trooter Posted August 11, 2010 Report Share Posted August 11, 2010 Just out of interest Madfish - How did you manage to analyse the gut content of the char you have seen without actually gutting the fish ( or causing it some serious discomfort prior to release) or is is there a digital camera on the market for this sort of thing?You can examine stomach contents using a marrowspoon, you don't have to cut them open.Nice to see char being caught and returned, I had one at the North end of Girlsta towards the end of last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bug Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 ^ Cheers for that Trooter - you can indeed learn something every day. Tight lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wullie m. Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 The char in Loch Arkaig used to run to great size, living under the salmon cages & hovering up the grub! wullie m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madfish Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 Is Loch arkaig the one 10 miles or so from Fort William massive loch more like the sea. I had a friend that fished it just like a sea angler he used a fish finder. He would look for the shoals of char then fish with a large spinner the type no one would ever dream of using here they have a rattle when they wiggle. He got a few fish each year that were well over ten pounds not char but Ferox trout. Now I bet someone has to have been in Girlsta with a fish finder and I wonder if they got any readings showing small shoals of fish these could well be the Girlsta char and why does Girlsta have massive big Brown trout by Shetland standards. I think the big boys are feeding on the char and the little fish I catch most of the time are taking the flys and other microscopic stuff. I am perhaps out of date with the Arkaig loch but the char in there were always hard to catch perhaps they are more abundant and larger now, like you say possibly from the enrichment of the loch from the fish farm but it is a massive loch but it may well now have a massive fish farm I dont know. Fresh water fish farms are often good news for the food supply as far as the trout and char are concerned as many of you know from fishing the loch with the trout cages in them above the Brig of Walls many big fish have come from this loch in the last few years. Some folk have sent me messages direct with good stuff in it please post this as is of interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAStewart Posted August 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 I'm really not into Trouting. Seems like there's a hellish amount of legislation and rules for what I think is a pretty boring version of fishing: you pretty much know exactly what you're catching, and then you have to throw it away. Deep sea fishing is what it's all aboot, but thanks for the advice ony y. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wullie m. Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 Madfish, I'm going back nearly twenty years, the guy from the Commando Bar at Spean Bridge caught what should have been the Scottish record for a char and sent the pic' to the Record, it was rejected as artificially fed!wullie m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brunalf Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 an old map o wirs said da tingwall loch is 50 faddoms deep.wi a lang line an weight we could only fin a 26 faddom deep bit.far below sea level.also is yun sam kindo fish no in nyugals water too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njugle Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 On the subject of loch deepness, I was always led to believe that the Gonfirth loch is of great vertical extent - anybody with a lead line back this up?I noticed it didn't appear on the posted link of loch depths, but maybe it's not big enough (in area)? The Gonfirth loch is quite deep, but according to divers who have been in it, it is pretty difficult to gauge as the peaty slurry on the bottom gets gradually thicker and thicker , until forming a particularly claustrophobic grip upon them, so deciding on a definite bottom was hard. The three deepest, iirc, are Girlsta, Tingwall and Clings Water. Both of the latter having deep holes in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seaflech Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 Thanks for that Njugle, that peaty description, err, clears up my knowledge of how deep the Gonfirth loch is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njugle Posted August 13, 2010 Report Share Posted August 13, 2010 ^ I seem tae mind it was aboot 30+ feet. In lieu of my ignorance, I can proffer up this mine of info. http://www.nls.uk/maps/bathymetric/loch_order.html ....but it doesn't include Gonfirth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandhopper Posted August 15, 2010 Report Share Posted August 15, 2010 ^^ They're disagreeing with themselves. The 74 foot figure came from the same survey, but from "Table 3 - Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland (sounded by the Lake Survey) arranged according to maximum depth" Loch number 140, left hand column. http://www.nls.uk/maps/bathymetric/text.cfm?seq=30 It is by far more difficult than that, Ghostrider! ... i) The general text about the Shetland Lochs (vol. II, part II) describes Girlsta Loch as the deepest Loch in Shetland with a max. depth of 74 feet (as in the table you have quoted) ii) So does the description of Loch Girlsta in the same volume. iii) The map which I quoted gives at least 4 values indicating a depth greater than 74 feet: two bathymetrical lines indicating a depth of 75 feet and more and two max. values of 77 fet and 78 feet respectively in a different location. (From what I've learned about drawing of bathymetrical lines when drawing the hydrographical atlas of the Baltic sea in 1974, is the fact that two values were required before you were allowed to draw a line; otherways you would have to mark the position and to show the absolute value only - but that were 'modern oceanographic standards' not neccessarily identical with the old 'limnological standards' of the time in question). iv) What's more interesting is the fact, that the description of Girlsta Loch in vol. II, part II gives a temperature of 53°8 at 75 feet. v) Furthermore that description gives some interesting details:a) There is a broad beach of small grey stones on east and west, and a sandy beach at the north end ... and The outflow is on the south by a mill lead ... ! ... and that outflow starts at the south end, where the 1850s/1880s OS 25 inch to the mile map shows a 'sluice' and where google earth shows a structure like the remains of a small dam ... Taking all that together it would fit very well to another fact described in the chapter about general features of Scottish lochs, that's to say that some of them show a considerable saesonal change in depth and volume without changing the surface you look at ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyumpi Posted August 16, 2010 Report Share Posted August 16, 2010 Here's a good old pic from the museum archives showing a considerable beach at Lochend in about 1890. The level must now be a few feet higher with the dam and road. http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=wordsearch&s=item&key=Wczo3OiJnaXJsc3RhIjs=&pg=12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redrobbie99 Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 How will the char and trout spawn now that the burn has been damed off.No fish ladder has been installed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ of Hildisvik Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 Why has the burn been damned off ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redrobbie99 Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I believe its to keep water for the huge salmon hatchery down at the mill of girlsta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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