Your first salmon

[tweedsider]

Can forum members remember the capture of their first salmon? Over 50 years on my recollection of that first real fish remains vivid, although I oft times think what the hell was I doing yesterday. Anyway flash back to Easter 1957 a second year building trade apprentice, whose only thoughts between March and September was the capture of trout by any vaguely legal means. Just starting to flex the muscles and after four years of burn and stream fishing the 9ft greenheart boys rod was starting to seem inadequate on Tweed. A phone call to Forrests of Kelso saw the then proprietor Drew Porteous dropping of three single handed trout rods for selection at 10ft 6in 11ft and 12ft. Being a spindly youth it had to be the 10ft 6in which anyway fitted the £5 budget which represented about a months worth of pocket money. New the rod might have been but the rest of the tackle was hardly sophisticated. A three inch alloy and brass reel, complete with bone handle, a number 4 level Kingfisher line a spool of 5lb Luron 2 and a selection of 10 or 12 flies. Since seeing a school friends father catch a magnificent seatrout in early March on a Wet Professor, such was my faith in this dressing that it was invariably point fly on a cast of three. Greenwells Glory size 12 and March Brown spider would complete the selection. A hurried dinner and my cousin who was staying and myself were standing on the pedals heading back the three miles to the Border town where I worked and Tweed. The beat was a handy one to fish with an easy walk to the head then fish our way back to where the bikes were parked. Tweed was intimidating by its sheer size even in April low water, with knee wellingtons and inadequate casting skills it seemed very little water was being covered. There was one run, with a fast narrow neck running along side a shingle bank with calm deep water close to. Several grayling had succumbed here in the past and given a good account of themselves in the strong mid-stream flow. Lengthen line a couple of casts, nothing dramatic and the line goes tight then line streams from the reel. A few yards recovered, more yards lost ever mindful of the new rod which seemed bent to an impossible arc. Most likely I would still have been standing there hours later playing that,"grayling" if Rob the farm foremen, who I considered areal expert, had not come along. You'll need tae gie it a bit stick son or you'll still be here on Sunday, and this was Tuesday as I recall. Eventually a glimpse of silver was seen, more eventually a huge and monstrous fish, all of 7lbs rolled on its side and Rod slipped the net under it. Right in the scissors was the modest Greenwell.
Wham bang Rob done it justice with a large piece of shingle. 'In tae yer basket son and off wi ye, it was surprising how much Salmon could fold into the small trout creel. On the walk back to the bikes we met Jimmy the Cop searching around cars and bikes for illicit salmon as that year they were giving themselves up to trout flies while proper salmon fishers struggled with tobies and golden sprats. Jimmy the Cop passed the time of day but never questioned nor searched the small trout creel which to the captors eyes held a very large salmon. Amen

[salmonking]

Nowt's changed then,not even the tackle ;D ;D ;D ;D

My first was on spinner ,at the tender age of 14,on the whitty
when i hooked him i got the fright of my life,and every time the fish made a run i flipped the bail arm over to give him line ;D
eventually 40 Min's later i slipped the net under and chapped him
8lbs of chrome,the fever had struck with awesome power,hence i did not sleep well that night.

[rpsalmon]

Can't remember age but probably about 14, kept on attracting and hooking salmon while fishing for trout but lost them on the 2 1/2 Ib line. Tried fishing with 5Ib line during coloured water in order to ensure I landed a salmon, can't remember weight or how much I sold it for (it wasn't 30 pieces of silver though) and then bought some 7Ib line that was used to land 5 more salmon.

Then I took up salmon/sea trout fishing full time. A lady let me fish the 150 yards outside her cottage on condition I gave her all the salmon I caught.

[rpsalmon]

I'll be interested to see one member's contribution to this topic. If his postings are to believed he started fly fishing during 2006 (at the earliest) but according to various later postings he has been using certain flies for up to 10 years, also in 2006 he'd already accumulated many years of fly fishing experience!

[ibrox]

I took my first salmon about four years ago, I was offered the house rod for the day on cleughhead and jumped at the chance as it was July and being an avid seatrout angler, I thought I had a good chance for a St or two. The river was up and slightly coloured, so I thought I'd go up through the day and give it a bash. Met one angler coming of the river saying you've nae chance of catching today but as I was there I thought bugger it.

I decided to head for Jimmy's stream first,so off I went with my 10 1/2' single hander, tied a haslam on the point and a black penell on the dropper, second or third cast, bang into a nice 4llb seatrout (returned), couple of casts later another seatrout about 3llb, got a bit further down the stream, thump, a 5llb grilse, then had another one at 8llb (both returned).

I was chuffed to bits as these fish were all caught within the hour, decided to go through the pool again, 2 or 3 casts later, my line stopped dead on what I thought was a hank. But soon found out it wasn't, as it started to run upstream and wouldn't stop, after about ten minutes of playing the fish and finally getting above it, I seen the biggest bar of silver that I have ever seen, turned out to be a 16 1/2llb salmon, which I finally landed about 20 mins later, not just my first ever salmon but the best day fishing I have ever had. One I will never forget.

And it didn't cost me a penny! ;D ;D ;D
,

[tweedsider]

That is good going on any beat Annanangler no wonder you were chuffed

Tight lines Tweedsider

[tweedsider]

Fine you know cheeky B that the tackle has changed, did I not buy a £20 spey line this year and a new spool of nylon

salmonking said:

Nowt's changed then,not even the tackle ;D ;D ;D ;D

My first was on spinner ,at the tender age of 14,on the whitty
when i hooked him i got the fright of my life,and every time the fish made a run i flipped the bail arm over to give him line ;D
eventually 40 Min's later i slipped the net under and chapped him
8lbs of chrome,the fever had struck with awesome power,hence i did not sleep well that night.

[salmonking]

A A, now that's what i call a good day.

[ibrox]

Thanks fellas ;D Just thinking about that day puts a smile on my face

[Fruin]

My first was at some time between the age of 10 and 12 (before starting secondary school), on the top pool of the River Leven.
That was over 20 years ago
The tackle I can just about remember. A Viking rod of 6 or 7 feet and a Mitchell 300c Reel, with some kind of blue mono, and a swivel, lead, hook and single worm. I can still see that fish thrashing about as I tried to find somewhere to get it out of the water. Oh happy days ;D

[boggo]

My first salmon was a 6lb baggot caught whilst spinning a small mepps for sea trout on the River Eden in Fife, that was about 15 years ago in early March.
Fish was full of spawn, she was returned and swam away strongly so I think she probably made it back to the sea as its only about 2 miles downstream.

[juniorspey]

my first fish was a 12lb hen from the spey at grantown. Id have been about ten i suppose, it was in a 3' august spate, on a 7' rod and 8 lb line, i can still remember the feeling of excitment and disbelief after years of trying...caught another 3 in about a month after that!!!
i landed and returned her with the guidance of a well known local angler!!!

[Speyducer]

My first salmon was caught many years ago on the Lismore Assoc stretch of the Blackwater in Eire.

I was fishing for trout and seatrout, with a 9' ledger rod, a Mitchell match (408) reel and 4lb line straight through to a size 6 hook (and a small splitshot) with a 2" natural dace (couldn't catch any minnows!), and fished as if one was worming.

The fast water into the pool was cast into, and second cast the bait was taken down sharply, and on lifting into the take, I got the nod-nod of a decent sized fish, and it certainly didn't feel like a trout. I couldn't do much with the fish, and began to realise it may be a salmon, but the river did hold some very big wild browns (my cousin having landed one of 5lbs on a worm some time later). However, the fish decided that being tugged at by someone on the bank was a little irritating, and it took a run off out of the fast water about 40 yards across and down to the gravel shallows of the other side, and leapt clear of the water - definitely a large fish I thought. However, I kept some tension on the fish, but two further leaps further down the pool was the last I saw of surface activity. Meantime, my reel started playing up, as winding was OK most of the time, but at a certain point in the cycle, there was no gearing, and the spool went backwards giving line. Something was slipping.

It should be said that my cousin joe had left me to fish that pool on my own before I started fishing it, and he had gone off to the pub for some liquid Irish refreshment!.

The field bank I was on was level, but I was standing some 5 or 6 feet above the water, and the earth banks were steep as I was on the undercut side of the river.

Some 35 to 40 minutes of struggle with the fish eventually brought the fish to my nearside bank in some slacker water, and after clambering down to perch on a small mud shelf, I had to lift the fish by 'gill-hooking' it with my finger (no net, no assistance, no tailer, no idea how to hand-tail a fish) and heave the fresh fish up and over the bank.

It was only later when the fish was taken up home that it was weighed, and 13.5 lbs.

I would have put that fish back today, although, to be fair, I feel that the duration of the battle may have meant that the fish would perish anyway.

My introduction to catching the silver tourists would take many years before that fish, and the events leading to its capture would be bettered.

Mike

[tweedsider]

Sounds like a battle royal indeed speyducer with some risk to life and limb

[wilbert]

I caught my first salmon on 24th July but cant remember if it was 1999 or 2000, the date is easy enough to remember as its my sisters birthday. After 1 and 1/2 seasons of seriously trying to catch a salmon I landed a 7lb bar of silver covered in sea lice on my club water on the Ribble. I remember everything as if it happened yesterday. I checked the river on the way to work and decided that I would book a half days holiday for the afternoon. When I arrived at the river it was in perfect condition, as I walked up to the top of the beat I met a member who had fished all day and not caught or seen anything, undeterred i carried on to the top of the beat. I had been fishing for about 10 minutes when i made a terrible cast which landed in a heap. As I stripped the line back in i thought I had got stuck on the bottom but the rock began to swim upstream, no sooner had i realized that I was into a fish and it was off. After much cursing and swearing and wondering if any of the fish I hooked would stay on I continued down the pool with no more takes. As I was working out a line at the top of the next pool on only the third cast with about 25' of line out I got tug tug zzzzzzzzzz. Fish on and this time it stayed on and was netted for me by the member that I had seen earlier. I have caught a good few since and some quite big ones too but this will always stay in my memory. Hopefully it wont be too long before my son and daughter get their first salmon and they can have some great memories to treasure.

[iainjay]

I remember my first as though it was only a couple of days ago! (see Not only First Fish post).

Great stories guys.

cheers

[dunbar]

Round about 1983/84, on the West Lothian Almond up at Mid Calder. Not a renowned salmon river, but it got a run every autumn, and it was the October school week.

We bombarded those fish with pike plugs and mepps, and sussed out a wonderful little pool where they lay. Fish would follow the spinners into the bank, and we were fascinated by those fish that whole week. In fact we fished every day, not believing this river held much other than broonies.

My dad showed us how it was done catching a silver 7 lber, and my brother, who wasn't much of a fisher, caught a 5 lber. I got one not much bigger.

Hilariously, just like salmonking, I opened the bail arm to let the fish run, not having a clue how to deal with anything bigger than 1lb!

Lots of fond memories of fishing the Almond. Still gets fish too, despite once being the most polluted river n Scotland.

[hornet]

Mt first Salmon was caught on the N Esk in May 2005 and it was a spring silver cock fish which was guessed at 13lb min by my guide. This was followed by a 12lb,10lb and a 7lb springer.

All springers took a hornet pbp fished on a sinktip and a 11ft single hander did the fighting. Amazing sport.


So far it was the best day i have ever had spring fishing for salmon and one that i will never forget.

Hornet

[robbie]

Hornet,
My first fish also came from the N.Esk during an August drought at Stracathro. Having fished what pools that still had more than an inch of water in them, I started walking down the river quickly throwing a line here and there. Going through a 2" deep riffle, I kept catching bottom. When rollcasting off the 20th catch up, a 5lb Grilse flashed up and out of the water, hitting my size 12 executioner like a Rainbow stockie!! Of course I entered it in the returns book, giving pompous instructions to other on how to do it!!!

[hornet]

Aye, probably me