The Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management (DN) has introduced new salmon netting regulations to take effect from 1 June and only for the 2008 season. They have delayed the start of netting from between two to four weeks. Too little-too late?

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Fresh back from the 2008 Tweed Angling Fair in Kelso with a handful of photos to share.

The weather was kind overall although a strong upstream wind on Sunday did not help the annual Spey Casting Competition. Check inside for a selection of images form the weekend.

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The Faroes recently hosted the Transatlantic Climate Conference  2008  where keynote speakers included Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore who spoke about global warming and Goldman Prize winner Orri Vigfusson of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund who spoke about Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in the North Atlantic.  

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Salmon are gradually returning to Yorkshire’s rivers, especially the Ouse, following the improvements in water quality over the past years, and where the salmon go the anglers follow.
Now Yorkshire anglers who are used to the close season dates for coarse fishing are being reminded that the salmon close season is very different.

Schoolchildren at Kettlewell Primary School in North Yorkshire are getting a first hand experience of wildlife, as part of the Environment Agency’s Trout in the Classroom project.

The River Axe will receive a welcome boost, this week, when the Environment Agency releases thousands of young salmon into its clear waters.

The re-stocking is part of an ongoing programme to improve salmon numbers on the Axe and follows the successful completion, last year, of a new fish pass at Wilmington Weir near Axminster.

Members of the public and anglers are being invited to act as an “early warning system” to help protect the River Tyne and it’s tributaries from pollution. The Tyne Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency are looking for volunteers to collect information about the invertebrate life in their local streams and rivers.

The Russian Government has joined forces with the NASF Salmon Coalition in warning the Norwegian authorities that they need to change their current wild Atlantic salmon policies..

There is no shortage of causes for the decline of salmon in Norway. All along the Norwegian coastline genuine wild salmon stocks are declining or disappearing from more and more rivers. The Norwegian authorities have failed in their duty to take adequate measures to restore the country’s salmon rivers during the last two decades.

The North Atlantic Salmon Fund writes an open letter to the Government of Norway.

The first salmon of the season on Tweed was caught on February the 5th at 4.00pm; it was caught by Lee Craig, ghillie from Carham. Lee was fishing on the Carham beat when the 13lbs hen fish was caught from the Long Stream pool.

It takes an average of 1,000 casts to catch one winter steelhead. Here's how to cut that down to 162 casts!

This article from South Oregon's Mail Tribune was passed along by Randy Kadish.

AS the start of the new salmon fishing season approaches on 1 February fisheries experts are asking anglers to go online and tell them about the main issues affecting salmon in Northumberland and County Durham rivers.
Make sure to copy or bookmark the web address inside so you can send your own details if you fish in this area.

Two distinguished European salmon conservationists have been presented with the Order of the Falcon by the President of Iceland in Reykjavik . They are Noel Carr, who lives in County Donegal, Ireland, and Marc-Adrien Marcellier, the French director of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.

Bainbridge Island, Washington - The threat of a massive hard rock and open pit mining district in Bristol Bay has sparked three of the most recognizable names in fly fishing to come together for a fundraiser for Trout Unlimited Alaska.

A Canadian mining corporation wants to create one of North America's largest open-pit gold-copper mines within a much larger potential mining district in the headwaters of Bristol Bay.  At the core of Pebble Mine complex, covering some 15 square miles, would be an open pit measuring approximately two miles long, a mile and half wide and 1,700 feet deep.  Over its lifetime, it will produce 2.5 BILLION TONS of waste.