Opening Ceremony 2025
Tuesday 11 February, 9am
Come along and watch the Spey begin its new fishing season

As recently announced in the local media, we want to remind all our friends in the local Aberlour and nearby community to come and visit our opening ceremony for 2025. 

We will begin as usual at the Penny Bridge, Alice Littler Park, Aberlour starting at 9am

Richard Anderson will be our Piper for the ceremony and Reverend Donald Walker will give the blessing. We thank them for their support.

Our Guest of Honour this year is John Anderson, who will ‘open’ the river. John, a long-serving ghillie at Tulchan Estate, recently retired after 42 years of service. We wish John every happiness in his retirement. 

Car parking is available and please remember, if you are bringing young children, to supervise them at all times near to the River and within the car parking and surrounding area.

To help celebrate the start of the new salmon fishing season, drams of the new 11yo Aberlour Scottish Oak FInish from the 2024 Distillery Reserve Collection, will be served by the Aberlour Distillery Team.

Hot drinks supplied by the Aberlour Hotel will be offered during the opening ceremony, along with samples of Walkers shortbread.

The Spey Fishery Board is grateful to Aberlour Distillery, Walkers Shortbread and the Aberlour Hotel for their continued generous sponsorship of this event.

Initial Improvements to Spey Dam Fish Pass Completed

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We are excited to report that the initial improvements to the Spey Dam fish pass were completed on 18th May, helping to reconnect salmon with an important habitat in the upper catchment. 


We have long known that Spey Dam causes significant issues to salmon migration. 

“There is an abundance of juvenile salmon immediately below the dam, in stark contrast to the scarcity of juvenile salmon above it. In fact, in 2014, no salmon fry at all were found above the dam.” – Roger Knight

In 2016, after sustained pressure from the Spey Fishery Board, Spey Dam was officially reclassified as a “barrier” to fish passage by SEPA. This designation placed an obligation on SEPA and the dam owner to find a solution to the long-standing problems caused by the obstacle to salmon migration. 

Work begins

Reports from renowned consultants, Multiconsult and Fishtek, recommended a number of improvements that could be made to the fish pass to encourage fish to use it. Based on their recommendations, a team led by Arran MacPhee, Civil Engineer with Alvance and SIMEC at Fort William, began work to begin making essential upgrades.

Lighting installed

One of the issues highlighted by the consultants is that the fish pass is too dark. To improve this, LED lighting, linked to an external sensor, has been installed. Light conditions inside the fish pass will now always match the exterior lighting conditions. For example, during the day, the light intensity will match the sunlight and during the evening the lights will be dimmed to almost complete darkness. This is a significant improvement and should help encourage salmon to use the fish pass.

Topographical survey

At the same time as the lighting work, a topographical survey was also successfully carried out using 3D scanning equipment. This data will now be analysed to determine how to modify the separating walls between each of the 21 compartments within the fish pass. These modifications will involve altering the trapezoidal notches on each wall section to a narrower, deeper slit, which should reduce turbulence in the water and improve fish passage.

Next Steps

There is still more to be done. Once the topographical survey data has been analysed, we are hoping that a trial of the modifications to the fish pass separating walls can be undertaken during 2022. The remaining alterations will, we hope, be completed next year.

Salmon smolts from the River Spey above the dam will also be trapped and tagged in March/April 2023, so that we can start to understand their movement through the reservoir and migration out through the fish pass.

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