Water levels in Scottish rivers

River water levels or river heights in Scotland

Locations of SEPA river stations.

Before going fishing, it is very helpful if the angler has access to local information. If for instance you are planning a fishing trip to the River Tay or the River Dee or perhaps the River Tweed and you want to know the conditions there are resources that will help you. Perhaps the most requested piece of information is the water level of the river, but water height alone is not sufficient information for the angler. Fish do not normally take well on a rising river, they may take well during the first few inches of a rising water whilst it is still clear but usually as soon as the water starts to colour they will stop biting and will remain difficult until the river level stablises. Once a spate or flood has peaked the fish suddenly become interested again and trout, salmon and sea trout will take avidly whilst the water is dropping. A dropping and clearing river presents the fisherman with the best fly fishing chances for sea trout and salmon. At the top of a spate the water will often carry lots of sediment, silt and sand in addition to much larger debris. It will be turbid and cloudy making it hard for the fish to see the fly. As soon as the levels start to fall the dust will settle so to speak and the water will start to clear. In the Highlands of Scotland most of the rivers waters turn into a dark colour, like tea or lager caused by the release of tanin from the peat bogs and this signals the prime fishing time in most cases, until the water level drops to normal again. And so the fly fisherman needs to know the water height and whether it is steady, rising of falling and in addition he needs to know what the river is likely to do in the near future and so an accurate local weather forecast is always appreciated. Following the link will allow you to access weather forecasts for several regions in Scotland. Scottish river levels at the under noted locations of particular interest to anglers are obtained from SEPA, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and these show show the change in river level over the last two to three days. An increase in river level is normally associated with rainfall in the catchments, however certain sites are subject to artificial control by, for instance, hydro power stations that may artificially influence the level of the river (see the Glass at Kerrow Wood). The graphs show the river level relative to a local datum and may not directly represent the depth of water. To give the user some perspective on the relative level of the river a 'base level' has been given for each site. The base level represents a typical summer level in the river. The SEPA site includes a number of additional locations that are not listed here.