Salmon season hits top gear
Excellent salmon fishing reported from a number of Irish rivers this week, among them the River Erriff in County Galway, which reported its best period of catch return for many years with 80 salmon and 43 sea trout banked.
Good angling conditions and water levels saw up to 18 salmon landed in a day. Catches were boosted by a bout of heavy rainfall midweek which saw a great run of fresh fish entering the river.
Brian Holloway, a regular U.K. visitor to the Erriff, had a fantastic week, landing 11 salmon, most of which were returned.
River Tay salmon season extended
The salmon season on one of the best game fishing waterways in the UK is set to be extended in a bid to give fisherman more hours on the bank during the peak of the year.
Sport on the River Tay usually hits top gear just before the season concludes on October 15 but officials have announced this will be pushed back until October 31 in certain areas for at least the next three years.
Anglers will now be able to target the venue between Perth and Dalguise for an extra fortnight and all fish caught in the added on period must be released and reported to help research projects.
Kids show the way with salmon catches
Visitors to the famous Galway Weir Fishery on the River Corrib overcame the less than ideal hot and humid conditions to bank no fewer than 58 salmon from the venue.
Among those successful was young Amy Quinn, from Loughrea, who landed her first ever salmon, in the shape of a fine grilse of around 5lb, which fell to a fly.
The salmon season is now in full swing on the weir, with fresh fish coming in on every tide, and with water levels remaining good.
To enquire about fishing the venue, contact Seamus Hartigan by emailing shartgalfish@tinet.ie.
Record salmon run in Alaska
The biggest run of sockeye salmon in Alaska’s Kenai River for 25 years has seen an estimated 500,000 fish force their way into the waterway in just 48 hours.
By the end of the first day of the annual migration, a sonar maintained by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had counted 230,643 sockeye coming into the river, a figure it expected to double overnight.
State fisheries biologists were aware that massive numbers of the species were schooling offshore, but they were more than a little shocked by the size of the return that swarmed the river in one fell swoop.
"It's a phenomenal event,'' said commercial fisheries biologist Pat Shields. “We haven’t seen a run of this magnitude since 1987.”
Monster salmon landed on fly made from pet cat!
The biggest salmon for decades has been landed from the Delphi Fishery on Ireland’s River Bundorragha – on a fly made from a domestic pet!
Visiting sWISS angler Urs Leibundgut landed the magnificent 19lbs 7oz fish on a tungsten beaded nymph tied on a size 10 single with hair from his neighbour’s cat in Zurich!
The fly has rather aptly been called ‘The Neighbours Cat’, and Urs claims that he is considering taking out a patent on both the fly and the cat!
This fish now replaces Nigel Saxby-Soffe’s fish of 19lbs 1oz on 26th August 1986 as the biggest Delphi salmon of the modern era. The all-time biggest from the fishery stands at 21lbs.
46lb salmon banked
Whatever fishing you’re into it’s hard not to be impressed by this immaculate 46lb 8oz salmon banked by Norwegian angler Arve Nilsen.
Landed during a visit to the beautiful Guala River in central Norway, Arve had almost lost all hope of seeing a fish on the bank after already having lost four fish during a week on a beat controlled by the Norwegian Flyfishers Club.
But it all came good on the last day when he hooked the specimen that he had to follow 500 metres downstream just to keep in contact.
The angler from Bergen fooled the fish which measured an impressive 129 cm in length with a girth of 63 cm with a tube fly.
Will salmon and trout return to Wye tributary?
An important River Wye tributary which once was an important spawning ground for salmon and trout is set to be restored to its former glories.
The Wellington Brook, which flows into the River Lugg near the Herefordshire village of Marden, has suffered over the past few decades from the dredging of gravels to improve land drainage, which has drastically reduced the waterway’s ability to support fish species and other wildlife.
Now a joint endeavour between quarrying company Tarmac and the Wye and Usk Foundation will begin to restore the brook to its more natural state. Tarmac will supply machinery and gravel with WUF contributing other materials and environmental expertise.
The work will be part of WUF’s successful Lugg and River Arrow (LARA) Project, which is restoring biodiversity - species richness and variety - in rivers within 10 miles of Leominster.
Focussing on fish, the 3-year project is funded by the SITA Trust’s Enriching Nature Programme and is due to be completed this year. So far 11km of river habitat have been restored and two fish passes have been built.
Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith, Director of WUF said: “Work on this lower Lugg tributary offers the chance to re-create salmon and trout spawning sites at an important point in the Wye catchment.”
North east is tops for salmon!
The North East is being hailed as the nation’s salmon capital after figures showed the region to be home to the three most productive rivers for game anglers in England and Wales.
Despite once being two of the most polluted waterways in the country, the River Tyne and River Wear now fill the top two spots in the whole of England and Wales for the number of salmon caught per season by rod and line, with well over 6,000 fish banked in 2010. A third, lesser-known river in the region, the Coquet, came in third.
Andrew Flitcroft, editor of Trout and Salmon magazine, said: “The North East has been one huge success story for game fishermen over the past 20 years.”
For the full story, with a breakdown of the figures, see tomorrow's Angling Times.
Salmon comes within ounces of smashing 25 year old venue record
Ireland’s popular Delphi Fishery may not produce the numbers of salmon it did a decade ago but it is certainly home to some huge specimens as Mark Corps proved when he banked this 18lb 10oz fish.
The big salmon – which is the second biggest ever taken from the venue – was landed by Mark from the Turn Pool after it fell for a well presented Elaine Shrimp Fly during his latest visit.
The current venue record stands at 19lb 10oz and was landed by Nigel Saxby Soffe in 1986 from virtually the same spot and officials are confident this can be bettered in the coming months.
Kayakers 'ruining' salmon fishing on the River Tay
Rafters and kayakers are destroying once lucrative fishing beats on the River Tay, Scottish Salmon fishermen are claiming.
Since the 2003 Land Reform Act opened up access to many rivers, some anglers claim the river resembles a ‘highway’ for many months of the year.
To make matters worse, a byelaw proposal to restrict rafting in the area has recently been rejected by Perth and Kinross councillors, and some claim that many rods have chosen to fish elsewhere as a result, a trend that is impacting heavily on the local economy.
Les Dargie, who has fished the stretch between Aberfeldy and Grandtully for a number of years, told BBC Scotland: "There's no question at all that the fishing is affected adversely by this relentless commercial pressure on the resource.
If you come to fish you'll find that quite often if a lot of rafts have been through you won't catch fish. The result is that people tend to say away - people like me who could be paying into the local economy."
Cheap salmon fishing on Wye and Usk
Salmon anglers looking for a bit of extra value in their fishing over the next few months need look no further than the Wye and Usk Foundation, who are offering a range of cut price tickets over the coming months.
The conservation charity, which has a huge portfolio of waters under its control, is offering three days salmon fishing for the price of two on many of its beats, and three rods for the price of two on others.
For bookings and availability, log on to www.wyeuskfoundation.org, or call 01982 560788.
Salmon numbers soar in North East
The North East is being lauded as the salmon capital of England after official figures showed a surge in the numbers of fish in the region’s two largest rivers.
For several years, the Tyne has been the best river in England and Wales for rod catches of salmon. But last year the Wear nudged behind its neighbour as second-best waterway.
Last year saw the best-ever salmon rod catches in the area – 5,115 in the River Tyne and 1,531 in the River Wear.
And now record numbers of salmon have been counted after a new study in the River Tyne showed a threefold increase in the number of fish in the waterway over the first five months of 2011.
Full story in next week’s Angling Times, out Tuesday 5 July 2011.
Salmon numbers at 11-year high
Scientists from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Salmon & Trout research Centre on the River Frome in Dorset have just completed their 2010 salmon research report, which shows the highest increase of adult salmon since 1998, with more than 1000 fish returning to the river from the sea.
This is the 38th consecutive year that researchers have recorded data on upstream salmon migration in the river.
In the early 1990s there was a significant crash in salmon numbers in the North Atlantic and from an average of nearly 2000 fish per year the Frome numbers dropped to a low of just 500 fish.
The 2010 data is thus showing an encouraging upturn in the number of fish returning to the river. In addition, the count of emigrating salmon smolts also showed an increase, with 13,265 smolts were counted emigrating out to sea during April and May.
Salmon found in River Leven after 150-year absence
The first salmon for more than 150 years has been found in North Yorkshire’s River Leven.
Until 2007 it was not possible for salmon to spawn in the River Leven, which is a tributary of the River Tees, because of an impassable weir which was built during the industrial revolution.
In 2007 the Environment Agency built a new fish pass on the weir at Leven Bridge, between Ingelby Barwick and Thornaby, and the first spawned salmon since the 18th century has now been found there.
The salmon measured 18 centimetres and was about one year old - meaning that at least one pair of adult salmon had swum up the River Tees to spawn and used the new fish pass on the River Leven.
Local fishing club secretary, John Gifford, said:“We are very pleased to see this evidence of the good health of the river and grateful to the EA and Tees Rivers Trust for the work they are doing to ensure it continues to improve.”
As well as the salmon, very good numbers of brown trout were also recorded in the River Leven.
Massive Salmon from the Tay
One of the biggest salmon of the year has been banked on Scotland’s River Tay.
At 33lb 6oz the sea-liced fish came from the famous Cargill beat just north of Perth falling for Lincolnshire angler Hugo Greer’s boat-fished Tomic lure.
“It was a hell of a fight,” 73-year-old Hugo told go.fishing.co.uk
“It powered off to the other side of the river before jumping clean out of the water. I thought I’d lost it at that point, but 20 minutes later the ghillie and I were holding it for the cameras. It smashed my previous personal best salmon by over 20lb.”
Record year for salmon
A record amount of salmon were caught in Scotland last year… but the fish are getting smaller.
A major study of the species in Scotland has revealed 100,000 fish were landed – the most since records began in 1952.
The average grilse, young salmon which have been at sea for just one year before swimming back to their home rivers to spawn, are a third less heavy and have shrunk by nearly a tenth.
Scientists also say that there are a third less salmon in the Atlantic than 40 years ago and twice as many as previously are dying at sea before reaching their rivers, perhaps because of the reduced size.
The Scottish research, part of the most comprehensive international study of Atlantic salmon ever undertaken, will come as a disappointment to fishermen and conservationists.
Commercial fisheries in the salmon's feeding grounds off West Greenland and the Faroes has been stopped and anglers return their catch rather than taking it home to eat.
At first it appeared the measures were working with 100,000 salmon landed in Scotland last year, the most since records began in 1952.
But Professor Chris Todd, professor of marine ecology at St Andrews University, said it was not just the numbers of salmon that was a concern but their quality.
He said that by monitoring an unnamed major Scottish river for the past 17 years he had found that the weight of the average grilse had fallen from 5.3lbs (2.4kg) to 3.74lbs (1.7kg), and that its length had shortened from 23 to 21 inches (59 to 54cm).
"It is pretty dramatic and very worrying," he said. "The fat content in the fish has also declined by about 80 per cent. People may be catching lots of fish but the quality is comparatively poor compared to the historical record. Also larger fish tend to produce more eggs. We don't yet know about the effect on egg quality – skinny fish may produce poor quality fish. It could be a vicious circle with big impacts for the future of the species."
Huge 29lb salmon hooked on luncheon meat from the Hampshire Avon
“A fish beyond my wildest dreams” is how a delighted Paul Robinson described the incredible 29lb 1oz salmon he caught last week while barbel fishing on the Hampshire Avon.
The Surrey rod became the envy of game anglers nationwide when he landed the rare ‘springer’ from Christchurch’s Royalty Fishery
– his first encounter with the enigmatic species.
It intercepted a lump of luncheon meat which Paul was ‘rolling’ around a famous swim known as The Trammels, marking the start of an arm-aching 45-minute fight.
“As soon as I hit into the fish, it immediately tore upstream and I realised that it could only be a salmon. The fight was unlike anything I have experienced in terms of sheer power and strength – absolutely amazing,” said a still shell-shocked Paul.
“It made several incredibly powerful runs and for long periods stubbornly sat on the bottom – I couldn’t budge it. By the time the fish was eventually netted, I had developed a gallery of other anglers. The hen fish was in magnificent condition, a fresh springer that had travelled from the sea overnight.”
Following the epic battle, Paul was keen to ensure the safe return of a fish he admits to having been ‘honoured’ to catch.
“After such a drawn-out fight we couldn’t risk taking the fish out of the water for photos, so we jumped in to weigh, revive and return it. The photos don’t really capture its scale and size, but this is more than compensated for by the memories and the fact that this magnificent salmon survived to continue its journey upriver.”
“The fishery manager estimated that this magnificent fish would have run up the salmon ladder that night and would later in the year be laying her eggs in a local tributary, supporting the next generation of these creatures – a great thought early the next day as I fought my way up the London Tube network!” said Paul.
The magnitude of the catch was not lost on Nigel Gray, owner of Davis Tackle in Christchurch, which runs the Royalty fishing.
“The spring fish are few and far between, as rare as hen’s teeth in fact, and so to get one on meat is remarkable. Salmon do get caught on the bait – I’ve had three myself in recent years to 19lb – but most are grilse.
“Paul’s fish is the biggest for eight years – an unbelievable capture.”
