Salmon Fishing Scotland Rafting dispute on the Tay.

Salmon Fishing Scotland Rafting dispute on the Tay.

This was an article in the Daily Record by Gordon Currie. I think this case is far from over. Watch this space.
Court win for rafters in row with Tay salmon anglers.

WHITE water rafters have won a court victory in their fight with salmon fishermen over when they can use a Scots river.

A sheriff had banned the rafters from part of the Tay for three days a week after angry anglers claimed they were disturbing them and scaring away the fish.

But another lawman overturned the ban yesterday – because the companies who run rafting trips on the river weren’t fully aware of the case before it came to court.

The rafters can now use the Tay every day, and fishermen and local landowners will now have to return to court in April to try again.

The anglers, from the local club in Aberfeldy, claimed at Perth Sheriff Court last month that the rafters caused “substantial interference with fishing”.

They said a 1994 deal over shared use of the river had broken down because “certain rafting companies took the view that their use should be unrestricted”.

And they told Sheriff Michael Fletcher: “By 2010-11, it was common for 20 or more rafts to come down the river in the morning and again in the afternoon.

“On some days, there were more than 70 raft movements in a morning.

“Some rafting companies recognised no restrictions on their conduct. Some began increasingly to appeal to hen and stag parties.”

The anglers accused people on white-water trips of leaping from rafts into fishing pools and scaring the salmon.

And they claimed: “The peaceful enjoyment of angling is impossible. There are fewer fish in the river than before.”

Sheriff Fletcher agreed with the anglers and ordered the local council to ban the rafters from using the upper Tay every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during the salmon season.

But Sheriff Principal Alastair Dunlop has now quashed that ruling, to give the rafting companies a chance to state their case. They weren’t represented in court when the ban was imposed.

The owner of one of the raft companies, Steve Thomas, said last year that he felt sorry for the fishermen but didn’t agree that his rafts were a nuisance.

He told the BBC: “We do play about on the river. People do like to jump in the river.

“But we don’t do it in sensitive areas and we don’t do it in fishing pools. If we see a fisherman, all the messing about stops – that’s what should be happening.”

Steve said his company already stayed off the river on Tuesdays and Thursdays and often on Saturdays. But he said he “couldn’t work with” a ban on three consecutive days.


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