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Atlantic salmon
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| Female salmon leaping falls |
Scotland
has great Atlantic salmon fishing. Famous rivers, Spey, Tay, Dee, Tweed,
Helmsdale, Nith and more. The hundreds of rivers and burns in Scotland
are home to many, many thousands of salmon, some of which swim a long
way into the mountains to reach their home pools to spawn and start
another cycle of their amazing life story. The young salmon grow in
our clean waters for a few years before starting their epic journeys
to the salt water feeding grounds via the North Sea and the Atlantic
Ocean. Some of them reach the Davis Straight on the west coast of
Greenland
before heading home again, a distance of 6000 miles as the crow flies!
On their return they battle their way past nets, killer whales, dolphins
and the thousands of seals that prey upon them around the coasts. The
survivors, a small percentage of those that hatched in our rivers
return
home safely to reproduce and provide thrilling sport for the angler
fortunate enough to encounter them. Scottish
salmon fishing seasons for various river systems.
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| Ally returns a grilse |
Scotland offers salmon angling of all types, from harling or trolling
on the mighty rivers and lochs to intimate single handed fly
fishing on one of the smaller streams where a trout rod is sufficient
to tempt the king of fish. Salmon fishing is available somewhere in
Scotland from 11 January until 30 November although some rivers do not
open until February and some close on 30 September. It is said that
runs of salmon may arrive in our largest river the Tay on any day of
the year but of course there are peak times for sport-fishing. Spring
salmon are the earliest running multi sea winter fish. In most rivers
the main runs start to arrive in March. On the Tay they can arrive much
earlier but generally the numbers are fairly low until then. April and
May are the hot times for spring salmon. These fish can be large, most
years specimens of thirty or more pounds will be encountered on the
larger rivers. In general the two sea winter class of salmon in early
spring weigh between 7 and 12 pounds and the three sea-winter fish can
be double those weights. By June the first of the grilse or one sea-winter
arrive and continue to run from then until the end of the season, their
weight increasing with each passing month. Large multi sea-winter fish
are interspersed with the grilse to add spice to the sport. By autumn
some of these fish can be veritable monsters.
Next page - salmon fly fishing |
