The 1995 fishing season

This account of the season is based on the reports in Trout and Salmon, written by Graham Hadley.

The first month of the 1995 season was a total wash out. Extreme water levels meant the river was unfishable throughout the whole of February.

The high water continued through the first half of March. Though it kept anglers off the bank, the positive side was that it allowed fish to penetrate high up the system. Catches began to pick up in the second half of the month. As the levels dropped a few fish to 16lb were caught between Shrewsbury weir and Underdale. Pool Quay to Royal Hill, accounted for five, the best 22lb, and two were caught above Welshpool. Diglis produced ten, and four came from the Teme. Eddy Coley reported a sea trout of 5lb from Diglis.

April provided almost perfect conditions. At the lower end of the river 6 fish to 16lb came from below the Avon confluence, all carrying sea lice. Diglis fished well producing fresh fish most days and with twelve caught in nine days towards the end of the month. The most popular bait was the Devon Minnow, while the Rapala also scored. Just upriver Derek Ellis had a 23lber on the Toby.

Twenty five fish were landed between Sheinton and Shrewsbury.

Even Shrewsbury weir, which was described as ‘a very dour fishery for many a year’was reported to have ‘livened up somewhat’ and produced three fish to 14lb. As the run of fish continued upriver five were caught around Melverley, the best an 18lber on the worm, three from Llandrino and two above Welshpool. The Vyrnwy accounted for four more, and twelve came from the Teme, with the best just under 20lbs.

Chris William’s 27 ½ lb salmon was the highlight of the fishing in May. This was the largest fish of the season and fell for the worm fished at dusk. It turned out to be previous spawner and measured 41 in by 21in, the resting marks on its body suggested it had been in the river a while.

Elsewhere on the river the lower river fisheries did well with Diglis weir seeing fifteen come to the bank in nine days and steady sport throughout the month. Nearly all were very fresh and many still carrying sea lice. Twenty one fish were caught between Shrewsbury weir and Brompton Ford, while the weir itself delivered a handful more to 16lb.

Despite a few small rises catches above Shrewsbury started to fall away as the month ended, as they did on the Vyrnwy which produced just four fish. The Teme responded better to this influx of water with eleven fish landed up to 16lb. Mainly from the lower river

A big run of fish was seen going over the fish pass at Diglis in early in June. However, river levels started to drop back to summer low and sport was mainly restricted to the lower river weirs.

The low water continued in to July with the same pattern of catches. Numbers were well down with a few fish from the semi-tidal section, ten reported from Diglis, five from Shrewsbury to Atcham, a scattering of fish from middle river beats in between. Sport was at a virtual standstill above Shrewsbury, with just one or two fish from Melverley and Pool quay. Virtually all the fish fell for bait.

August was described as a month of ‘misery and frustration’ with continued low flows. Half of the catch came from the tidal reaches, on worm or small mepps, while the middle river held a lot of fish in the deepest pools but they proved almost impossible to tempt. A scattering of grilse reported pushing upstream despite the very low flows.

The pattern continued in September with just a few fresh fish from the lower river weirs, plus a couple from Newtown and three from below Welshpool. Caersws AA on the upper river reported their best salmon season for over a decade with most of their fish caught in the last few weeks of the season.

The last week of the season in October also saw a few fresh fish caught at Diglis.

Discussion

Looking back Graham Hadley commented that it was ‘yet another dismal season’ and added that many of his friends ‘will no longer buy a salmon licence to fish in fishless waters and will instead head for the highlands of Scotland.’

Just four months later Mr Hadley was reporting that ‘the salmon on the Severn have had their best spawning season for over 20 years. In all over 4,350 redds were counted, the next best being 1988 when 4,288 were counted. There was a heavy concentration of multi-sea-winter fish around too, and for once the species seems to have a positive future.’

The 1995 season on the Severn is as clear an example as you can get of the fact that, what is experienced as a bad year for the rods, is not necessarily a bad year for the salmon. It should also caution against making too much of temporary dips in the rod catch. Total rod catch and catch per unit effort (CPUE) statistics are important indicators of the state of salmon stocks, but they need to be looked at over the long term to iron out problems caused by poor fishing conditions.

The 1995 season is a perfect example of how the salmon catch is dependent on the fishing conditions, and isn’t a simple reflection of the number of fish that will run the river in that year. Some 70% of the catch came in the three months from mid March to mid June when river conditions favoured salmon angling. The early season was washed out due to consistent high water, and by the middle of June, low flows and high water temperatures made fishing very difficult. Only on those beats close to the tide and fresh fish, did anglers still have a slim chance of success.

The other issue raised by the disjunction between the rod catch and the run in 1995 is how many fresh fish ran the river after the season closed in early October? But the extent to which the Severn has switched from spring to summer and autumn runs in the years since 1988 is another question.

Season statistics and some comparisons

Catch by month.

	feb	mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	total
1995	0	25	85	118	84	40	30	25	8	415

Compositon of catch

85% Multi-Sea-Winter Salmon, 15% Grilse

1992-6 Mean: 70% Multi-Sea-Winter salmon, 30% Grilse. 2009 Mean: 68% Multi-Sea-Winter salmon, 32% Grilse.

Total fishing effort

14,893 days

Mean fishing effort for 2004-8 4,938 days.

Days fished per salmon

40.9

Salmon per hundred rod days

2.44

Mean 2004-8: 6.0 per hundred rod days.

Percentage of 1995 rod catch taken before June 1^st

England and Wales 13.4%

Severn 54.9%

Net and fixed engine catch

2,588