The Absolute Fresh Springer

When you can see the sea lice hanging on a salmon that is the absolute sign that the salmon is fresh in from the salt water and just in the river in the last few hours and if they are long tail sea lice less than an hour or so. When there were good runs of salmon on the Lee river we used to catch them with long tail sea lice on them and their scales would fall off in your hands they were so fresh. As the salmon acclimatize to the fresh water their scales become more rigid and tighten up thus stopping them from rubbing off and the sea lice would normally fall off in twenty four hours or so.