Paul Robinson
Member
I wanted to share with you details of my recent surprise and very fortunate
capture of a large salmon whilst rolling meat for barbel on the Royalty.
You may have read something about this in the AT.However as they only
captured a few points & most importantly didn't mention my thanks to others
i wanted to share with you now.
I actually caught the fish on Thursday 10th March but due to business
travel commitments have only just now got around to reporting here.
I had been rolling meat on the Royalty in the hope of a big late season
girl but instead had the surprise of my life with a new species the size of
which was beyond my wildest dreams- and even now it still hasn't
started to sink in.
I was moving up & down the fishery & moved to upper trammals.My first cast
below big weir & downstream of the point of the island caught the wind causing some spare line to slightly tangle around some tall bushes.
I momentarily put my rod down vertically but still holding the line.Just as
I was finishing untangling the line i felt a solid tug.
I straight away picked up the rod and hit into the fish which immediately
tore many yards upstream so i soon realised could only be a salmon.
Having never hooked a salmon before the 45min fight was unlike anything I
have experienced in terms of sheer power and strength.Absoloutely amazing.
During this period it made several such runs and also for long periods
stubbornly sat in midwater - though I could move it an inch.
The fish continued making powerful runs and eventually a small gallery
gathered behind me including head bailiff John Dennis who gave me some
great coaching to help land the fish.
In challenging circumstances due to its size and the flow the fish was
eventually netted thanks to the considerable assistance of & by Chris
Holly.
Amusingly it turns out someone behind me had slao been filming the fight with a
video camera.
The hook was right in the scissors and slipped out in the net.After such a
drawn out fight we couldn't risk taking the fish out the water for photos
hence the photos being taken after we had jumped into the water to
weigh,revive and return the fish.
As such the photos don't really capture the scale and size of the
fish.However this is more than compensated by the memories and the fact
that this truly live fish survived to continue its journey up river.
The hen fish was in magnificent condition ,a fresh springer having traveled
from the sea over night .Its back was an amazing electric (aqua)
indigo /jade colour and covered in sea lice.
Not being a Salmon angler it was only when the fishery manager was clearly
quite emotional and kept uttering that he "...felt honored to even see such
a fish..." that I started to appreciate its magnitude and rarity.Another
salmon angler said they only get a 1 or 2 Springers a year on Royalty.
Another said kept saying that for salmon angler
its a "..capture of several lifetimes..."
The icing on the cake was when Chris Holly took the camera memory card to
tackle shop Davis Angling - and later that Day Davis manager Nigel Gray very kindly walked the banks to find me a hand me with a large photo of the fish.A
fantastic touch and great memento.
All the salmon anglers were extraordinarily gracious that it was caught by
a coarse angler and some even wanted copy photos of the fish.To their
credit to a man they were highly magnamious.
I am also a keen trout fly fisherman and I would like to think that if a
colleague caught an equivalent large trout as his first fish that I would
have been as gracious as the salmon guys were - but in truth I have my
doubts !
The other thing that impressed me about the salmon fishing fraternity was
their desire to return the fish asap without risking taking it out the
water for photographs.
Several times after having been returned the fish rolled midriver -
reaffirming that it had successfully recuperated.
The fishery manager estimated that night this magnificent fish would have
run up the salmon ladder and by the weekend would have successfully laid
her eggs in a local tributary stream , supporting the next generation of
these creatures - a great thought early the following morning as I fought
my way up the London Underground network !
Amazingly later that day my buddy David Hore caught a 5ibs Salmon Kelt also
on meat !
CATCH DETAILS
Salmon Springer 29ibs 1oz
Bait - Luncheon Meat
Tackle
-Rod Ray Walton 1.6 TC
-Reel - Ray Walton Center Pin (Rolling Pin)
-Braid
-Plastecine weight
-Size 2 Hook
Method-Rolling
Venue - Hants Avon ,Royalty
Date - 10th March
Scales Verified at Davis Angling Christchurch
Being honest with my PB only 11.1 I would still have preferred one of the 16 ibs Borises which came out the previous week.
However in truth the magnitude of my capture has yet to set in and I share
with you now with absolutely no bashfulness as I realise how bloody lucky I
am to have had the opportunity to hook and land such a fish.
Paul Robinson
capture of a large salmon whilst rolling meat for barbel on the Royalty.
You may have read something about this in the AT.However as they only
captured a few points & most importantly didn't mention my thanks to others
i wanted to share with you now.
I actually caught the fish on Thursday 10th March but due to business
travel commitments have only just now got around to reporting here.
I had been rolling meat on the Royalty in the hope of a big late season
girl but instead had the surprise of my life with a new species the size of
which was beyond my wildest dreams- and even now it still hasn't
started to sink in.
I was moving up & down the fishery & moved to upper trammals.My first cast
below big weir & downstream of the point of the island caught the wind causing some spare line to slightly tangle around some tall bushes.
I momentarily put my rod down vertically but still holding the line.Just as
I was finishing untangling the line i felt a solid tug.
I straight away picked up the rod and hit into the fish which immediately
tore many yards upstream so i soon realised could only be a salmon.
Having never hooked a salmon before the 45min fight was unlike anything I
have experienced in terms of sheer power and strength.Absoloutely amazing.
During this period it made several such runs and also for long periods
stubbornly sat in midwater - though I could move it an inch.
The fish continued making powerful runs and eventually a small gallery
gathered behind me including head bailiff John Dennis who gave me some
great coaching to help land the fish.
In challenging circumstances due to its size and the flow the fish was
eventually netted thanks to the considerable assistance of & by Chris
Holly.
Amusingly it turns out someone behind me had slao been filming the fight with a
video camera.
The hook was right in the scissors and slipped out in the net.After such a
drawn out fight we couldn't risk taking the fish out the water for photos
hence the photos being taken after we had jumped into the water to
weigh,revive and return the fish.
As such the photos don't really capture the scale and size of the
fish.However this is more than compensated by the memories and the fact
that this truly live fish survived to continue its journey up river.
The hen fish was in magnificent condition ,a fresh springer having traveled
from the sea over night .Its back was an amazing electric (aqua)
indigo /jade colour and covered in sea lice.
Not being a Salmon angler it was only when the fishery manager was clearly
quite emotional and kept uttering that he "...felt honored to even see such
a fish..." that I started to appreciate its magnitude and rarity.Another
salmon angler said they only get a 1 or 2 Springers a year on Royalty.
Another said kept saying that for salmon angler
its a "..capture of several lifetimes..."
The icing on the cake was when Chris Holly took the camera memory card to
tackle shop Davis Angling - and later that Day Davis manager Nigel Gray very kindly walked the banks to find me a hand me with a large photo of the fish.A
fantastic touch and great memento.
All the salmon anglers were extraordinarily gracious that it was caught by
a coarse angler and some even wanted copy photos of the fish.To their
credit to a man they were highly magnamious.
I am also a keen trout fly fisherman and I would like to think that if a
colleague caught an equivalent large trout as his first fish that I would
have been as gracious as the salmon guys were - but in truth I have my
doubts !
The other thing that impressed me about the salmon fishing fraternity was
their desire to return the fish asap without risking taking it out the
water for photographs.
Several times after having been returned the fish rolled midriver -
reaffirming that it had successfully recuperated.
The fishery manager estimated that night this magnificent fish would have
run up the salmon ladder and by the weekend would have successfully laid
her eggs in a local tributary stream , supporting the next generation of
these creatures - a great thought early the following morning as I fought
my way up the London Underground network !
Amazingly later that day my buddy David Hore caught a 5ibs Salmon Kelt also
on meat !
CATCH DETAILS
Salmon Springer 29ibs 1oz
Bait - Luncheon Meat
Tackle
-Rod Ray Walton 1.6 TC
-Reel - Ray Walton Center Pin (Rolling Pin)
-Braid
-Plastecine weight
-Size 2 Hook
Method-Rolling
Venue - Hants Avon ,Royalty
Date - 10th March
Scales Verified at Davis Angling Christchurch
Being honest with my PB only 11.1 I would still have preferred one of the 16 ibs Borises which came out the previous week.
However in truth the magnitude of my capture has yet to set in and I share
with you now with absolutely no bashfulness as I realise how bloody lucky I
am to have had the opportunity to hook and land such a fish.
Paul Robinson
