Tay anglers celebrate the strongest run of large spring salmon for a generation

publication date: May 20, 2008

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author/source: Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board

Fishing beats on the River Tay have recorded a remarkable increase in the number of big salmon in catches during the first four months of the season. Many more fish weighing between 16 lb and 33 lb have been encountered than has been the case for at least 20 years. Up until the end of April over 225 fish in this class were caught – representing approximately 25 per cent of the total catch. In recent years typically just 5 per cent of the spring catch would be in this category. Fish landed have included six over 30 lb and a further 11 over 25 lb.

Traditionally the Tay was renowned as a heavy salmon river with a strong run of fish which have spent three winters at sea before returning to freshwater. However over the last two decades smaller salmon (generally in the 7 lb to 10 lb class), which have spent two winters at sea and thus gained less weight, have dominated the river’s spring runs. Of this year’s catches the great majority (some 90 per cent) have been released back into the water in line with the Tay Board’s new Conservation Policy.

John Milligan, chairman of the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board, commented: “It is most heartening to see fish of this calibre coming back to the Tay in good numbers, giving so many anglers the opportunity to catch what is very much the ‘fish of a lifetime’. These salmon are in really superb condition – as good as one could ever expect, very deep as well as long”.

Mr Milligan continued: “It is also particularly encouraging that most anglers have whole-heartedly embraced the Tay Board’s new conservation recommendations, by practising catch and release, thus allowing fish to continue on their upstream migration to spawn. We are most grateful to them and indeed to the Tay gillies, who are tremendous ambassadors for the cause of fish conservation. They have played an invaluable role in promoting a new ethic of conservation on the Tay”.

Fishery managers have no simple explanation for this year’s resurgence of big Tay salmon. Tay Board director Dr David Summers said: “It is very much conjecture but it would seem that many of the young Tay salmon that went to sea in 2005 have spent an additional year in the north Atlantic. It is possible that this has been triggered by a scarcity of prey species in the ocean feeding grounds during 2005 and 2006. Indeed this theory ties with the fact that the fish that actually returned to the Tay in 2006 after one winter at sea were often under-nourished and in poor condition”.