Whether smoked, grilled, or baked, salmon is an incredibly popular, highly nutritious fish that is incorporated in an array of different dishes. High in omega-3 fatty acids, which are integral to maintaining good cardiovascular health, salmon is a valuable source of nutrition.
Among anglers, the most popular species of salmon include Atlantic, Chinook, Coho, Pink, and Sockeye salmon. All are migratory, the fish renowned for their incredible migration journeys, traveling from the open ocean and battling their way upstream to reach a freshwater spawning ground.
As salmon cross from saltwater to freshwater, their coloring changes from silver to a vibrant pink or red hue. It is largely due to the creature’s incredible sense of smell that salmon are able to find their way back to their birthplace to spawn. Salmon are known for leaping out of the water, reaching huge heights to overcome obstacles in their way, sometimes jumping more than 7 feet in the air. Once they reach their destination, female specimens lay thousands of eggs in nests constructed in riverbeds known as “redds.” These eggs, or “roe” as they are otherwise known, are highly prized in many cuisines, and are used as caviar, featuring in many sushi dishes.
Popular sport fish
Throughout their lifetime, salmon go through several developmental stages, transforming from eggs to alevins to fry, then smolt before reaching adulthood. Among anglers, they are known for their agility and acrobatic fights, making them a popular sport fish.
Scotland is renowned for its salmon fisheries, presenting exciting and enchanting experiences for anglers. With its rolling hills, stunning landscapes, and crystal-clear waters, it is the ideal destination for salmon fishing, providing visiting fly-fishers with a unique and unforgettable experience.
Challenging sport
Fly-fishing for salmon is a challenging sport that demands patience and skill. Nevertheless, the thrill of catching a salmon on the fly is unrivaled. Notorious for their wiliness, salmon put up quite a fight against anglers battling to bring them onto shore.
Compared with trout fishing, salmon fishing is a more straightforward process. Casting a salmon fly is easier than casting a trout fly. In most situations, the angler need not be particularly delicate or accurate about presenting the fly, simply ensuring that the fly hits the water well away from where the salmon is at the time.
Whereas trout are notoriously fussy feeders, making matching the hatch essential, salmon are not trying to feed when they take the fly, making the fly pattern much less important. Although some flies are better than others when fishing for salmon, learning to choose and use the right fly tends to be a much easier process for salmon fishers.
Popular salmon fishing flies include the Black Boar Shrimp, Mirage Body Stoats Tail, RS Green Highlander, Yellow Torrish Double, Classic JC Stoats Tail, Classic Willie Gunn Double, Curries Red Shrimp, RS Yellow Allys SuperSquid, and Piglet Junction Shrimp.
Salmon are scarce
The downside to fishing for salmon is their scarcity. Salmon are much less common than trout. Fly-fishers therefore need to conduct careful research when it comes to identifying the most promising fishing spots. Today, wild Atlantic Salmon are scarce virtually everywhere, and their future is seriously threatened. For this reason and to protect their numbers, many anglers only fish for Atlantic Salmon on rivers where stocks are holding steady at a safe level, returning their catch to the river quickly with minimal handling.
The salmon is an anadromous species, meaning that it can live in both freshwater and saltwater. Salmon start life in freshwater breeding grounds, migrating to the open ocean as smolts, following routes that are innately pre-programmed. Visiting rich feeding grounds off Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Atlantic Salmon remain here for between one to four years, feeding heavily on young mackerel, smelt, herring, and other small fish, as well as shrimp and crab. At this point they take on a silvery, chrome-colored hue, coloring up to become a mélange of brown, bronze, and purple once they return to the river of their birth.
Fly-fishers aim to surprise their target
Salmon cease to feed once they reach freshwater, the reserves of fat they built up while living at sea sustaining them for up to a year. There are many theories about why Atlantic salmon take the fly, including territorial behavior, anger, curiosity, annoyance, playfulness, excitement, and more. When fishing for salmon, the fly-fisher’s goal is to surprise their target without giving them too long to decide whether or not to take the fly.
While Pacific Salmon die after spawning, Atlantic Salmon return to the ocean, coming back to the river of their birth multiple times to spawn throughout the course of their lifetime. Climate change is impacting the migration path of all salmon, making it more difficult, with smaller numbers coming back to the rivers, making them even more challenging to catch. However, for so long as they do return, anglers will continue to marvel at the beauty and power of this elusive and highly sought-after fish.