Utveckling i Ammerån : att skapa ett hållbart fiske med hög kvalitet

Ammerån which is a small forest river in eastern Jämtland is a well-known river that has been a popular fishing river for a long time. The actual Ammerån begins downstream the lake Solbergsvattnet at Hammerdal and flows into the Indalsälven 10 km upstream Hammarstrand. The river environment switches between forests with wilderness feeling and open agricultural land. The entire Ammerån is today a nature reserve and protected from hydropower development. Fishing in Ammerån has mainly been focused on trout and grayling, and is so even today. There are many indications that the grayling and trout stocks declined if compared to the data since the mid 1900’s. There are two major reasons to that the fish are reduced in number and size that I can see. One is the cleanup of the river for rafting in the early 1900’s where man simply excavated and dug out of the river into a canal with even waterflow and also blew away a lot of rock. The other reason is forestry industrialization from the late 1950’s and onwards which meant that many of the trout’s spawning creeks where destroyed. Also the increased fishing pressure would have made the fishing in the river worse. The fishing for pike and other fish in the calm areas of the river that is wintering areas for salmonids has decreased a lot and that may also have contributed to the decline in populations of grayling and trout.Today, Ammeråns ecological status shall be considered as relatively good. Samples from SLU's sampling station shows that the pH value is high and has been since records began in 1966 and the chemical quality is in general very high. The number and density of insects and other aquatic organisms that is food for grayling and trout is quite high.Ammerån has been restored to look like it did before the rafting, and one has posted stone to create habitat for the fish and restore the river to what it looked like before the rafting period. Some of Ammeråns tributaries that was cleared for rafting has been restored and spawning areas has been made for the trout. Within these two fields there is still much to be done and I will make suggestions for further recovery actions.Ammerån has great potential to develop as a fishing river. The river is already visited by a lot of fishing tourists, but many find that the stocks of trout and grayling are sparse and small in stature. Studies show that with change in regulations and habitat care it would be possible to make Ammerån a fishing water of much higher quality than today, with both more and larger fish. Higher quality of fishing would make Ammerån even more popular to fishing tourists and would make them willing to pay more to fish there. This would make it possible to provide even better service to the anglers and provide income to the area. In this report I want to suggest both biotope conservation measures and fishing regulations that has demonstrated good efficacy in populations of grayling and trout in running water