Salmon fishing in England

Updated 25/05/10

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25/05/10 Big fish are turning up regularly in spite of the hot weather (which has broken today) and it's hard to keep up with them. On the 21st of May John Coleman-Wood from Hanworth Middx came and caught a fine 24 [pounder. Even the Korean War and a triple heart bypass couldn't stop this 83 year old from casting a fly at Palm Springs Salmon fishery. He was with his son Gary, below. there have been a few sunburnt anglers but the catched have only slowed a little in the bright sunshine. The water visibility has been only 2ft but the salmon seem to be unaffected and fight very well. Earlier in the week an angler who wishes to remain unidentified landed a 27 pounder so I got a picture of just the fish for a change, yes that is a large set of scales! Mark Jones from Chirk took home one of 23 1/2 pounds on the 24th. I've started to single out the 25+ pounders as the 20-25s are getting quite common!

22/05/10 The very next day after George Best's 26 pounder, Oliver Hill from Chiswick, London landed a salmon half a pound larger. He caught it on a black fuzzy thing, (not a new fly but a description!). Here is a nice picture of him with his dad, Nigel.They were part of a party from Croxley Green fly fishers club and they had a brilliant day, landing an average of 5 salmon each. More recently on the 20th of May, David West from Weybridge in Surrey took home a 23 1/2 pound salmon.

11/05/10 Sorry about lack of updates, I've been busy growing fry but there is some news. Now that the cold northerly wind has set in the catches have increased after the lean spell of warm weather with bright sunshine. A lot of salmon have been caught but no big ones (some hooked and lost), until today when George Best from Biggin Hill landed a 26 pounder on a black and green wooly bugger, it was one of 16 salmon he had in his landing net. That was one fish for every year he has been alive, his visit was a 17th birthday present,, wish I was that young. He had an exceptional day, but 5 salmon for a day ticket is almost the norm at the moment, so come before the weather changes if you are thinking about it. Here is George with his salmon.

02/04/10 I try to find something interesting to write in this column and last Friday, Steve Lambert from Stowmarket caught a salmon with his fly a foot above the water surface, having leapt clean out of the water. I tell anglers to fish the hang but that's going a bit far! It just goes to show how well fish can see above the surface, we'll call this new technique dry fly fishing. Six anglers had 25 salmon on the bank.From the left, Walter Smith, whose 2 guests caught 3.  John Vincent, the in form fisherman on the day had 8 including this 22 pounder. Steve Lambert, 6, Dave Warren 2,and on his first visit, Chris Moses from Sleaford landed 6 salmon.

12/02/10 More fisherman are visiting now the shooting season has finished and the ****  weather (I can't stand the cold!) is picking up. On Tuesday Kelvin Pallett caught a cracking 25 pounder, a change from his usual barbel fishing on the Wye.and today Mike Palmer lost count of how many he had caught! He reckoned about 20, biggest 8lb, but he needed to be sure to get a place in the record books. He was accompanied by his wife Rebecca who had bought him a day ticket gift voucher for Christmas (he made a good catch there!) . He cashed that in on the 2nd of January when he caught 3 salmon, which is more like average for here. Here he is by the water which is clearing well after the snow and rain, visibilty must be 15-20 feet now.

The fishing has been steady in the past 2 weeks with nobody drawing a blank. A couple of anglers have come close with Jamie Eales from Haydon Bridge catching a 14 pounder on his last cast on the 4th of December. The rod average has been over 3 salmon banked for December so far. Regular Arthur Sykes landed this excellent 17 1/2 pounder in the December sunshine today. 

19th of November saw another large brace of fish caught by John Lewis and Peter Langard.Peter is on the left with a 22pounder and John is holding a 25lb salmon. It's getting dark at closing time now as you can see but the last hour is very productive at present. Today (24th) regulars John Eaton and Arthur Sykes landed 21 and 22 pounders,  salmon of this size are becoming caught  regularly and any visiting angler has a good probability of catching a very memorable salmon.

October 27 2009 Here is the first report for the 2009/2010 season and what a start it has been. No less than 8 20lb+ salmon have been landed and average catch of 3 fish per angler in the first 2 weeks. Here is another 2 super pictures of Phil Earl's opening day 24 pounder.  On the 20th of October the whole fishery was booked by Mr Cobley and his party from Ross-on-Wye. They are regular fishers of the Wye itself and found Palm Springs an excellent antidote to a slow season on their home beats. !2 salmon were landed including a 20 and 24 pounder. Here they are with their catch taken home to fill their freezers.Three days before George Barlow came for a birthday treat with 3 friends. They landed 12 fish with Steve Alvy on the left with another 24 pounder.Finally on the 26th the fishery record was broken twice in a couple of hours. First by regular Lorenzo Serrano with a 25lb 8oz fishThen Alan Moore from Clacton-on-sea landed a 26 pounder.These large salmon are giving an amazing account of themselves, jumping clear of the water and taking all the line off the reel. Yes that's the fly line AND all the backing as well!

For last year's reports see archive in photo gallery

29/11/09 Here are a couple of super pictures of a superb 25 pounder caught by Mark Stroud a local angler from Peterborough on his second visit., one of 7 he landed yesterday, just look at the size of it's tail!