Gray Mare Pool on River Dee where “Greased Line Fishing” was written.