IT’S the final day of the freshwater fishing season today (Monday) and the Island’s rivers will be full of anglers attempting to catch their last salmon and sea trout of the year.
For the river bailiffs, today should signal the end of all their hard work to preserve the Island’s salmon and sea trout stocks, but the reality is that they will probably be just as busy - if not busier - in the coming weeks patrolling the rivers to check on poachers trying to catch fish out of season.
The two months up to Christmas see large numbers of migratory fish entering Manx rivers, but it also attracts to attention of those who see the chance to make quite serious amounts of money from catching and selling the fish on the black market.
Anglers (or poachers) who sell salmon and sea trout are breaking the law, but there is serious temptation with an average sized 5lb salmon fetching as much as £15 to £20.
But the penalties for salmon poaching can be crippling. Anglers convicted can expect to be fined several hundred pounds, and they will have their fishing tackle confiscated. There’s even a provision for the judge to confiscate any vehicle which could be considered to have been used by the poacher, which can transform the penalty from hundreds of pounds into thousands.
As far as we are aware, no prosecutions have been made this season.
For every angler out there today trying to catch a salmon “fairly” with bait or spinner there’s another whose intentions are not perhaps so honourable and they will take a fish using other methods, even netting.
Heavy rain in the last few weeks has meant that a lot of migratory fish have found their way into the Island’s rivers in a bid to spawn. But it has also brought anglers out in their waders and waterproofs, keen to catch a salmon or sea trout before today’s deadline.
It makes for a hazardous journey for the fish as they seek to return to the pools and waterfalls where they started life. When the flood waters retreat and the colour turns clear the salmon and sea trout find themselves the target of many an angler’s eye.
This year’s salmon fishing season started slowly with a relatively dry summer. Even when it rained during the late summer there was not sufficient water to create the ideal conditions for migratory fish to move upstream.
The season began in earnest at the end of September with the first period of sustained heavy rain, creating a “spate” which brought good numbers of salmon and sea trout into the Island’s three main rivers at Douglas, Peel and Ramsey.
Official statistics on how many fish are caught each year are impossible to gather, but anglers are notorious for telling their friends about the fish they have just caught and if salmon are caught in high profile places such as the Tromode Falls, Ballakillingan or near Emery’s in Peel then there’s usually a witness.
And it’s always the stories about the biggest fish which circulate the fastest. For instance, unconfirmed reports have been heard recently of a 14lb salmon caught in Peel, another even bigger in Tromode at the beginning of the month and a “huge” fish being spotted in Sulby in the deep flats above The Garey Ford, although no one has apparently reported such a fish being caught - fair or foul.
The season ends tonight at midnight and no doubt there will be some hardy souls out there fishing until the final minutes, and a number of river bailiffs probably not far behind!
