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Post by The Bear on Sept 7, 2005 5:56:08 GMT -5
How long can the Loch go on in its present state?I hear the workforce is down to just Willie and Michael and very few boats are going out onto the Loch even at weekends .Sad very sad .
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Post by Chris on Sept 7, 2005 5:57:27 GMT -5
Colin, what do you think the main reasons for this are?
I've suggested a couple of reasons on previous threads and been shouted down in the past.
Chris
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Post by The Bear on Sept 7, 2005 6:11:20 GMT -5
Everyone one and their uncle has an opinion on Leven mate but not too many facts are available to be honest. Cheers Quazi.
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Post by The Bear on Sept 7, 2005 6:29:03 GMT -5
I wonder when the last population estimate was done and what the breakdown in present species was,I know there are Brown Trout,Rainbow Trout and Perch but are there any other populations of fish in the Loch?How big an impact have cormorants had how bad is the problem with nutrients in the Loch(the water is like Pea Soup at the minute) what invertebrates etc are present in the Loch .They can't produce the numbers of fish on the farm they used to due to the eye fluke problem. My real fear is that it will be turned into a watersports centre
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Post by Kirkaig on Sept 7, 2005 7:51:19 GMT -5
Don't worry about going over this ground. Leven's demise is a very worthy subject. Verging on the downright distraught to see the loch in such bad shape. For those who read Trout & Salmon you'll have seen their reproduction first edition, which merited its own "Loch Leven Review" with stories of huge bags of Leven Brown Trout. The picture couldn't be any more different today. T&S doesn't even report on Leven anymore!
So sad to see a number of boats overturned and rotting in the Loch's car park recently. I have the uneasy feeling that angling is losing part of its history. I've said it before - the response from anglers to Leven's plight has been less than convincing by comparison to the national outcry we hear when southern chalkstreams are threatened.
As to its problems and the diagnosis I'm none the wiser. All I do know is that, where once you were almost guaranteed an evening rise given the right conditions, now hardly a fin (or fly) stirs the surface. So maybe this is the question - why are the fish staying low? Assume this is something to do with water quality/eutrophication, affecting invertebrate abundance? the management have also had their dose of bad luck, which hasn't helped.
What can we anglers do? Do enough of us care? I'd gladly make a donation or offer an evening to do something, but are the problems beyond us?
Sorry, more gloomy questions than answers.
Kirkaig.
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Post by Chris on Sept 7, 2005 8:01:01 GMT -5
This is a point I have made in previous posts on this topic but always get ridiculed.
Is it or is it not true that a few years back there were huge numbers of perch being caught. Anglers struggled to get through the perch at times and complained. Enough complaints meant that something had to be done about it. Surprise, surprise - the same season a disease 'appeared' in Leven that killed a huge number of the perch.
Perch being bottom feeders used to push the trout higher up in the water. Now that the perch are gone, the trout can take their place on the bottom.
And from what else I've heard, the management of Leven was not exactly ideal.
Chris
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doods
New Member
Posts: 47
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Post by doods on Sept 7, 2005 8:13:56 GMT -5
If everyone cares so much about the Lochs plight then why are none of these people fishing the place. At the moment the only people going out are a few locals ( work there ) and competition anglers practising for the national final, club uptake of boats has diminished more so in days gone by when you stood in the wee bar and told stories of seeing a fish rise ( usually about 3 feet out of the water. I wonder if the boat income covers wages never mind overheads, the problem is looking irrreversible unless major investment into the deterioration of the water quality is made. Although this is not the only problem but it has to start here.... p.s the Perch are back, not in great numbers yet but they'll spread like ........ well perch......
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Post by The Bear on Sept 7, 2005 8:55:13 GMT -5
If everyone cares so much about the Lochs plight then why are none of these people fishing the place. At the moment the only people going out are a few locals ( work there ) and competition anglers practising for the national final, club uptake of boats has diminished more so in days gone by when you stood in the wee bar and told stories of seeing a fish rise ( usually about 3 feet out of the water. I wonder if the boat income covers wages never mind overheads, the problem is looking irrreversible unless major investment into the deterioration of the water quality is made. Although this is not the only problem but it has to start here.... p.s the Perch are back, not in great numbers yet but they'll spread like ........ well perch...... Good to see the Perch coming back,the spawning burns maybe need to be looked at aswell .
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Post by fishtales on Sept 7, 2005 14:23:18 GMT -5
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Post by The Bear on Sept 7, 2005 14:58:48 GMT -5
Interesting stuff ,Does SNH do any sampling on Loch Leven?
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Post by Kirkaig on Sept 8, 2005 8:03:41 GMT -5
interesting indeed. But what can we anglers do? Strikes me that, if one doesn't already exist, some form of lobby could be an avenue. Lobby who? the Management? SNH?
Maybe an open letter from concerned anglers to SNH, the press? Maybe Leven's decline has been covered in Trout and Salmon?
What do folk think? Am I being pessimistic to assume that, despite all the data available, not much progress seems to have been made?
K
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Post by Ben on Sept 8, 2005 10:29:43 GMT -5
Re the rotting boats, I know someone who was interested in buying one but they were wanting something like £1500, when he told them he thought this was a bit steep for a second hand boat and made a reasonable offer, he was told exactly that, "They would let them rot first"
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Post by Kirkaig on Sept 9, 2005 8:01:54 GMT -5
Just shows how desperate the situations is that they're holding out for top dollar. I had a prod at one of the boats when i was there last month (a mate was interested in buying). I stopped prodding at the point I though my finger was going straight through the wood.
Sad indeed.
K
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Piker
New Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Piker on Sept 9, 2005 11:19:18 GMT -5
What i can't understand is why the management have left them in the car park they are now are ruined would it not have been better storing them in water or in the shed, if the fishing improves then they could have been reused, how much would it cost to replace such a boat ? £5k
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Post by osprey on Sept 9, 2005 15:09:34 GMT -5
If everyone cares so much about the Lochs plight then why are none of these people fishing the place. At the moment the only people going out are a few locals ( work there ) and competition anglers practising for the national final, club uptake of boats has diminished more so in days gone by when you stood in the wee bar and told stories of seeing a fish rise ( usually about 3 feet out of the water. I wonder if the boat income covers wages never mind overheads, the problem is looking irrreversible unless major investment into the deterioration of the water quality is made. Although this is not the only problem but it has to start here.... p.s the Perch are back, not in great numbers yet but they'll spread like ........ well perch...... I take it your a regular yourself then
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