Salmon Catch & Release2022

Recent research has shown that almost all fish will survive if they are treated properly, according to a simple set of rules.

Three anglers fished Bywell beat, River Tyne on the last 2 days of the season in search of Atlantic Salmon with Professor Ken Whelan from the Atlantic Salmon Trust. Despite almost mid-summer conditions, our volunteer anglers provided us with two magnificent seventeen pound cock fish and a beautiful, silver 5 pounder. Fittingly the first 17lb fish fell to 19 year old Jess England, the youngest of our anglers and the second brute was caught by 77 year old Tom Robinson

Survival rates for salmon are greatly increased if proper angling techniques and equipment is used, and practices for catching, handling and releasing fish are adopted.

The Gift has been filmed in 3 parts:

Part One: Tackle

Part Two: Planning The River

Part Three: Catch And Release

FishPal Anne Woodcock

Professor Ken Whelan

Presenter Andy Ford
Camera man Laurence Weaver

Our anglers:
Jess England
Tom Robinson
Tom Leslie

Photographs of anglers with fish:
Mark Lloyd
Anne Woodcock
Sam Mutters

Special thanks to the Atlantic Salmon Trust, Angling Trust and FishPal. Mackenzie Fly Fishing. Partridge of Redditch. Caledonia Fly Company.

To find out more information about salmon fishing in the UK please contact FishPal

Telephone [phone]

Our offices are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

Filmed on location on Bywell Beat, River Tyne and the Hexham FishPass

[jonatherton]

I fished for salmon in Scotland for a while but tangled with very few so my experience in fighting these fish is minimal. But now fishing for (and catching) large steelhead in the USA, I've noted a real difference in the techniques in playing the fish; particularly the practice of adding alternate side strain, with the rod held at different angles, rather than the uniform high rod you see in this video. It seems that the fight may be prolonged quite a bit by the inert stand-off where the rod is simply held static and high, letting the fish tire itself rather than using the rod and angler technique to do so. Just an observation. Good film. I enjoyed it.

[richardwhitaker]

The video is a great help. Key messages are : Water temperature above 18C is much harder on fish as oxygen levels are getting too low Play fish hard and fast to minimize blood oxygen and fish energy loss Tail with a bare hand, gloves tend to rip off scales and expose fish to infection Fish fresh in the river are much more vulnerable to scale loss Those longer in the river seem tougher and acclimatized. I find it hard to understand why it has taken so long to make this move especially given that catch and release is the rule of the day with coarse fish.
Above and beyond this the level of over enrichment of UK rivers is appalling. There is so much algal growth in so many rivers that regular aquatic plants are unable to grow. This was comparatively rare in my youth even though there was a massive effort to grow more food for the War and post War effort. The other harsh problem is net pen rearing of salmon. It's the same thing here, a very difficult issue given our rural employment problems in this province. I have been involved in salmon enhancement and introduction into new rivers. Policy here is to release swim up fry into shallow water. They are less vulnerable to predation and will fixate on these areas when they return. Releasing incompetent over fed, unfit smolts is unproductive. Dick Whitaker Newfoundland and Labrador Canada

[skunkhead]

not impressed at the way the fish is the net for so at very best, my fish are back in the drink and well gone by now

[berniethompson]

fishpal trying to improve their own catch rate by trying to get us to catch the same fish again an again and charging for it.