The monster salmon who got away.
This was an article in the press today written by Arnot McWhinnie.
He was the monster salmon who got away, having evaded oceanic and coastal nets, and voracious predators such as killer whales, dolphins, and seals.
At last after an epic journey from the North Atlantic deeps off Greenland the mighty 35 pounder nosed up Scotland’s River Tay where he was born.
A few days later he was tempted to snap at something bright and yellow fluttering in the river. It was an angler’s lure.
Twenty minutes later and completely exhausted the king of fish, one of the biggest spring run salmon caught on the Tay for years, found himself thrashing in the angler’s net.
But the story of this mighty fish’s journey back to his breeding grounds did not end in tragedy.
He might have finished up as a trophy in a glass case, but in common with most of the “springers” caught by River Tay anglers, voluntary conservation rules resulted in him being gently unhooked and returned to the river.
The salmon’s captor, ghillie Bob White, 51, from Stanley, Perthshire, said later: “It was a privilege to have landed such a wonderful fish. I’ve caught more than 2000 in my life and he was my biggest ever.
“He put up a tremendous fight and at one point ran to the other side of the river which was quite wide at that point.”
After the huge fish was weighed in a special net and photographed, Bob carefully nurtured it back to strength, rocking it back and forward in the river to pump oxygen through his gills.
Said Bob, a member of the Tay District Salmon Board, a statutory body responsible for conserving stocks: “It gave a couple of flicks of its tail and swam back into the river, hopefully to survive till spawning time.
“It is vitally important that fish like this are not killed so that the genes which help them to grow to that size will be passed on to their progeny.
“The last few years have seen the return of bigger and bigger salmon which the Tay was once famous for which is a wonderful thing for the river and augurs well for the future.”
The British record rod caught salmon, a 64 pounder, was landed by Miss Georgina Ballantyne from the River Tay in 1922.
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1 comment:
Great fish! now for the 40lber!
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