River Wye on form for big salmon

THE River Wye has produced one of the best catches of salmon in recent memory with four huge specimens over the 30lb mark being netted along with numerous fish over 25lb.

The biggest of the bunch weighed 33lb and was banked by Mike Pritchard while fishing with experienced ghillie Lyndon Cobley on the Ingestone beat near Ross-on-Wye.

Lyndon’s son Joe, who’s also a ghillie, was fishing on the same day at Wyesham, Monmouth, and helped his client Barry Odger, from Essex (pictured) bank a 30lb specimen.

The catches are the result of over a decade of projects by the Wye and Usk Foundation to restore salmon runs on the waterway.

“Ten years ago just three fish were caught in March and April and the season’s lowest ever total of 357 included very few large fish,” said the foundation’s director, Stephen Marsh-Smith.

“Now, over 1,300 fish are being caught in a season and these latest catches prove that the river is returning to its former glory.”