The River Tay Salmon Fishing Season

Here's a photograph from January the 15th 2006 when we took a strong stance against this traditional (& ridiculous) opening day on the Tay. Both STV & the BBC appeared at the Newtyle fishing hut to cover the story for the lunchtime & evening news. Given the amount of unspawned salmon in the main stem of the Tay at this time of year these days (especially after a mild Winter) coupled with the large number of kelts (predominantly precious Spring salmon kelts) it is a crime against the Tay (given her present state of affairs) that anglers are allowed anywhere near the river until mid February or even March. Finding a true Spring salmon in the Tay mid January these days is a very rare occurance and many anglers come to the Tay for the so called sport of catching unseasonable salmon which technically should be illegal. Sadly this ridiculous practise has not been addressed by our fishery management who are far too concerned in my opinion in pleasing the minority of fat cats and not focussing on the true welfare of the river they have self-tasked themselves with looking after. I wonder what part this ridiculous practice and it's cumulative effect has had on the Tay in decimating salmon stocks especially over the last few decades ?