Just a wee update on what's happening with the salmon counts at Pitlochry Dam fish ladder this year using information from our popular Pitlochry counter Twitter site.
Salmon started getting up the ladder in early April at a water temperature of about 6C. During April some salmon got up the ladder, but numbers mainly built up downstream of the dam. In early May, the water became warm enough to encourage the waiting salmon into and up the ladder producing the clear pulse in the counts seen in the plot below. There was then a short lull before the count built up quickly through May and into June and July as the main run of salmon arrived. We are currently waiting for the main run of grilse to arrive.
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| Photo: Ross Gardiner 24/7/14 |
It is not just salmon that can be seen in the fish pass. The photo shows a large number of small eels and some other small fish at the downstream end of the fish pass yesterday.
Please click on the image for a larger version.