Happy New Year and Thank You!
To all members who supported the Association throughout 2025, we hope you had a great fishing season followed by a restful festive season! 2025 was a year of very low water for most of the year. The river hovered around the bottom of the ‘normal’ range and dipped below into ‘significant water scarcity’ on more than one occasion. These conditions were not ideal for fishing and this is reflected in the number of fishing days reported in catch returns. Thankfully this improved at the back end of the season with many anglers doing very well at this time. Who knows what the coming season will bring but the new pattern of summer drought and winter storms is likely to continue.
Permits 2026
We are delighted that so many members chose to use the new digital system introduced last year. If you purchased a season membership last year, you do not have to input all their personal data again. In fact you can book your new membership for 2026 NOW! Your profile should now show a RENEW sign and all you need to do is click on this and follow the steps to purchase your new permit which is set to start on 15th February.
It was also great to see a higher proportion of young people signed up this year – both the free U14 ticket and the Junior 14-18. We are however, keen to persuade some of our senior citizens to try the digital permit. Committee members are available to provide guidance on this and once your membership is up and running it is very simple to renew.
If you are registering for the first time, please go to the permits page which takes you through all the steps.
Please use our contact form or the details of any committee member if you would like help with this.
AGM 2025
This year’s AGM was attended by 19 members including a full turn out of the committee. This was more than last year but still low considering that there are over 200 season ticket holders and 500+ followers on Facebook. It would be great to have more of you attend in future.
Last year’s proposals
There were 3 proposals last year and progress with each was reviewed at the meeting.
Hatchery
There was lengthy discussion of the practicalities of an Eden hatchery for trout as a possible solution to declines in trout, particularly sea trout, numbers. This focused on the analysis of previous secretary David Farmer. Committee will continue to explore the issue. However, we do not have the capacity, the ongoing funding or even clear agreement on the matter. It was agreed that we would continue to concentrate on trying to improve habitat on the river including in spawning burns where possible.
new bag limit
All were agreed that the reduction of the bag limit to 1 brown trout over 12” and catch and release for all salmon and sea trout had been a sensible measure to support stocks. This rule will continue for 2026.
Action on Pollution
All members are encouraged to report any incidents to SEPA and/or Scottish Water. In the meantime, training has been provided for volunteers to monitor water quality along the river. This work is supported by St Andrews Aquarium as a new partner in RESP.
New proposals for 2026
3 new proposals were put forward by members for the coming year:
Sunday fishing
This item produced the most discussion with the pro’s and con’s aired in detail. In the end, the meeting voted to introduce Sunday fishing for brown trout only with light tackle, by 8 votes to 4 with 7 abstaining. A final decision about any other restrictions to methods will be made at the first committee meeting in January and the new rules will be updated before opening day on Monday 16th February.
Habitat improvements
It was proposed that the club seeks to carry out instream works (e.g. add boulders/ logs) at selected locations to increase flow diversity and improve habitat for fish. This received unanimous approval and committee will discuss locations and permissions.
working with landowners
Following concerns about the way in which recent drainage and bank stabilisation works had been carried out on the river, it was proposed that EAA set up a discussion with relevant land owners and their representatives to discuss how future works might meet the requirements of the landowner while also improving habitat for fish. Again this received unanimous approval.
Further information
If you would like to view all the papers from this year’s AGM these are available here
Please note that this document is password protected. The password can be obtained from the Secretary. The minutes of this meeting will be published in due course.
The Stan Reed Memorial Cup
The cup this year was awarded to John Wilson who not only caught the largest salmon at 15lb but also caught more salmon than anyone else as well as a 9lb sea trout! Congratulations!
The Catch Return Prize Draw
The name drawn this year was Junior (14-18) member Ewan McGhee who will now receive a free permit for the 2026 season. Congratulations!
New Committee
The committee was strengthened this year with the addition of 2 new members, Alastair Grierson who also becomes Membership Secretary, and Jamie Lafferty.. A warm welcome to them. Any member of the committee can be contacted for help and advice using the details on the contact page