atlantic salmon,bigsalmon, salmon fishing and fly-fishing for salmon

Atlantic Salmon

Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar are anandromous, in that they hatch and develop in freshwater and migrate to sea as smolts, returning, as mature silvery salmon, to spawn. Unlike Pacific salmon that all die after spawning, approximately 5-10% of atlantic salmon return to the sea as kelts, an return , in subsequent years, as multi- sea winter salmon.

Salmon vary in size from small grilse, as little as 3lbs, which return after one year, ( 1 SW ) to large multi sea winter fish ( MSW), of up to 70lbs. Generally the largest rivers, have the biggest salmon, and these are found in Norway, Russia, Scotland and Newfoundland. The largest UK rod caught salmon was by Georgina Ballantyne in the River Tay weighing 64lbs. The largest ocean rod caught was 74 pounds 2 oz from a Norwegian fjord off the Tana River in Norway. Both were caught with bait. The unofficial North American fly fishing record is 72 pounds caught in New Brunswick in 1992, but larger fish are rumoured. There are many recorded netted salmon between 80 and 100+ pounds from Russia from 1850 to 1920. Today, as was always the case, salmon over 40 pounds are extremely rare and are either 3SW repeat spawners or the extremely rare 4SW repeat spawners as even Atlantic salmon rarely spawn more than 4 times.

Distribution

Atlantic salmon are found on both sides of the northern Atlantic, extending as far south as Portugal and up to the Barring sea, to the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Atlantic salmon from both Europe and North America, migrate up the South Western Coast of Greenland, called the Davis straits, where they feed on a diet of crustaceans and fish. Salmon from the Baltic are thought to migrate under the artic ice shelf and are therefore less prone to human exploitation.

Salmon return either as grilse or MSW salmon, by remarkable navigation to their spawning river and most often to the exact spawning beds they were born in from Febuary to November, where their appearances change with the male’s development of a heavy ‘kyped’ lower jaw, with both sexes (yikes...males only) displaying, a red ‘tartan’ colour. The males also get a characteristic "dog like" snout for an upper jaw and head profile and can be identified from a great distance away even while briefly breaching the water surface. The females turn a characteristic mottled blackish colour.

Spawning normally occurs from November –December . Approx 600 eggs per Kilo of fish are laid in the redds, which are small hollows in the gravel bed of rivers which are then fertilized by the male sperm or milt. The larger a salmon is the fewer but larger eggs it lays per pound. Due to a surface area to volume ratio constraint, the larger a salmon is the more eggs per pound it should lay; but the eggs are so much bigger in a 2SW or 3SW salmon compared to a 1SW repeat spawner in most river systems, that this is more than compensated for. The eggs hatch in the spring as Alvelins , which digest their own yolk sac, until they develop markings on their sides, and are called parr. Salmon after a year or longer, develop the silver sea-going appearance and are called smolts.

The mature salmon often return the the exact branch in a river system they were born in and most often the exact gravel bed they were layed in as an egg. Hence why it is important to not have too much parr mortality on one section of river or gravel bed area by anglers failing to release parr succesfully or by natural predation in any one section of river.These then leave the rivers in the spring as a passive migration being forced tail first down stream by the strength of the spring and early summer floods while feeding in the center of a river during late evening. They swim in shoals to return to the Davis straights and other northern seas . Perhaps only 5-10% of alvins return as salmon.

History of Salmon

Prolifc salmon have been quoted in the Doomsday book. An Elizabethan poet, Edmund Spencer described the Thames as…’ Silver-streaming thames’… It was at this time that the apprentice contract in England, dictated that they, should ‘ be not oblige to dine on salmon’ more than two or three times a week. Perhaps this was partial because they were preserved in salt, and might be rancid; but their abundance was undisputed. The decline in salmon started in the 1800’s, with the growth of industrialisation and with it damming and pollution.

Charles Dickens wrote on the 20 th July 1861 ‘ The salmon are in danger. A few years, a little more over-population, a few more tons of factory poisons, a few fresh poaching devices …. And the salmon will be gone- he will become extinct. Alarm it maybe but it did initiate the Parliamentary act of 1861.

Salmon numbers have been declining since and this was compounded by the discovery of the breeding grounds in the 1950’s in the Davies Straits. Pollution, over fishing and drift net fishing have all had their toll until now the Atlantic Salmon has been classified as an endangered species, and stocks have declined except in Iceland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

On Going threats to Salmon.

Salmon have many predators, from their natural predators of fish, seals and cormorants. The latter feeding on developing salmon in the rivers. This is recently being addressed in the UK with a planned controlled cull of cormorants.

The majority of salmon hazards are man-induced. Drift-nets were perhaps the most destructive,hazzard to returning salmon. These used to run for miles around the Irish waters catching thousands of salmon destined for all the West coast rivers including Ireland. On 1st November 2006 this practice ceased due to the hard work of Noel Dempsey the mininster for Communications, Marine and Natural resources, the North Atlantic Salmon Fund and NASCO. It s estimated there should be 68,000 additional returning salmon after this ban.

Another threat is the increasing pelagic fishing, where sand-eels are hovered up for processing. This kills many smolts but also destroy an essential food supply for the developing salmon. At the river mouths particularly in Scotland intensive salmon farming, pollutes the river mouths and produces a plethora of fish lice that infest and kill the migrating smolts as they leave their home rivers.

Over the last two decades many organisation are try to save the Atlantic Salmon. Most notably the Atlantic Salmon Fund chaired by Orri Vigfusson an Icelandic Millionaire has campaigned tirelessly to buy out the Greenland drift nets.

Recommended Salmon Conservation organisations