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 he 2001 season will probably be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
The outbreak of foot and mouth, the terrible destruction of life in America and the resignation of David Allison .
Foot and mouth caused enormous concern and worry amongst the Lairg crofting community. I took the sad precaution of banning dogs from the river this year whilst cases were still being reported. However, it came to my attention that some had chosen to totally disregard my instructions and did, indeed bring their dogs into the Lairg community. These animals could so easily have come into contact with the virus on their way up north and another rural area could have been devastated by the catastrophe. To say that I found this disappointing is an
understatement; I was livid.
I had personally given my word to each of the crofters adjoining the river that I would protect their interests by banning all fishermen's dogs. This action has put me in an extremely awkward position and has done little to enhance the goodwill that we have spent so many years trying to cultivate between incomers and the locals!
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First salmon were caught by:-
Karin Ferguson in Meadow a 6lb
sealiced fish .
James Muir in Cottage 1, 5lbs.
Charlotte Hunter-Grubbe in Mill a
5lbs fish.
Nicola Dumas in Middle - 8lbs.
Eliza Wood in Meadow - 4lbs.
Flora Cooke in Meadow - 4lbs. After only 10 minutes of casting lessons!
Alice Martin-Bird in Frying Pan 13lbs, after complaining that there were no fish in this pool!
Major Roger Chapman in Meadow 8lbs (despite many years of trying)
Meadow has once again performed its magic and produced the goods.
There were quite a lot of "First fish returned" comments in the fishing books this year which is very encouraging.
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The Cock / Hen fish ratio was;
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The Shin restocking programme is advancing with the purchase this year of an American stacking hatchery unit. Ian McMyn will once again be making artificial redds high up in the Tirry. These are planted with eyed ova and have 1000 eggs per redd. We have had made special egg boxes that hold between 3 to 4 thousand eggs. These are partially buried in suitable gravel and will be sited in the River Tirry above and below the Crask Inn.
The question as to how many of these potential salmon make it back to the Shin is still unknown, but we hope in the near future the Hydro will be carrying out a pit tagging experiment. This involves catching the
smolt's in the Tirry, Merkland and Fiag just before they smolt. They will then insert an electronic tag (about the size as a small grain of rice) into the smolt. When the smolt passes through the dam there will be a counter positioned to record its passage. If they find that there is too higher mortality they might be forced to build smolt traps on these rivers.
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The total fish caught on the Upper Shin this year was 313. The most extraordinary thing is that both fishing books ended up with the nearly the same total. The Lodge book has 157 fish, with 50 salmon and 107 grilse, of which 116 were returned, and the Twinners book had 156 fish made up by 47 salmon and 109 grilse, of which 82 were returned , making a total of 198 salmon returned. Of these 36 were tagged and 4 had there adipose fin clipped. This represents a most marvellous figure of 62% returned. This is far and away the best figure for the Shin, and I would like to think it would be hard to beat on any highland river.
To all those people who had the guts and foresight to return a fish to spawn, please give yourselves a big pat on the back.
The number of fish tagged this year was a commendable 35. With luck we might net one of these fish for the restocking programme.
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The season was finally started on the 13th June by Emma Clarkson in Field with a nice 13lb cock fish. Then we had an eight-day gap to the next fish taken in Meadow. The early weeks of July saw large numbers of fish in the river, and disease was seen on several fish caught, probably due to the high water temperature.
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 Julian Pullan on Middle
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One party failed to record whether they caught a cock or hen fish for their entire two week stay. They also failed to leave three lines between their weeks. Another party only managed to record the sex of half the fish they caught. PLEASE FILL IN THE RECORD BOOKS AS INSTRUCTED
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