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Secretary’s AGM Report 2026
The Management Committee met four times since the last AGM, in March, October, December and January. In between, our sub-committees dealt with their respective remits and I would like to thank the sub-committee convenors for their hard work throughout the season.
I was kept busy with ever increasing queries from visiting anglers. Most were by email through our contact facility on our website although I still get lots of phonecalls too. I try to be as helpful as I can with responses, but sometimes it can be difficult. Questions such as “Do we really need permits to fish the lochs?” “can I spin fish” and “do I need a boat tag for my float tube?” test my patience. Boat hire details are much sought, including costs and availability. There’s no doubt an increasing number of visitors expect us to hire boats from our sites – and private boat hire is becoming more difficult to obtain.
Most of the emails received were from OIC Planning regarding fish farm development. We are well consulted in this regard although virtually nothing we respond back with affects the planning applications. The same can’t be said for the major civil engineering project involving various burn crossings from the back of Finstown to Warbeth. Of this we received nothing from OIC Planning, SEPA, Nature Scot.
Our online membership continues to be well used but was down by about 30 from the year before. This could be just a blip, but I just wonder if visitors are getting to know about Wishart’s in Stromness as a place to join and going there off the boat, as they did at WS Sinclair’s for many years.
We continued to receive reports of seals in Harray throughout the season. Just one or two, but still not a scenario you would like to see in one of the country’s premier trout fisheries. Cormorants too are giving cause for concern. At least with the seals, we can prevent them from getting in from Stenness. We have contacted the OIC in this regard and we hope to hear something from them in due course. In the meantime, if you see any seals in Harray, please let us know when and where. I photo would be fine too.
Harray did not fish well last year. Our friends at the Orkney Waters Trust are looking into the case but it would be good if we could find out more about the current fish population in the loch. Are there less fish than when last surveyed in the early 1990s? Hopefully we can find a university that can undertake such a survey.
We continued to look at the possibility of developing our land at Kirbister into a workable site. But in the end we were swamped with planning and environmental rules and regulations. The cost of an environmental impact assessment alone was enough to drain our resources – and still not guarantee we would receive the necessary permissions.
On a more positive note, it was great to be given slot at the Blue Door in December. It was a pretty painless exercise thanks to the enthusiastic and hard working volunteers there – with a tidy sum raised for our depleting Competitions and Entertainments fund.
Wishing you all tight lines for the season ahead.
Malcolm Russell – OTFA Secretary
February 2026