The Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) represents the interests of the UK’s game anglers, fishery owners/managers and affiliated trades, in all issues relevant to angling and fisheries legislation, regulation, management and conservation.
We have close working relationships with Government departments and agencies, advising them over fisheries and angling matters and influencing their decision-making processes on behalf of our membership and, indeed, all those with an interest in the aquatic environment.

Water
S&TA represents angling and fisheries interests on Defra stakeholders’ groups concerned with the Water Framework Directive and delivery of Catchment Sensitive Farming.

Fly Life
Monitoring is essential to gauge the success of aquatic management, and the Association sees fly life as central to this process.

Sheep Dips
Cypermethrin sheep dips are toxic insecticides designed to kill parasites, but in concentrations as low as 1 part per billion, they cause devastation to aquatic invertebrate populations, and also damage the reproduction and juvenile life stages of salmonids.

Access
Other important issues recently include the attempt by the British Canoe Union to gain legal access to all waterways in the UK. S&TA continues to lobby hard for voluntary joint access agreements for water users, rather than a blanket right for any one sport to run roughshod over riparian rights – a view for which the Government has since confirmed its strong support.

Salmon, trout, Sea Trout and Grayling Management
We advise and influence both nationally and internationally over the management of all our game fish species, with issues as diverse as the implementation of the EA’s Trout and Grayling Strategy and the closure of the Irish Republic’s drift net salmon fishery.

Education
Education is a priority within S&TA, highlighted by the publication of the Brown Trout Big Book this year, which was distributed to 11,000 primary schools throughout England, introducing them to the aquatic environment through the life cycle of the brown trout.