Current Status of the Atlantic Salmon in the UK

Generally, there was drought to the end of April, then much-needed rains gave great fishing, but drought conditions re-emerged in July and concern that grilse runs were very late. Tagging studies indicated high survival of the spring salmon of the Tyne and Eden Rivers in Northern England.

By the end of May, angler catches on the Hampshire Avon in Southern England were just shy of 100 salmon, some weighing more than 25 lbs, compared to a total catch of 123 in 2002.

The rivers of Wales had good spring fishing . . . the best for several years on the Wye and Usk. The Tyne in the North East and the Eden in the North West had good catches too.

Electronic traps and counters, operated by the Environment Agency across England and Wales, confirmed the report from anglers of good spring fishing on the River Wye, where spring counts were up 88%. The River Kent in North West England, and the Fowey and Tamar in South West England, also had good increases. In contrast though, salmon numbers on the Dee in Northern Wales dropped 38% and the Tyne and Wear in Northeast England dropped 15 and 10% respectively, in comparison to the previous 5-year mean.

Despite some of this very good news, Rob Evans of the Environment Agency cautions that populations of spring salmon remain at historically low levels and complacency should not set in.

It was a dry season in Ireland as well, with grilse runs late. An exception was the Burrishoole fishery in county Mayo which was experiencing a strong run of grilse in July, although the fish didn't seem willing to come to the fly.

By mid-July, Atlantic Salmon Trust biologist, John Webb, reported that Scotland was waiting for rain to bring in the good numbers of grilse that were beginning to appear off the coast. Scottish rivers suffered from lack of snowmelt and prolonged drought in March and April. Early multi-sea-winter (MSW) salmon, especially 3 sea-winter, were in short supply. Many MSW salmon of the North Esk and Findhorn died of extensive infections and Scottish Office researchers are trying to find the cause.