Fowey Rivers Association

FRA Conservation Guidelines - 2016

The FRA has released new guidelines for conservation of salmon and sea trout in the River Fowey and it’s tributaries.

The guidelines are effective from the start of the 2016 season -

  1. Return 2 in every 3 rod-caught salmon to the River Fowey.
  2. Maintain the current Fowey season limit of 1 salmon per day, 2 per week and 5 per season.
  3. Return all sea trout over 24” (c.6lbs) to support future breeding stock.
  4. Keep no more than 2 sea trout per day before June 1st; keep no more than 4 sea trout per day after June 1st

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Hatchery volunteers - Please register here

In conjunction with the previous announcements about the Colliford Hatchery opening later in 2016 - we are now seeking volunteers to help run the Hatchery.

The program runs from October when we start looking for Broodstock adult fish - through to late August when we stock out their progeny back into the St Neot.

We would like to assemble a group of volunteers to cover these tasks -

  • Morning and afternoon checks - a couple of hours in the morning and/or afternoon checking the water supply and filters/screens - complete a checklist of tasks and perform treatments and feeding.
  • Weekend cover - at some times of year this can just be a morning activity - and at other both morning and afternoon - the same checks as above
  • We envisage a regular weekly working group - 2-4 hours on a weekday afternoon - to be set once we know who is available and which days are suitable. The types of work are different through the year; checking and helping strip fish in Autumn & Winter, Reconfiguring the Hatchery equipment as the requirements change for tank sizes and associated equipment, Grading and sample-weighing fish as they develop and grow - and stocking-out the progeny at the end of the program.

If you would like to be involved please send us your contact details -
Name - Contact phone number - Contact e-mail address - Location
to hatchery@riverfowey.org

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Salmon in the St Neot River

Thanks to close partnership working between the FRA, SWW and the Environment Agency a sonar fish monitor was placed in the St Neot immediately upstream of the junction with the Fowey for six weeks from 8 December.

During that time five releases of water from Colliford were made. The purpose was to establish whether it would be possible to trap broodstock from the St Neot to provide eggs for the refurbished Colliford Hatchery.

Initial analysis shows that more than 100 fish over 40cm moved upstream in the six weeks, including some estimated at over 15lb. This gives us confidence that broodstock trapping in the lower St Neot is a viable option.

These short clips from the counter show several fish moving upstream.

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