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River water levels or river heights in Scotland
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Locations of SEPA river stations. |
Before going fishing, it is very helpful if the angler
has access to local information. If for example you are planning
a fishing trip to the River Tay or the River Dee or the River
Tweed you will want to know the conditions. Perhaps the most requested piece of information is the water level
of the river which you can find here. 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
peak 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. 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. Click on the river name below to access the data from the SEPA web site.
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