Atlantic salmon

Quick facts

How to identify it

A streamlined, powerful fish with a small head, a slender wrist to the tail and a slightly forked tail fin. Fresh from the sea it is bright silver with a steel-blue back and a few small black spots, mostly above the lateral line and almost none on the gill cover; in the river it turns bronze and red, and spawning males grow a hooked lower jaw (kype). The tail separates it from a sea trout: the salmon's is forked with a wrist slim enough to grip, the trout's is square with a thick wrist, and the salmon's upper jaw ends level with the eye, not behind it. Young salmon (parr) carry dark finger marks and look like small trout.

Where it lives

Atlantic salmon spawn and spend their first one to four years in clean, cool, gravel-bottomed rivers and streams of the North Atlantic rim: Norway, Iceland, the British Isles, Ireland, the Baltic and northern Spain, with reintroduced or remnant runs in the Rhine, Elbe and other big rivers. After smolting they migrate to the ocean feeding grounds around Greenland and the Norwegian Sea and return after one to three years. In the river, running fish rest in 'lies': deep pools, the necks and tails of pools, behind boulders and in the streamy water below falls and rapids, always in good flow. In warm, low water they sink into the deepest pools and stop moving; a rise of water draws them upstream. Landlocked populations live in a few large lakes.

Season and behaviour

Salmon enter rivers in waves through the year — big multi-sea-winter 'springers' from early spring, the main summer run of grilse and salmon from June to August, and autumn fish before the October–December spawning, when pairs cut redds in gravel riffles at 2–8 °C. Most die after spawning; some kelts survive and return to sea. Fishing seasons run roughly from spring to early autumn, timed to each river's runs; the best days come on falling, clearing water after a spate, when fresh fish run and settle into lies. In low, warm summer water fish at dawn and dusk with tiny flies; in cold spring water big, deep-fished flies and lures work all day. A salmon takes from aggression, curiosity or reflex, not hunger — so timing and presentation beat bait.

Fishing methods

Fly fishing is the classic and, on many rivers, the only permitted method. In spring and autumn use a two-handed rod of 12–15 ft with a sinking or sink-tip line and a large tube fly or heavy hairwing, cast square and swung slowly across the lie; in summer switch to a floating line, a single-handed or switch rod and a small fly cast downstream at 45 degrees, letting it swing through the pool at walking pace. Spinning with spoons, spinners and plugs is effective where allowed, especially in high, coloured water: a 20–30 g spoon cast across and worked slowly and deep. Some rivers permit worm or shrimp fished under a float or on a light ledger in low water. Cover the pool step by step, rest a fish that has shown, and set the hook by letting the fish turn against a tight line rather than striking.

Baits and lures

Salmon flies do not imitate food: hairwings, tube flies and shrimp patterns in black, orange, yellow, blue and silver, from 15 cm tubes in cold spring water down to size 12–16 doubles and hitch tubes in low summer water. Classic patterns of the black-and-yellow, orange-and-gold or blue-and-silver type cover most conditions. For spinning, use silver, copper and red-gold spoons of 15–30 g, big spinners and deep-diving plugs. Where natural baits are allowed, a bunch of worms or a prawn are traditional, but they are banned or restricted on many rivers.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Fish the first days of falling, clearing water after a spate — that is when fresh fish run and take best.
2. 02Match fly size to water temperature: big and deep below about 8 °C, small and near the surface above 12 °C.
3. 03Cast at a downstream angle and let the fly swing slowly across the lie; speed up only in warm water.
4. 04Do not strike — let the fish take the fly and turn, then lift the rod as the line tightens.
5. 05Move a step or two between casts to cover the whole pool rather than hammering one spot.
6. 06When a fish shows or plucks without taking, rest it for ten minutes and try a smaller fly.
7. 07Handle fish in the water with wet hands and use a knotless net — a released salmon is next year's spawner.

Where to catch Atlantic salmon

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list Atlantic salmon.

• Hallingdalselve
• Sea
• Narva jõgi - Narva

Related species

• Sea trout
  Salmo trutta trutta

  The silver, sea-going brown trout that runs the rivers at night.

• Brown trout
  Salmo trutta

  The wary, spotted native of cold rivers and deep lakes.

• Huchen
  Hucho hucho

  The giant winter predator of the Danube basin's fast, cold rivers.

• Rainbow trout
  Oncorhynchus mykiss

  The hard-fighting, high-jumping trout of stocked lakes and cool rivers.

Frequently asked questions