Anybody fishing lately??

I was out on our opening day last Wednesday and had 3 "kelts" in 6h. One i could have sworn was a Springer as it headed straight for the fast water but it turned out to be a very well mended kelt of some 20lbs. Two other pulls or "poos" but no connection..
.
 

Attachments

  • 20210126_142057.webp
    20210126_142057.webp
    125.1 KB · Views: 8
I was out on our opening day last Wednesday and had 3 "kelts" in 6h. One i could have sworn was a Springer as it headed straight for the fast water but it turned out to be a very well mended kelt of some 20lbs. Two other pulls or "poos" but no connection..
.
Would have been a good fish when fresh, even better had it been an early MSW fish. Fingers crossed for a good season, I have not fished for Salmon for a good ten years now, numbers just dropped right away. But if this season shows a marked improvement, then the old Copper Darts will be wetted. 👍
 
Has there been much of a drop in salmon numbers in the UK mainland? There was supposed to be numbers dropped here in NI but I can't vouce for that as I have never tried targeting them.
 
The local Fisheries Board does two counts annually that involves about 30 volunteers starting at the source to the junction at a set time. Walking downstream they count any birds or otherwise harmful to piscatorious life.... On the river that is some 16 miles a count of over 1,000 is the tally in winter and summer. Mergansers, cormorants, goosander, seals, dolphins, porpoise, otters.... the salmon and trout really are up against it.
 
Nothing planned at the moment, Hopefully later in the year we will get down to East Devon on holiday and I'll be having a few nice evenings lure fishing for the bass.
 
Has there been much of a drop in salmon numbers in the UK mainland? There was supposed to be numbers dropped here in NI but I can't vouce for that as I have never tried targeting them.
Yes, the last 30 years has seen a marked decline, but I believe some of the northern rivers are showing decent numbers. Fingers crossed mate, I loved my Salmon fishing.
 
Has there been much of a drop in salmon numbers in the UK mainland? There was supposed to be numbers dropped here in NI but I can't vouce for that as I have never tried targeting them.

I don't fish in NI at all but do fish in the Outer Hebrides. May of the older anglers were telling me about the "good old days" which in this context would have been the 1980s I guess. They were reporting how much better the catching was then. Recently I looked up the catch stats only to find that many of the places I fish are catching maybe 3 times the number of fish they produced in the 1980s. What would be considered our premier fishery has records going back to the 1880s and their rod catch has declined about 2% since then.

However, I don't dispute that the numbers of fish returning have declined in that the fishery I mentioned previously used to net about 14,000 fish per season on top of their rod catch and this appeared to be sustainable as they'd been doing it for 100 years but now there is no netting so the rod catch represents their total. I don't know exactly how to interpret that as without a counter on the river we just don't know how many fish are actually running, or what the trend is.

If you want some fishing videos then take a look at my youtube channel - most stalking happens at a distance and in the near dark so it doesn't make for good video but I've done a few GoPro type videos of fishing over the last few years and they might brighten up a few winter days for you before the season opens again:

 
My dad used to kick me out of bed and an hour or two produced 3-4 15lbs+ runners to a Tiger Toby. 1970's.
 
I don't fish in NI at all but do fish in the Outer Hebrides. May of the older anglers were telling me about the "good old days" which in this context would have been the 1980s I guess. They were reporting how much better the catching was then. Recently I looked up the catch stats only to find that many of the places I fish are catching maybe 3 times the number of fish they produced in the 1980s. What would be considered our premier fishery has records going back to the 1880s and their rod catch has declined about 2% since then.

However, I don't dispute that the numbers of fish returning have declined in that the fishery I mentioned previously used to net about 14,000 fish per season on top of their rod catch and this appeared to be sustainable as they'd been doing it for 100 years but now there is no netting so the rod catch represents their total. I don't know exactly how to interpret that as without a counter on the river we just don't know how many fish are actually running, or what the trend is.

If you want some fishing videos then take a look at my youtube channel - most stalking happens at a distance and in the near dark so it doesn't make for good video but I've done a few GoPro type videos of fishing over the last few years and they might brighten up a few winter days for you before the season opens again:


Thank you some good videos up there!
 
Was supposed to be the opening day of our local river today........ laughingly called spring fishing....... I think a delay of a few weeks may be an idea, maybe start late March or April. River looks low and a bit too much grue at the moment - even down to the sea....DSC01826.webpDSC01827.webp
 
Back
Top