For a century, choking pollution and manmade barriers made the River Clyde a no-go zone for the king of fish.
While on rivers right across Scotland, numbers of Atlantic salmon plummeted down the years, raising fears for the future of the iconic species.
Now, however, there are tentative hopes that a range of measures to ease their passage to traditional spawning grounds and a cool, wet spring may have given Scotland’s wild salmon a much-needed boost.
Catches of Atlantic salmon from Scottish rivers are said to be “comfortably” their best in half a decade, with some prime spots in the Tay area reporting catches at a ten year high.
On the River Tweed, meanwhile, anglers netted more than 800 salmon last week alone, with one stretch near Coldstream known as The Lees, registering three fish measuring more than 40ins long and described as being in “magnificent condition”.
There have been similar successes elsewhere: according to online anglers’ service FishPal, one 28lb salmon was caught on the Headinch and Cambus O’May stretch of the River Dee near Ballater last month, followed by a 27lb fish at Upper Kinnaird on the River Tay and three 25lb fish in the past week alone.
Although it’s a far cry from 1922 when angler Georgina Ballantine landed the largest ever rod-caught salmon in Britain, a 64 lbs monster fish caught on the Tay, details of anglers’ successes has raised hopes the season – now entering its final weeks – may end on a significant high.
It's thought the cold, wet spring may have been a factor in helping the king of fish complete their epic migrations from estuaries to their traditional spawning grounds.
With more fish making the journey, it’s hoped that could also boost future populations.
However, Dr David Summers, Director of Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board warns there are still challenges for the king of fish.
“We have had a lot better fishing in the last 10 weeks or so than we have had at this time of year for some years. Some beats have had their best summer in over 10 years or even longer.
“Fishing conditions have admittedly never been bad for summer, i.e. we have never had a period of protracted dry warm weather.
“That has helped. But there have clearly been more fish present too, so both factors have come together.
“This is not only true of the Tay, but other rivers, I believe, have also done better.”
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Why this year has turned out to be a better than previous ones could be down to improved survival at sea for certain classes of fish, he adds.
“A major driver in the ‘decline’ of salmon has been decreasing survival of salmon at sea. But, by the way it works, every year is different and some years are better than others in terms of sea survival.
“I would love to think marine survivals would go on an upward trend and we could have a long term ‘recovery’, but we have no idea whether this is the start of a trend or not, much as I would love it to be.”
Meanwhile, encouraging signs for Scotland’s wild salmon species have emerged from spawning grounds.
A partnership between the River Dee and Atlantic Salmon Trust, saw 87 wild salmon smolts were captured from the River Muick in April during their downstream migration and moved into captivity.
They are now being reared within the University of Stirling Institute of Aquaculture on-shore marine facilities, with plans to release them back into the wild as adults in a future spawning season in order to allow them to spawn in the wild.
The process means the young fish bypass the challenges of marine migration with its low survival rates, eventually leading to more adult salmon spawning in the area than would have occurred naturally.
Another project, involving the Atlantic Salmon Trust and the Deveron, Bogie and Isla Rivers Charitable Trust and spanning habitat restoration and fish monitoring has employed sonar technology to generate video footage of passing fish.
It’s aimed at better understanding returning wild Atlantic salmon numbers to create a baseline figure to assess restoration efforts.
The ten-year project, which began last year, enabled the first ever accurately recorded returning adult salmon count for the River Deveron.
The Trust is also working with the Duke of Westminster-owned Reay Forest Estate on the decade-long 'Project Laxford' in Sutherland. Aimed at boosting salmon numbers, the project also involves intensive monitoring and river restoration work.
Perhaps the biggest turn around in wild salmon fortunes, however, comes from the River Clyde, once so polluted and clogged with manmade barriers that they were declared ‘extinct’ from its waters for decades.
Clyde River Foundation, a charity which carries out scientific monitoring of the river and its fish, says the recent installation of a fish pass on the River Avon has led to the first Atlantic salmon in Strathaven for a century. The fish would have been spawned locally last winter.
Elsewhere, work to remove old industrial weirs and create fish passes in some locations on the river and its tributaries is said to have had almost instant success.
A fish pass installed on the Gotter Water, Inverclyde in 2019 allowed salmon to breed upstream of the weir in Quarrier’s Village for the first time in 120 years. Within months of its completion, salmon were detected in the newly accessible areas.
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More recently, a £2.8 million investment to transform the Levern Water and the surrounding area at Barrhead, derelict for decades, included the removal of Crossmill Weir, the final barrier to migratory fish.
Salmon returned within just six months.
Willie Yeoman of Clyde River Foundation says efforts to clear a path for fish on the Clyde have helped salmon return to around 40% of the spawning grounds they once occupied.
“Salmon were extinct on the Clyde for around 100 years until 1983 when, with the decline of the old really polluting industries and the enforcement of the pollution control legislation the river cleaned up and the fish started to come back.
“On the Clyde, we now have had a pretty much unrelenting good news story since the 1980s, although our bottom-line number was so bad in same ways we couldn’t go wrong.”
Unlike anglers searching to net the largest fish, the Foundation seeks out the smaller ones in the hope of establishing how successful returning salmon have been at spawning the next generation.
They use a method of electric fishing which disorientates the fish long enough for them to be counted and measured before being returned to the water.
He adds: “By and large on the Clyde things are getting better.
“Salmon have got to get to spawning grounds – the big challenge is getting them there.
“They then need cold, calm water and clean gravel to spawn.
“We’ve now done all the ‘easy’ fish passes and weir removals. What’s left to do is really expensive.”
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One recent project at Kilsyth to create two fishes pass and realign around 500m of river cost in the region of £4 million.
The costs combined with the difficulty of removing certain fish barriers and culverts, and realigning rivers to aid migration, mean that it’s likely certain areas will never be restored.
“There’s 60% of the river length we would want to get the fish into,” he adds. “Some of the issues are fixable some are not.
“In some cases, we have to assume the river will not be recolonised and we have to just give up.”
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