Scottish sea fishing festival results

Laura Protheroe with a Bull hiss.

Results
The number of anglers was on a par with last year but, unfortunately, the weather proved somewhat difficult on the Saturday and Sunday and many of the boats opted to stay inshore.

The overall numbers of fish tagged was down around 10% on last year (Most of the outstanding returns are in), however, 449 rods fishing over the three days managed to catch 840 fish (excluding lesser spotted dogfish), of which 176 were tagged.

Once again tope didn't arrive in their expected numbers and their numbers were down almost 50% on last year. Whether this is due to a change in the migration pattern of the mackerel, or some other cause is open to question at the moment. It also appears to show that smoothhound and bull huss stocks are increasing.

Once a major industry
Scotland was once a premier European sea angling destination - two decades ago there were over 30 major fishing festivals and competitions held around the Scottish coastline. These attracted thousands of visiting anglers and millions of pounds in income to the fragile economies of many coastal communities.

The Solway is one of the few inshore areas which still has reasonable residual fish stocks of interest to sea anglers.

Sharkatag, which brings close to £50K in revenue to the region over the weekend, shows what can be done where the angling opportunities still exist.

More at the SSACN website