TURN OF THE TIDE
At last the rollout of vaccines provides a glimmer of hope for fishers like Michael Wigan
Early season salmon angling has been for locals only. Administrations far and wide finally recognised the obvious, that solitary people standing in rivers posed no virus transmission threat. Locals-only fishing, adopted in Scotland late May in 2020, just started earlier.
Angling presence (pressure would be the wrong word) is reckoned at only two per cent of normal on some good northern rivers. Where more local anglers had salmon-catching in their blood, rivers were used more and rod catches rose. From the limited evidence some early salmon runs were strong. But the pattern of local angling is different, a quick flick when everything looks right, then on to other things. So rod catch figures for Spring 2021 will have little meaning.
In late April anglers appeared from across the UK. Visitors were like a new sun shining. In other parts of the salmon fishing world situations are gloomier. One outfitter on the Miramichi in New Brunswick said that his fishing cabin bookings were down from around 470 days to 70. Canadian angling seasons are shorter, with less time for business to re-gather. Maintaining fishing camps for another winter will cost the same, with even less money to pay for it.
Fishing rules in North America and Canada are changing whenever corona incidence rises and falls. Keeping track is challenging. Small airlines pop up offering flights to fishing destinations only to fold again as corona opens new offensives, shutting people in. Planning for fishing has been chaotic.
In a last-ditch attempt to keep its fishing operators from despair Iceland opened to foreign anglers, but subject to tight entry rules. Immigration questionnaires even ask which vaccine batch had been used, comparable to the stringency of livestock farmers’ veterinary recording in the UK. Full vaccine histories are mandatory to be allowed into Iceland. At time of writing both Norway and Russia remain shut to outside visitors. Tundra and fjord salmon will percolate to their breeding grounds un-saluted.
The UK looks like being the single beneficiary of a bold nation-wide vaccine roll-out which pushed corona into vanishingly small corners, to the satisfaction of government. There are enough native anglers to fill the beats and enough of them willing to pay well to do so. In 2021 the UK is the premier salmon fishing country, a status deriving directly from Brexit.
Taking a break before the onslaught of the angler wave I parked myself at the head of a nearby loch. A mile long, it sits 440ft above sea level. I like watching what happens there. We all like watching other fishermen.
Below flapped an osprey, wingbeats raising him ever-higher while his eyes fixed on the rippling water below. The glittery sun was behind him, perhaps dazzling fish facing that way. Strong breezes blew into him as he ratcheted up his position on the air column. Then the wings closed and suddenly he fell like a bolt, at a slight angle into the wind, splashing into the water with wings spread and talons stretched. He missed and re-mounted the air-stream.
A second plunge followed. But this time he held a three-quarter pound trout in his talons. He circled back and swooping into the wind alighted on a corner-post of the bridge over the feed-in burn. I watched as the trout was rent apart.
Not yet replete he rose again. The third dive was productive too, another trout gripped in his scaly feet. He sat on the same post with its tail flapping for several minutes. Beginning with the head he eventually recommenced feeding, the flapping tail gradually subsiding as life was torn from the body of the trout.
I thought back to 2020. I had one session on the same loch with a similar hit ratio. I fished a green drake on a sultry day. It seemed they couldn’t wait to be hooked. My trout were snared by deception, the osprey’s by feral force. The result for the trout, I mused, was much the same.
“Below flapped an osprey, wing-beats raising him everhigher while his eyes fixed on the water