Salmon Fishing Scotland January 2009 Spring Salmon or Not.

Salmon Fishing Scotland January 2009 Spring Salmon or Not.





Salmon Fishing Scotland January 2009 Springer or not.


Following the start of the 2009 Salmon season on the river Tay I thought I would post this again. I have been talking about catching Baggots, Rawners, Kelts and also the elusive Springer so this should give you some ideas about these different types of Salmon and help you identify them.

There is no doubt this is a very emotive subject at this time of year.
The salmon runs on the Tay have changed over the last decade as probably on the other big rivers such as the Dee, Spey and Tweed. On the Tay the main spring run starts well into March, the Grilse run is now the end of July/August and there is fresh run fish way into November. I know from listening to the news the general seasons are up in the air with global warming etc. I am sure the salmon do not know whether they are coming or going!
There is no doubt quite a few claimed springers are not the genuine article when you see the pictures. The philosophy of "if it has sea lice there is no doubt" just does not ring true i'm afaid.





This is a salmon I caught some years ago thinking it was a springer to be told by a far more experienced angler that it was a rawner or late autumn runner.This fish was caught in early February and as you can see from the picture had sea lice on it. Being an experienced salmon angler I am still willing to learn as I did on that occasion and I feel I still can learn off others as you never know it all.
Having spoken to a lot more experienced anglers and ghillies a true springer that is a Two Sea Winter salmon has hardly any kype to distinguish it from a female salmon. In fact at this time of year you could hardly tell the difference between the sexes of spring salmon. There is no doubt a kype indicates breeding intentions and spawning. The fish with kypes are very late autumn fish.


This however may not be the case in Three Sea Winter or older male salmon which will have a small Kype development but not a large Kype such as an Autumn male. There hopefully will be a run of larger Spring salmon on the Tay this season as happened last year which will be three sea winter fish. This is good news for the Tay as in recent seasons these fish have been missing. In fact this year we are hoping that a 40 pounder will be landed. They are extremely valuable to the system and every effort should be made to conserve them by returning them to the system for the future.


Examples of these fish were the 25lbs springer at Cargill and the 24lbs fish at Newtyle caught in early season last year.



The Cargil 25lbs Springer.

The Newtyle 24lbs Springer.

Jim Fishers springer from the Tweed last Spring.

Lastly a big springer from Russia which demonstrates the small Kype in large multi sea winter salmon.
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