The CSTP Technical Report presents extensive chapters on sea trout fisheries inventory, stock identification (using genetics and microchemistry), freshwater production, life histories and marine ecology across its distribution around the Irish Sea.
Available at link http://celticseatrout.com/downloads/technical-report/
The final closure event was held in Wales (Bangor, Gwynedd at Plas Menai) on 8th January and was well attended by 105 people including anglers and local fishery managers. This was the last in a series of such meetings, with previous ones having been held in Scotland (Dumfries) and Ireland (Drogheda). Updates on the outcomes of all Workpackages were presented.
The formal Report for Interreg is nearing completion
Related events
ICES sea trout workshop, WKTRUTTA, Copenhagen 12-14th November 2013. This meeting was commissioned by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the body responsible for marine fisheries Assessment in European and Scandinavian countries. Bringing together sea trout specialists from many countries, it included representatives from the CSTP and CSTP results fed into this review. It is the first such review within ICES for 20 years, demonstrating an increasing interest in sea trout fisheries.
An International Sea Trout symposium, similar to the last Symposium in Cardiff, 2004, is being planned for 2015 by various CSTP partners and others from British Isles, Europe and Scandinavia. It is in an early planning stage, but results from the CSTP, other Interreg-funded projects and many more programmes will be presented. The focus will be on the practical management applications of the emerging scientific results.
The Atlantic Salmon Trust has awarded a grant of £10,000 to Dr Carys Davies, Bangor University, to carry out a preliminary assessment of the lipid status of sea trout tissues sampled during the CSTP from the Irish Sea. This is a first ever study on this topic and will inform on the condition and maturation status of adult fish which is believed to be important in determining their age and season of return to rivers.
The CSTP was an Interreg IVA funded project, running from 2009 to April 2013, intended to improve the management and long term future of sea trout in the Celtic seas by providing information and management advice, and by establishing a wider awareness and long term network of people working to secure the future of sea trout.
The project was delivered through the Ireland-Wales Cross-Border partnership; but because of the wide-ranging distribution of sea trout, work was carried around the Irish Sea in a multi-partner collaboration. Participants were Bangor University, Inland Fisheries Ireland, University College Cork, The Environment Agency Wales and the EA England, Isle of Man Government, Nith District Salmon Fisheries Board, Galloway Fisheries Trust, Annan District Salmon Fisheries Board and Buccleuth Estate (Border Esk). Subcontractors included APEM Ltd, Cefas and Fishskill Many other groups gave support and major feature of the programme was sampling of sea trout by anglers throughout the participating countries.
The work was split into 7 tasks:
Five key questions to answer, some addressed by multiple tasks, were:
The CSTP has made progress against all these questions and an outline of the results is given below. An Interreg Report has been completed and submitted to the EU and work is continuing to complete a Technical Report by October 2013. The huge amount of information gathered offers scope for even further work in the future. This note is an interim outline for information, pending the final full report.
Genetics was used to establish a genetic baseline of sea trout in 99 rivers by sampling juvenile trout in nursery streams. Sea trout sampled in different parts of the Irish Sea could then be genetically profiled and assigned back to their region/river of origin. By this means it was possible to get a picture of where fish caught at the sea originated from and where they would, probably, have returned to spawn (we know from other work that sea trout home tightly to their natal river). There are many caveats and sources of uncertainty in this work, but in essence there were found to be nine principal regional groups within the data set and clear differences in the areas that these groups occupied during their feeding migration, although there were also examples of substantial exchange rates between them. The micro-chemistry data (based on the chemical composition of scales which take on the fingerprint of the environment that fish live in) broadly supported this spatial structuring.
This work was based on the long term variation in rod catch data. The quality and detail of catch recording varies greatly around the area which limited this analysis, and fishing effort data, which is an important influence on catches, was often missing. However even with these constraints is was apparent that sea trout abundance tracked closely amongst regions and countries (eastern Ireland, Wales, southwest Scotland and northwest England). While there were some significant river specific variations, this pointed to some common factors acting on catches and possibly stocks. Between-river variations in abundance were huge, as is well known. Clearly, river size and associated fishing effort are dominant factors controlling catch; but there are other factors some of which were explored through task 6. Particularly, chemical productivity of the water and land cover type seemed to influence sea trout fishery status, rivers with low alkalinity with higher cover of forest and less intensive land use types tending to be the better sea trout rivers
This information came from an extensive scale reading programme coupled with measurements of fish size. Scale reading can reveal the age of a fish at capture and at smolting, its growth rate in different years and its previous breeding schedule. These are essential pieces of information in building models of how population size varies which are indispensible for good management. In addition, scale sample size and quality are important to produce acceptable unbiased information on the composition of each river stock. It proved extremely hard to get consistent scale reading across the participating teams, given the wide variety of prevalent life histories seen in the area. Not all rivers gave sufficient samples, but adequate data came from around 20 rivers. A number of improvements in methods were developed, and the data sets are still being subject to quality checking; but again a broad pattern is already evident. This was of faster growth and higher survival (more multiple spawners) in southern Wales rivers; high survival, but somewhat slower growth in the northwest England and southwest Scotland (Cumbria and Galloway) rivers and lower survival off the Irish coast, where finnock (fish returning in the same year that they smolted) dominated the runs in most rivers. The Currane in southwest Ireland, was a notable exception with a high proportion of long-lived adult sea trout. An unexpected result was the high degree to which sea trout continue to feed and grow during winter months at sea. Growth analysis is still continuing, but the strong influence of water temperature is evident with faster growers in the warmer areas. However, this is a complex pattern, and hydrodynamic modelling (computer projections of likely positions of migrating fish, based on tides and current patterns in the Irish Sea) coupled with the genetic data is being used to piece together the growth of the fish moving between areas of different temperature.
Sea trout go to sea to put on rapid growth, which they achieve through a high fat content fish diet. Sandeels and sprat are by far the dominant prey items, with a much smaller proportion of other fish species and crustaceans. There appear to be differences in diet composition between different regions of the Irish Sea which will also affect the growth opportunities for different stocks. Because of its link with growth, prey abundance might be expected to affect the abundance of sea trout as well as many other creatures such as birds, which depend on this crucial link in the food chain. However, the important question about how prey abundance itself varies over time cannot be answered because there is limited monitoring of sandeel, sprat or other small prey fish species in the Irish Sea; this is clearly an aspect to be looked into.
Mathematical models are routinely used to project forward, or to hindcast, the composition and abundance of marine fish stocks and salmon. With such models, when adequately set up, one can estimate how stocks might respond to altered fishing regulations and potentially to environmental factors such as changing temperature or food availability. These models must also consider the uncertainties which stem from the quality of the source data and in the level of understanding of the specific processes governing each part of the life cycle. Such modelling is the last stage in the CSTP and depends upon the results of the other activities. Doing this for sea trout is a tall order, because of the particularly variable life history of the species (far more variable than Atlantic salmon). Nevertheless some significant advances are anticipated in this and will be reported in due course and made available for practical application by fishery managers. Simply assembling better descriptions of growth, age and size structure and fecundity is a major step forward and this is already available.
The CSTP has produced new and valuable information, as well as a stored permanent archive including data, a scale collection and other samples that will be available for future studies. Its primary purpose of improving understanding of sea trout stocks in order to support better management has been achieved. Many questions remain and some new ones have emerged, but the base that the CSTP has established will greatly assist in addressing these as resources become available in the future. The project did not aim to manage individual stocks, which would be impossible on such a scale and impracticably due to contrasting regulatory infrastructure and legislation across the countries. That important work remains the responsibility of the competent local agencies and groups. Rather, the CSTP focus has been on applied science and its application in management and on developing knowledge that has wide, generic application around the Irish Sea. Such a wide-scale comprehensive, cross-disciplinary project has not been carried out before on sea trout in the British Isles. Consequently, there have been some important scientific developments in studies of sea trout genetics, microchemistry and population dynamics which will lead to further advances, as resources allow. Recommendations will be made on these and also on several practical aspects of sea trout monitoring and assessment where lessons have been learnt from this project.
Finally, the project team would like to extend sincere thanks to the hundreds of anglers, netsmen and other interested people who contributed through providing fish samples, or in other ways.
Sea trout were top of the agenda at a recent meeting between Minister Alun Davies from Wales and Minister Fergus O’Dowd held in Dail Eireann, Dublin. Both ministers were briefed about progress with the INTERREG IVa Ireland-Wales funded Celtic Sea Trout Project which finishes in 2013.
Sea trout are present in most coastal rivers discharging into the Irish Sea and their status in freshwater and in the marine environment in the Irish Sea is central to the project. By providing detailed information about the status of sea trout stocks, their genetics and their varied life histories the project aims to enhance the fisheries for the benefit of all stakeholders. Strengthening the contribution of sea trout to rural economies, to general quality of life and well-being, to national biodiversity are also important project aims. Sea trout life history variation may also contribute to understanding the effects of climate change.
For sustainable management the Celtic Sea Trout Project team is working on developing a number of management tools which will assist fisheries managers to assess fishery performance and better manage this valuable species. The requirement to manage sea trout sustainably across the Ireland-Wales interface (i.e. the Irish Sea) was strongly emphasised to both Ministers.
Both Ministers heard that angler engagement across the project has been important to provide sea trout scale samples and that the project has served to increase awareness of the value of this excellent angling species.
Minister Davies, who is Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and European Programmes, was also briefed about the role and broad responsibilities of Inland Fisheries Ireland.
…ENDS…
Suzanne Campion,
Head of Business Development, Inland Fisheries Ireland
Anglesea Street,Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
Tel: 052 6180055 Fax: 052 6123971;
Email: suzanne.campion@fisheriesireland.ie Website: www.fisheriesireland.ie
Ireland is well endowed with sea trout fisheries. On the east and south coast large systems like the Boyne, Slaney, Ilen, Argideen and Currane are well known high quality sea trout fisheries. But other angling treasures are coming to light through the project – systems like the Castletown in Dundalk and the Colligan in Waterford are potentially excellent fisheries which we have to understand better and conserve. Individually, these sea trout fisheries on our smaller rivers have the potential to generate small but important social and economic benefits within local communities. Collectively, their importance and value at a regional and national level may be far greater than generally realised.
Inland Fisheries Ireland is a statutory body operating under the aegis of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and was established under the Fisheries Act on 1st July 2010. Its principal function is the protection and conservation of the inland fisheries resource. IFI will promote, support, facilitate and advise the Minister on the conservation, protection, management, development and improvement of inland fisheries, including sea angling and develop and advise the Minister on policy and national strategies relating to inland fisheries and sea angling.
The Celtic Sea Trout Project (CSTP) is a European Union, Interreg IV‐funded, Ireland‐Wales collaborative project looking into the status, distribution, genetics and ecology of sea trout around the Irish Sea (http://celticseatrout.com/?page_id=6). Several key aspects of the project require scales samples from rod‐caught fish within the Irish and Celtic Sea regions, especially from the priority river systems and fish caught at sea.
As an incentive to anglers to participate in scale collection in 2012, the CSTP project partners are offering three €100 tackle voucher prizes to be awarded to 3 anglers drawn at random from filled scale envelopes submitted to the project from anglers fishing within the project area (Irish and south Celtic Seas) in 2012.
In order to have a chance to win all you will need to do is submit scale samples from your fish using one of these CSTP scale envelopes. To find out how to get your sample kits go to: (http://celticseatrout.com/?page_id=646 ) or contact the relevant people below.
what are the priority rivers?
Go to listing of rivers at http://celticseatrout.com/?page_id=33
Or call the project team at:
UK – Bangor University +44-1248-388603
IRELAND – Inland Fisheries Ireland +353-1-8842617
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND GOOD FISHING!
Two Irish anglers, Martin McKenny from the River Dee and Brian McShane from the Castletown River, were the top sea trout samplers for the Celtic Sea Trout Project in 2011. Both anglers, plus several other Irish winners, will be presented with their valuable tackle voucher prizes by Minister Fergus O’Dowd at an Inland Fisheries Ireland’ Fisheries Awareness Week’ event on May 20th, in the Ardboyne Hotel, Navan, Co. Meath.
Martin, who regularly fishes the Dee, provided the most sets of sea trout scales from fish he caught on rod-and line in his favourite river. In the runners-up spot was Brian McShane who also provided a large numbers of sets of scales from the beautiful Castletown River. Virtually all fish were returned alive after the small sample of scales had been taken.
Congratulating all the Irish winners, Minister O Dowd stated ‘I commend these anglers and their efforts in supporting the Celtic Sea Trout Project. The success of the project is assured with such cooperation from the winning anglers and all participating anglers who have contributed so much to the project.’
Since 2010 scales have been collected by anglers from sea trout from priority rivers which flow into the Irish and Celtic Seas in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England and the Isle of Man. The scales, which are like life history diaries, will provide scientists working on the Celtic Sea Trout Project with essential information on sea trout populations in the rivers sampled including their age, growth and how many times they have spawned. The project, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Ireland Wales Territorial Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 (INTERREG 4A), aims to increase our understanding of sea trout, in order to manage them better and increase their contribution to local economies and the quality of life. Full details about the project on www.celticseatrout.com
Full list of winners in Ireland
Congratulations to the following anglers who contributed the most scale samples from sea trout in 2011
Overall winner (covering anglers from Ireland, Wales Scotland, England/Isle of Man)
Martin McKenny from the River Dee, Ireland
Regional winners (1 of 4 Regions)
Brian McShane of the Castletown in Ireland
The following anglers names were drawn at random and have each won £100 (or equivalent value in €) in tackle vouchers (4 winners from 10 draws are from Ireland)
Andy Kelly of the Slaney, Ireland
Martin McCarthy of the Argideen, Ireland
Jimmy Condra of the Boyne, Ireland
John Harmon of the Boyne, Ireland.
Many thanks to all contributors and the CSTP team hope all anglers will continue to support the project throughout 2012.
…Ends…
Suzanne Campion
Head of Business Development
Inland Fisheries Ireland
Anglesea Street,
Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
Tel: 052 6180055 Fax: 052 6123971;
Email: suzanne.campion@fisheriesireland.ie Website: www.fisheriesireland.ie
The sea trout, which is the migratory form of the brown trout, migrates to sea to feed where it grows rapidly before returning to freshwater to spawn. It is very popular target of rod anglers in the rivers and coastal waters around the Irish Sea. The Celtic Sea Trout Project is a ground-breaking, €2 million, multi-agency partnership investigation into the sea trout stocks and fisheries of the rivers entering the Irish Sea which commenced in 2010. The project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Programme (INTERREG 4A). Inland Fisheries Ireland and University College Cork are the main project partners in Ireland. The Celtic Sea Trout Programme aims are to understand and describe sea trout stocks in the Irish Sea in order to enhance their fisheries, and strengthen their contributions to quality of life, to rural economies and to national biodiversity, and to translate new knowledge gleaned from the project into fishery and conservation benefits for countries bordering the Irish Sea. The marine ecology of sea trout will be a primary focus of this study.
Ten rivers in Ireland have been chosen as priority rivers for intensive study of their sea trout populations and anglers have been asked to provide samples of scales from sea trout they catch. The full list of rivers is:
The Shimna, Newcastle, Co. Down.
The Castletown River, Dundalk, Co. Louth
The River Dee, Annagasson, Co. Louth
The River Boyne, Drogheda, Co. Louth
The River Dargle, Bray, Co. Wicklow
The River Slaney, Wexford
The Colligan River, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford
The River Bandon, Bandon, Co. Cork.
The Argideen, Timoleague, Co. Cork
Lough Currane, Waterville, Co. Kerry.
Inland Fisheries Ireland is a statutory body operating under the aegis of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and was established under the Fisheries Act on 1st July 2010. Its principal function is the protection and conservation of the inland fisheries resource. IFI will promote, support, facilitate and advise the Minister on, the conservation, protection, management, development and improvement of inland fisheries, including sea angling and develop and advise the Minister on policy and national strategies relating to inland fisheries and sea angling.
The Celtic Sea Trout Project (CSTP) is a European Union, Interreg IVA-funded, Ireland-Wales collaborative project on the status, distribution, genetics and ecology of sea trout around the Irish Sea. This note briefly outlines progress in 2011 for the many helpers and participants in angling clubs, river trusts and other organisations. More detailed technical accounts will be available in due course.
The CSTP is reliant upon effective field sampling to collect data and material such as scales from fish for the scientific analysis. For example, the genetics and microchemistry analysis, that will tell us about the mixing and distribution of stocks, requires a baseline of measurements to be made in all the principal rivers around the Irish Sea which are likely to contribute to sea trout stocks. River sampling of juvenile
trout for the genetics was the focus of the CSTP scientific team’s work in 2010 and was completed in 2011, using a large scale electro-fishing programme, taking samples from around 80 rivers.
Marine sampling of sea trout is a key part of the project because it has not been done before in the Britain and Ireland. We want to know, amongst other things, where they go, what they feed on and how fast they grow. This is a challenging task but the CSTP team has made good progress. We have had to develop new methods for trawl sampling and have used them successfully in surveys from Dublin to the Solway coast, via the Isle of Man. Shore sampling along the coasts of Wales, England and Scotland has proved more difficult; but the collections are still sparse and the marine sampling, including trawl sampling off Cardigan Bay and South Wales, will be intensified in 2012. Shore sampling in Ireland has yielded good results and this programme will be expanded in 2012.
A major part of the sampling programme is the collection of scales for analysis of life histories, and growth rates. For this purpose we need to know which rivers they came from and, apart from fish traps of which there are only three across the whole CSTP area (Tawe, Dee and Lune), the sampling of adults in rivers has to be done by angling. This part of the sampling programme has required extensive communication with angler groups and distribution of thousands of sampling kits and scale envelopes. Several talks on the CSTP were given during the winters of 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11 to clubs and associations across Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. We aim to collect scales from at least 300 adult sea trout from each of the selected rivers over the project. 2
The scale sampling to date has had mixed fortunes, bearing in mind the target of 300 (Fig 1). The participation has been very good with over 1,600 anglers sending in 3974 sets, of which 2,322 came in 2011; so a big THANK YOU for all of those. Some rivers have done particularly well, such as the Border Esk, the Irish Dee, Argideen, Castletown and Currane, and on others some of the shortfall has been made up with other forms of sampling. We will continue the sampling in 2012.
Genetic analysis at University College Cork and Bangor University has been completed to establish a baseline of genetic variation and has shown remarkably strong structuring, with patterns that appear to reflect the ancient glacial history of the Irish Sea. This information will be used to assign marine sea trout to their regions or rivers of origin, in order to learn how they distribute themselves at sea. Scales from the past two years are currently being read and analysed and are being used to derive the ages, spawning history and growth rates of individual fish throughout their lives in rivers and sea. .The bulk of this time-consuming work will be done by summer 2012. Other tasks on sea trout marine feeding, marine distribution modeling and fisheries analysis will be completed during 2012. The other work includes dissecting organs and tissues from 2000+ adult fish, microchemical analysis of the inner ear bones, measuring and weighing 5,000+ fry, and scale reading and analysis of the large historical collection of scales that the CSTP has brought together. So, coupled with the year round sampling, the scientists are fully occupied.
The prize draw for the champion scale samplers will be held in Carmarthen 21st March 2013, but the CSTP needs the continued support of anglers in 2012. Scales can be taken easily once you have the basic kit which we provide. CSTP project team members are available to present talks to your club if required. Contact us through the CSTP website. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUING ASSISTANCE.
The vast majority of sea trout caught by anglers are taken from rivers by fly, spinning or bait fishing. But we all know that sea trout spend a lot of their time feeding in coastal waters, so in principle it should be possible to catch them there by angling. Bass anglers, who spend a lot of time roaming the shores, often see sea trout leaping, and occasionally will hook one; but landing them is another matter as their aerial antics, so different from other sea fish often shake free the hooks.
In a few selected estuaries and sea lochs in Scotland angling for sea trout in the sea is quite common and even the preferred method, but elsewhere it is unusual. However this may be due to fashion and off the Anglesey coast sea trout fishing has proved to be very successful in the last two years. Nigel Milner, part of the Bangor University team and a keen angler, has been prompted by the Project to spend time finding suitable places where sea trout can be consistently found and caught by rod fishing. The best places are shallow intertidal, rocky ground where fast current sweep prey items of sandeels and sprats to the sea trout sheltering from the currents. At times during 2011, sea trout have been very abundant, with literally dozens of fish leaping in an area of a few hundred square metres, well within spinning distance of the shore. Some interesting features have emerged. At the Anglesey sites most of the fish in June and July are small fish (see photo), probably this year’s post-smolts, and on some days the fish have all been of one similar size, on another tide they appear to be different sized fish, suggesting some shoaling or at least aggregation of age/size classes. Some very large fish are seen occasionally, over 10lbs, but these are obviously far less abundant and largest so far taken weighted 4lbs.
After some trial and error the best way to hook them appears to be small silvery lures like Tobies and Dexter wedges, or small plugs, and a key has been to use nylon line not the braid popular amongst bass lure fishermen, because the stretch of the nylon cushions the leaping actions of the fish. You need to get the time of tide right too. Ebb tide at some sites is the preferred time, possibly because it has faster currents and the lures can swing round in the same way as in river fishing. That is presumably a feature of the local shore configuration. But it works and Anglesey has produced 17 fish so far in 2011 and, when marine dwelling sea trout have proved so hard to capture by nets on the open rocky coasts, this is a valuable sample. So why not get down to the shore, hunt out some suitable spots and try it!
Please note that fishing with the intention of contributing to the CSTP does not exempt you from fishing regulations. Local regulations are outlined below.
On the Welsh and English coast…
Regulations apply to sea trout angling in the sea as well as in rivers, but these vary around the Irish Sea. In areas managed by the Environment Agency, out to 6 miles offshore in England and Wales, you must have an EA migratory salmonid rod license, just as when fishing in freshwater. Also you must adhere to any byelaws that apply regarding size limits, seasons and quotas etc. You can check these on http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/fishing/31465.aspx
In the sea the season extends from January 1st to October 12th. If fishing in a specific river estuary, then the close season for that particular river will apply. A number of fishery estuaries are closed or fished on a catch & release basis for sea trout of 40cm or over. Anglers fishing for sea trout must make themselves fully aware of the regulations.
On rivers that are closed or not classified as salmon rivers angling for salmon (any size) and sea trout (over 40cm) is prohibited. For comprehensive information on fisheries in RoI click on this link:http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/Notices/salmon-and-sea-trout-angling-regulations-2012.html
For information about sea trout regulations in Northern Ireland click on this link:http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/index/information-and-services/leisure-home-and-community/leisure-and-recreation/outdoor-recreation/angling/game-and-coarse-angling/angling-licences-and-permits.htm
Anglers do catch sea trout whilst fishing in the coastal waters around the shores of Scotland. They commit no offence if these fish are captured unintentionally and returned safely to the water. Under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003 section 6 (1) an angler is required to obtain written permission from the proprietor of the salmon fishing rights if he/she wishes to fish for or take sea trout (sea trout and salmon are classified as the same under Scots law). This law applies to inland waters and the sea up to 1.5 kilometres seaward from mean low water springs.
CSTP is extremely grateful to all those anglers who have collected sea trout scales from their rod-caught fish in 2011. Hundreds have been returned to the project officers in Ireland and Wales. Anglers or clubs with further samples to return are requested to return them to:
John Coyne,
Inland Fisheries Ireland, Swords Business campus, Swords, Co. Dublin, ROI
-Or–
Dr Carys Davies,
School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey,LL59 5AB,Wales
On May 14th 2011 The Environment Agency Wales (Northern Area) held a fishing open day for anglers and the public at the United Utilities, Llyn Brenig Visitor Centre. The EA kindly offered the CSTP a stand there to promote the project. Nigel Milner and Nik Tysklind from the Bangor University team spent the day there and we met several anglers who were already involved with the programme and others who expressed interest in helping.
Two anglers who returned scales in 2010 were Dyfed Jones, from Foxon’s Tackle Shop, Ruthin, and Alan Cuthbert, who runs the anglers’ website, Campaign for the Protection of Welsh Fisheries (). We were able to show them the scales from their fish on a projector and how they are read. It was great to see them get absorbed by the life stories of their fish. As experienced anglers they knew all about sea trout migration of course; but for others it was a revelation to learn about the extensive migrations and habitat changes experienced by that the trout living in their local rivers. So, a good day that hopefully will lead to more samples as the project develops.
