2014 looks set to be a bumper year for salmon

THIS year’s salmon fishing season in the far north looks set to be a good one and to make up for last year’s major dip in catches as a result of the prolonged summer drought.

Surveys across Caithness suggest this could be a bumper year for anglers with all of the county’s rivers apparently well stocked with the king of fish.

The season got under way on Saturday on the River Thurso, one of the first rivers in Scotland to open along with the Helmsdale and Shin Rivers. About 50 people braved chilly conditions to watch Thurso piper John Macrae lead people across the village’s road bridge to the riverbank.

Two Thurso exiles were involved in the opening ceremony, with Robert Manson, of Nairn, proposing the traditional toast and Graham Birnie, of Aberdeen, casting the first fly of the season.

Speaking on Monday, long-serving river superintendent Eddie McCarthy said: "We are only a small group in the north of Scotland but we are well supported and it was good to see so many people out.

"Unfortunately, there haven’t been any fish caught yet. I think there have been some at our neighbour river of the Helmsdale but not up here. That’s not entirely surprising as people don’t tend to go out for very long at this time of year. It will be into the middle to the end of March before the really serious fishing starts from nine to five.

"In April we’ll start seeing people coming from all over the world to take part in the fishing. We see Americans, Germans, French and we even have the odd Scotsman."

In the past, the river has regularly seen over 1000 fish caught annually but in 2010 there was an enormous leap to 3022. Numbers have fallen away since then until a very low 948 in 2013.

Mr McCarthy said the numbers have a lot to do with the way the fish are caught, with them now being allowed into the river to spawn instead of being caught at the mouth of the river by a coble boat.

"Numbers went back down to under 1000 last year because it was such a year of drought," he said. "It started way back around the end of April and until the end of the season in October there was hardly any rain at all.

"This year looks set to be a good one though. There are always huge numbers of salmon involved. When you see 2500 caught that would maybe be about a tenth of the total numbers in the river. It’s a massive amount of fish we have.

"I have to sympathise with people who say it is cruel to catch the fish, but until the middle of June, because the spring component of the salmon stock has declined so rapidly, anything that’s caught is returned to the river unharmed."

Mr McCarthy said he continues to be amazed at the lives of salmon. They spawn during November in hollows in sand or gravel, called redds, scooped out by the fish and the male will then fertilise the eggs.

The eggs lie dormant until around March when little fish, called aelvins, will emerge and settle within the freshwater system until as smolts they head back towards the sea.

Then they take off to their feeding grounds in places like the waters off the Faroe Islands where they will feed for one or two winters and then return, incredibly, to exactly where they were born.

"You’re talking about thousands of miles they travel," said Mr McCarthy. "It’s just like you hear of birds doing.

"I have worked with nature for 50 years of my working life and I know that if you nurture nature, it works but if you interfere that’s when it goes downhill.

"Nature just takes care of itself. The water quality is immense around here as there are no factories and nothing to harm the fish in any way in the rivers of the north.

"We have a saying in our family – my grandfather always used to say it – give us the water and we will show you the salmon."

Naver salmon season opens Page 4.

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