The Atlantic salmon is rightly called ‘the king of the fish’-to catch one over 15 lbs on the fly is indeed something you never forget .We all know that they are hatched in a fresh water stream, stay 1-6 years in fresh water as parr, migrate down stream as smolts and then stay 1-6 years at sea before returning to their river of birth to breed. If they return after one year at sea they are known as grilse-after two or more years they are salmon.
When they return to fresh water they do not feed and can stay in the river, for up to nine months before spawning .Why do they take our flies and lures?
for salmon and sea trout involves casting across the river and allowing the fly to travel in an arc in the current. The fly can then be retrieved at the end of the arc.
The great for salmon rivers are the Scottish Tweed, Tay, Dee and Spey, the Irish Moy and Blackwater and the English Tyne and Wye. The Welsh rivers such as the Teifi and Towy are also famous for for salmon and sea trout. There are many other smaller rivers which at the right water can give good sport. When this happens you have to drop everything and get to the waters edge before the conditions change! for salmon and sea trout can be very rewarding-even small ‘spate rivers’ can deliver double figure fish-if you are there at the right time when a run comes through. Obviously local knowledge of the smaller rivers in Scotland, Wales and Ireland is very valuable in order to obtain that crucial information that the fish are running!
Salmon flies are many and take various forms-from large metal tube flies for fishing early in the season in cold fast waters to much smaller, lighter ones for the summer grilse. Famous flies are the Ally Shrimp, the Munroe Killer, the Silver Stoat and the Practitioner. There are many more! Local fishermen and the resident ghillies are a wealth of information when for salmon and sea trout and can be very useful in advising the flies to use which will change depending on the time of the year and the temperature and height of the water.
for salmon in the Atlantic, takes place in the Kola peninsular of Russia, Scandinavia-especially Norway, UK and Ireland and on the other side of the Atlantic in Newfoundland and Canada.
There are 5 types of Pacific salmon which give excellent for salmon in Alaska and British Columbia-amazing fishing-an estimated 50 million salmon descend the rivers of Bristol Bay in Alaska alone. The biggest of these is the King salmon which go up to 60 lbs and the most numerous is probably the sockeye which goes up to 12 lbs. All Pacific salmon die after spawning unlike our Atlantic salmon which can survive to spawn again.
There are companies specialising in trips to far flung but amazing destinations-you must take at least one trip before you die.
Finding salmon fishing in the UK is also handled by specialist companies but you can find fishing on the websites of the ‘big four’-Fishtweed, Fishtay, Fishspey and Fishdee.
We are planning a ‘lastminuterod’ feature which will be a fee service to fishery owners which we hope will attract owners of smaller rivers as well as the larger ones-so keep visiting us!
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