I have kept a regular eye on the Mackalea Burn since the installation of the fish pass. Yesterday afternoon to water was rising and colouring although it wasn’t really a major spate. This afternoon the water had dropped and cleared providing a chance to see what was what upstream.
Rising and dirty water yesterday afternoon
There were a couple new sea trout redds about 50m upstream of the fish pass and immediately in front of the B&B. A short distance upstream a fence crosses the burn; a likely looking spot where I had expected to see a redd appear. No sign of any redds there today but just above there were the remains of a cock salmon.
Rogie eyeing up the salmon remains.
A short distance upstream there was what looked like a salmon redd.
What looks like a salmon redd opposite an old bale. It can be difficult to tell the difference between a small salmon and a sea trout redd but this one extended over the full width of the flow and looked more salmon sized in comparison to the smaller, and generally rounder, sea trout redds.
There were about 12 redds in total (mainly sea trout) above the fish pass. The salmon redd was upstream of both our electrofishing sites in the Mackalea. It would be nice to find salmon fry there next summer.
Spey Fishery Board
