The Great Salmon Run of September 2002

I had decided that not only I but everyone else, was getting decidedly bored with my big fish. Although the family were still eating it they had heard enough and felt the same. However there were pressures to get it all written down, even though there was already a piece that I had written some time earlier describing the taking of a fresh run fish.

I have also decided that if we are to get more members of the club catching salmon I must make it clear that it is not all that difficult. In fact given a bit of luck and the basic information that I can pass on, it is really quite easy. It is far easier than catching a trout on a fly in anything less than perfect conditions.

First I should tell how I started catching salmon on worms. In the 1970's we had the local policeman as a member of the club. Phil Nuttall was a very good fisherman indeed. His main interest was match-fishing and he was part of the police team. He looked on fishing with me on Tedney water as good match practice.

If you fish our water for long you do get the impression that a lot of salmon are going through. (In those days nobody was doing anything about trying to take one.) Then Phil found one or two very elderly men in the bars of local pubs, (where his policing sometimes took him). In their young days those elderly fishermen had caught salmon on worms. Until they were of an age to work at about ten years, they were sent out to try for a big fish. They became very successful. A good salmon, fresh run and caught that day, fetched a price that helped the family's finances in difficult times over the turn of the century. On being plied with pints of beer they were quite ready to tell us how they did it.

The first thing we learnt was where the salmon lies were. Of course the river has changed since then but those lies which are defined by rock formation are still there, and the salmon still lie in them. At present time the Rocky Ford is the best, but there are others. If you see a fish, and particularly if it shows more than once , then it is likely to have a lie somewhere near.

Of course there were difficulties. These old men tended to identify locations on the river by obvious physical things such as trees, hedges, and ditches, most of which had changed over the years. However, there were places that will always be there, such as the natural weir at the top end of the water, and the sharp turn left by Temeside Cottage.

The one thing that all of our informants stressed very heartily was the need for the 'gentlemen' to unlearn all the skills of fly fishing for trout and grayling of which they were, and still are, so proud. "You must forget the swift strike."

"If there is any striking to be done," they all said, "it will be done by the fish, in order to get the hook well set."

You must identify a lie, get a good idea that it may be occupied, then drift a good bunch of worms past where you think its nose probably is. When your worms , o.n drifting slowly downstream, stop for no apparent reason, then you may be in business. Just wait and usually you get an indication if the drifting worms have been stopped by an interested fish. Sometimes the whole thing happens so quickly that you will not have time to think out what to do next. On other occasions you can tell, or think you can, that the fish is just quietly sucking at them. Whichever of the two extremes is happening, with luck the fish will take them in and move them down its mouth, chomping away at them as they go. When the fish is tired of them it tries to expel the hook and mangled worms out over the gills and through the gill entrance. This fails because the worming hook is

too large for that manoeuvre. The fish then reacts by giving a fierce pull which also fails, but by that time the hook should be firmly set in the bony bits around the gills. Then the fun really starts.

When the fish feels the hook and can't eject it through the gill covers it usually leaps. When that happens and does not un-stick the hook you can be fairly confident that you have it on. Depending on the size and condition of the fish you have a period in which to play and wear out the fish until it is sufficiently tired to be directed into the net.

In fact my big fish last year was taken on a spinner, a Mepps No.4 fished upstream into the main current. It took on the second cast from where the strDng run began. The first cast was slightly too far to the left so I cast again and the fish took about half way down. It was a ferocious take but I was ready. It immediately rushed up to the rocks at the start of the run, did a rise more than a leap, then dashed down past me into the big pool at the bottom end of the run. There it leaped right out of the water so that I could see that I had on a large fish that appeared to be the colour of a very fresh run specimen.

For the next hour I concentrated on letting it tire itself by circling, with the occasional longer run, doing a splash now and then on the surface. My concern was as much for my own condition as for the antics of the fish. My legs do not allow me to stand upright for long without some support. I had my stick handy and I was standing near some small trees that were available for grabbing as additional stability. The ground on which I was standing was firm, but wet. It could have been much worse. On two occasions I actually fell right over but each time I was near enough to the trees to use my free hand to haul myself upright. Each time when I got settled again I knew I was getting more and more shaky and wondered how on earth I could get it into the net. Each time I tried to bring it nearer to me it stayed as firm as a rock and I could make no

progress. I knew I had no hope unless someone else held the net while I used both hands for the fish. All this time, of course, I had to have thought for the degree of bend in the rod, the tension on the line, and trying to dissuade the fish from going too close to the bank.

By great good fortune John Walker saw my car by the river and came to see if I was all right. This meant that my worst fears were over with two extra hands available. Quite soon after his arrival I began to get some movement and we were soon manoeuvring the net and fish to try and get it to swim in head first. We had three attempts all of which ended with the fish balanced across the top of the net so that it fell out and not in.

Finally, by getting the fish to circle the pool quite fast it did go straight in and John had it on the bank in a flash. I immediately cut the line so that he could run with the fish to where my car was parked by the track.

By the time I had worked my way to the scene where the huge fish lay on the grass and John stood, finding it difficult to believe that such a large and beautiful creature should live in the comparatively small bit of water. We eventually took it to the farm and weighed it on the sheep scales.

It was not the biggest fish I have ever caught, but far the strongest, and I think the luckiest bit of fishing. Quite apart from my age and physical condition, it was taken on a line of ten pound breaking strain. It was by no means a new line and was American manufactured Trilene. Naturally a firm whose products I now recommend. The lure was a Mepps No.4 which has three large hooks and the colour was red and yellow. The other three salmon I took from that run were taken on worms threaded on a mustard worming hook of stainless steel, size No.1

I do hope that this story and the information and photograph provided will persuade some other members to join me in taking a few of the fish that swim through the water for which we pay a rent.