It is the beginning of another year in the Trossachs national park and sadly nothing is going to change with regards restocking all of the wonderful waters in the area !

I had a discussion with the recreational manager of the Forestry commission last year who did not know that fishing is one of the biggest hobbies in Britain !  I asked him what the forestry commission restocking policy was and he informed me there was none, they are keen to take your permit money however it is spent on repairing roads, paying for rangers and picking up litter , NOT to improve the stocks. :(

As treasurer of Trossachs community council, at one of our meetings last year the head of the national park, Fiona Logan,  came to one of our meetings and I asked her the same question, she was not aware that fishing along with gardening are the biggest hobbies in Britain, I asked her if the National park were connected with the forestry commission in promoting the fantastic facilities on our door step to which she wholeheartedly confirmed however she was not aware that there was NO fishing available on loch Katrine or loch Arklet as they are boat only waters and there are no boats available at the moment and there is a consultation letter going about how the National park want to ban all camping in the area ! provission has been put in for camping on loch Lubnaig however the owner has informed me that he now does not want people camping on his land !

One of my fellow councilors raised her hand and asked the question, "apart from encouraging more visitors to the park who are going to fish, what about the wild life that eatfish i.e,  Pike, Ospreys, Otters etc, will there be any fish left, her answer was that the waters will restock themselves "  She has now left the position ! I wonder if the new head will have any positive answers ?

The only waters that are stocked with brown trout in the National park are loch Earn and loch Ard.

The waters that are not stocked are:

loch Chon,  loch Arklet,  loch Katrine,  loch Venacher,  loch Lubnaig,  loch Voil, loch Doine,  loch Tay,  loch Awe,  loch Achray and the Finglas reservoir. To name but a few in our local area !

The forestry commission say they do not have a budget to afford it !

I spoke with the head bailiff  last year about how the Finglas reservoir before the dam was built was the main spawning ground for the salmon in the area and that when the reservoir was built (1969) the water board put no provision to get salmon in and out to continue the strain (where were the conservationists back then ?) his reply was " there are enough salmon going up the Leny ! " I was gobsmacked !

I have recently seen a canvas tube that can be filled with water and the salmon run along this so they can access the water and return, this is the sort of thing that should be put in place and Scottish water who have made millions from there hydro schemes  and dams should be made to put in place.

Do you think the National park are missing the whole picture ?