Salmon Season 2019 " End of Season ".

The sun sets on the 2019 Salmon Fishing Season.

It was a strange year once again with the salmon run being very sporadic , there were bursts of fish coming through then nothing for weeks. The water levels were maintained extremely low and it was hard fishing to say the least trying to find the balance of moving water and holding fish. Most of the season the salmon held back below the outflow pipe above beat 2 and in beat 4 because of the deeper water. The rocks at beat 1 were off putting and salmon were holding above them or further up by the dam. Thankfully the rocks have been covered and there is a better flow now but there are still two large boulders to be removed and then it should be back to normal. Salmon sizes were smaller than previous years with my biggest salmon just under 14 lbs and the rest under 8 lbs. There were quite a few fish between the 3 to 6 lbs bracket and some lean fish as well. Due to the low water the only successful technique was fishing with a tapered leader or intermediate tip and stripping line to get some movement in the fly, also very small shrimp flies in sizes 12 or 15.
All my salmon were released and it was good to see most anglers doing the same, sadly there are a few anglers that could do with a lesson on how to release a fish and not to take the dark or very coloured fish. Hopefully things will improve for next season and until then tight lines.