Severn salmon at 22lb

David Lister found himself with a fight on his hands when he latched into this 22lb salmon on the River Severn.

It led him a merry dance for 25 minutes and surged off on four 60-70 yard runs, before he eventually got the better of it using 10lb line. The 40-year-old from Newtown, Wales, fished a 10gr Mepps Fly and Sea spinner, cast to a deep channel on the far side of the river. Incredibly it’s not the biggest salmon he has had from the Severn – he banked a 34lb fish last year but kept it quiet!

“You never quite know what you’ll hook down here and the cast before this I had a 5lb chub. When I hooked this fish I had to jump into the river because there was a tree 50 yards down the bank which the line could have got tangled in. It kept deep and I couldn’t see what I was dealing with but then it jumped and I saw how big it was,” he said.