Its been a long held ambition of mine to catch a Salmon from my local River Irwell. A flight of fancy maybe and until the late 1990s an impossibility. But since Salmon started to make a reappearance in the Mersey system in the early 2000s, and with Irwell water quality improving beyond recognition its no longer the impossible dream of my youth.
I’m pretty sure that we are getting small sea trout making it up through the 3 lock gate system on the Manchester Ship Canal at Irlam, Barton and Mode Wheel, however I’ve still never seen any evidence of big silver tourists.
So late on in 2015 a couple of students from Salford University asked me if I would be the subject of a short film,, and seeing as though they approached me in November I thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight the case for Salmon in the Mersey / Irwell system.
All we need are 3 fish passes – and hundreds of miles of new habitat will become available..
anyway enough waffle – have a watch of this
And for those who want a great still shot of a Mersey Salmon attempting to reach the best spawning grounds here is a lovely pic which I found of a Salmon jumping the weir at Roman Lakes near Marple on the River Goyt.
The only real remedy here is to get those weirs out or at least slighted in the middle so they eventual bring themselves down. ALL fish need to move up and down river not just Salmonids. In addition gravel and silt needs to move downriver unhindered so that it gets graded naturally and improves the diversity of habitat.
Best wishes to a justly famous club.
RR
Great to know that the water quality in that river is improving. More fish, the better. And great picture of that salmon jumping! I’ll definitely be bookmarking the video you’ve shared.
That’s an amazing photo of the jumping salmon, great timing!
its great to see the salmos make a comeback in the mersy system! great video too,ive heard big fish on the banks of the weaver at northwich near a “soda works” they were coming out the water often two summers ago,the water was up a wee bit and colured perfect runnig conditions,we here in the north east are also getting the river ouse/ure back on course once again and this season was the best so far since the regeneration of the river,witha very good guesstimate of say 15,000 + fish entering the river humber then into the ouse where it changes its name to the river ure at the ouse river nidd junction and all the rivers and tribs have had fish so must out the ouse system into say a good 40,000+ fish for all the rivers,ist been helped along by the river ure salmon trust where upon they have a hatchery which breeds fish from the river ure,which are a cross of very depleated original stock river tweed stock from 10 yrs back and now norway stock which are of incredable size i mean incredable,so it only takes some one with a bit of know how to find say a stream well up river or maybe a natural spring run water into tanks get permision and funding for the hatchery laffin all the way,i seen the one on the river ure built form bits and bobs not what yer would call a ikea style hatchery more huck finn! but hey it works a treat,see for yer selves on the river ure salmon trust video section,wont take long till the mersey and its many tribs will be all doing well for salmos and other migrants like lampys and shads etc good luck to the mersey
funny how lots of polluted rivers have made a come back ie tees tyne and yorks ouse,and they were grossly polluted back then,now in cumbria where the rivers havnt been hit by pollution the numbers are dwindling somewhat,but on the up side even basele in switzerland has had spawners and parisians can now enjoy watching salmon take dams and weirs in the centre of paris
imo its the st that are on the down not the salmon,the river for example has lost a massive chunk of its st run but on the up side numbers are up and the river has never had as many salmon in fact more salmon than st and thats not the river wear i know ! we now get fish arriving in early may (st i mean) instead of late may or very early june,according to river wear fish counts from january salmon start to run and these early fish from jan to early late may are nearly all salmon,and the counters both of them are well capaeble of missing fish that may take another route and theys a good few extra routes where upon they can avoid being counted.
so the wear has went from a river where i dint catch a salmon for two yrs but had a boat load of st i mean a boat load,but two seasons ago i diodnt catch a st but had a massive amount of salmon,unheard of for the wear and its been like this now for yrs.
the yorkshire ouse wow that aint far behind the tyne in many ways,for example it opens late in april and from day one yer can expect fish,these fish leave and now run every single trib from the ouse (yorks) so thats the aire,don,wharfe,derwent,then nidd,swale,rye,ricall,costa beck,pickering beck,driffield beck,cod beck,river laver,burn,skell,skirefare? and many many many more.
now dont tell me salmon are decling? maybe on some rivers and i cant understand why as cumbrian rivers have never really been it by pollution as far as i know,so how is it that we can bring back to life rivers like the tees and tyne,ouse and even mersey too some extent but rivers in cumbria that aint ever been polluted no? dont make sense ? maybe its something else another pollutant that we aint onto yet? does trees in cumbria been planted have anything to do with it? do pine needles drop the Ph of the water making it more acidic? does stake netting the estuary have a effect? my guess is that it does,
anyway its not all about conservation with salmon its about moeny and revenue nothing else,if it wernt the burbot would have been re-introduced by now and why isnt any body protecting smelts which are down to what 3 populations in the uk,skellys and vendace get help so why not other species like shads or even dare i say it sturgeon,the french ahve said they would donate sturgeon stock as theirs is closer to our original stock where as andalucian sturgeon differ a little and perhaps could be a slightly different species,but either way they are native to the uk,lots of river from the tiny yorks esk to the wye and severn and usk even the yorks ouse have all landed sturgeon.