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Thank you so much John, what a lovely message. I am a little embarrassed at my line of "I've got the knowledge and you've got the gear", which is why it was great we did these little talks all those years ago so we did not rewrite history! The Hebrides continues to punch above its weight and we're always making sure we try and keep on top of as many pressures as we can. Ocean survival has gone down since you were here which is distorting the true health of the juvenile populations. Thanks again and so glad you appreciate us putting it up for all to see a point in time.

I understand where you are coming from, but it isn't technically correct in assessed fisheries where there is harvestable surplus. Most fish are returned but regardless, provided juvenile uptake is consistent and throughout a system, there is a harvestable surplus? Sadly, we now only look at the low end of survival of the species in many rivers, whereas we should be looking at harvestable surplus as the benchmark. Classic shifting baseline syndrome unfortunately. Back when the film was made and that recorded in the late 1990's the spawning on that particular river was very very healthy and still is, so it, as an isolated case is accurate. The chap only fished for two weeks a year in the Hebrides, where stocks were healthy and still are. But I appreciate on other rivers you would not want to kill fish, in fact, if that bad no fishing should take place at all of course. Anglers are not the problem and all organisations agree with that assessment. Back in the day, for example, in England and Wales, let's say 1970's, over 100,000 salmon were caught and killed by nets each year on average. Now only 130 were killed last year. Angling, in Wales in 2022, only 1 salmon was killed (declared at least) by an angler. We should fight to improve our rivers and in the meantime, yes, reduce angling and killing any where stocks are perilously low.

Ultimately the salmon will change their habitat range if things continue to warm and we continue to pollute and misuse the rivers but the Hebrides is likely to be one of the last UK places for them seeing as we get a lot of rain and cooler summers. Ocean survival, as Bob said towards the end of this (20 years ago!) is the biggest issue now along with warming and drying upper catchments.

@@Allaboutsalmon what a sad change there has been I fist saw a salmon caught in three 1979s, but there were many mistakes over cropping by Commercial and even by the rods was part of it. And many other things.

Clobbering coloured fish though 🤬

where is this you speak of? And are we talking land farmers or sea? For sure, rivers like the Wye have been destroyed by agriculture... Thankfully, the fish farmers around the Hebrides have improved a fair bit of late and Grimersta, for example, had exceptional catches last year, near double their five year average, so things not so bad but there are areas now where rivers are not able to sustain a healthy stock.

Love to take bit of time to see this part of the world. We hace land on the west coast of ireland, salmon sadly are a no show, life goal is to re introduce salmon. Need all the knowledge i can muster

@@Allaboutsalmon land farmers yes come to eire and I'll show you

That’s correct, the same applies in Scotland

Thanks and glad you enjoyed it. Number have improved in the last three seasons. Not quite sure why but some fisheries had their best catches for fifteen years. Oykel is beautiful. I often stop there and film salmon at the falls near Oykel Bridge Hotel. Would love to go to Canada one day 🙂

It's almost exactly the same here and indeed, Grimersta catches are higher. There's no doubt it is human economic activity that is the driver of declines for all species. The one thing I would say is the returns of adults varies a lot more now than twenty years ago. It was more predictable back then. That's the ocean entirely in our case because land use is zero around the river we did most of the filming on.

I also love how technology has made shots so much better now and some of the footage much easier to get! It was really tough back then. UW shots with a plastic bag over a camera! 🙂

I am sure it tasted delicious. Makes no difference when you have healthy runs and a harvestable stock surplus. Remember, some systems are healthy, with ample juveniles to fill the entire catchment. Granted in dying rivers returning fish is wise. Indeed, leaving them alone completely is better! But given a good run and healthy adult returning numbers to fill spawning many times over, it is not an issue to kill fish to eat.

@@Allaboutsalmon my point precisely is that we do not have healthy runs and stock of Atlantic salmon at all, indeed far from it, almost every (it could be now every single one) river in scotland is class 3 now and that's a ban on having in your possession a dead sea trout, salmon or eel, any migratory species must be returned to the water, It's a sad state of affairs mostly caused by fish farms increasing disease and parasites on the wild stock but over fishing by coastal, estuary and poachers nets and indeed anglers bagging 6 or 7 a day in the good times have led us to this. So there for IF she had returned it???? How many would that fish have produced to help the extinction threatened Atlantic salmon? It's damned foolish attitudes toward salmon like your own that got us here, you don't even know they are under threat! Ignorance and if not that, arrogance of selfish humans always ruins everything we touch. An animal world without humans would last just fine, we've been here a tiny fraction of the time the animals have and we've ruined the place with attitudes like yours. In Scots dialect I urge you "awa n bile yer heed" and serve it up "wee tatties" to the animals as it's no use to the world as if is.

@@fraser5754 I'm afraid you've got me all wrong. The fish was caught in 1998 or thereabouts and a harvestable surplus was perfectly fine. Indeed, on many rivers there is still a harvestable surplus. Anglers often get confused about the Atlantic salmon. Only interested in 3 months of a five year life cycle. The river in question has data for juveniles going back 30 years. The juvenile population is the same as in the 1990's. Returning adults have reduced, most notably due to the North Atlantic Multidecadal oscillation and the impact that has on sea surface temperatures, phytoplankton and subsequent zooplankton that salmon feed on. However, despite this, the salmon population is healthy. I agree human activity of any kind tends to harm all creatures, from micro bugs to elephants and whales. You're a fair way out on poaching. I know of 50 a night being taken around the Hebrides but fortunately the Police are now helping the local bailiffs and prosecutions are happening. There are no salmon farms near most rivers suffering. The Grimersta, on Lewis, with 5 fish farms in the estuary had a rod catch of over 600 last season, best for decades. The Wye with no fish farms had 450... One is small 12 rod fishery too. So agriculture is the big one in the UK but every system is unique and the fish that run them are relatively unique, having evolved to deal with the conditions there. Of course, we sometimes (not in the wild places like Lewis and Harris) impact on catchment riparian zones a lot and this reduces the juvenile habitat significantly. Fortunately, on the river in question, no change to land use has happened in a century and thus, the population is healthy. Some years returning adults are high % and some low but always the number of eggs laid has saturated the available habitat, which is good news. I agree, in other locations, not grade 1 should not kill fish and possibly not fish at all (gradings did not exist back when the fish in the film were killed for food). But without anglers, all rivers would be sewers, although, more recently other organisations have started to focus on pollution.

@@Allaboutsalmon Atlantic salmon were endangered then and ARE endangered now! What utter nonsense to deny that! Had fish been returned back then we'd be in a far far better position now. Take the two rivers annick and Irvine in ayrshire, both abundant salmon rivers even up to the 60's yet I've fished both since 1978 and seen a handful of salmon, caught none, caught maybe 4 sea trout yet managed to catch 60-100 brown trout per year and two rainbows the idiotic office bearers of the local clubs decided to pug in for competition days. Some rivers of Britain they're extinct, most in scotland are class 3 including aforementioned ayrshire rivers and a lot of west coast salmon that are left are skinny or disease ridden

@@fraser5754 Totally agree especially about Ayrshire rivers. I helped get a prosecution for the pollution incident at Catrine weir last year. My wife's family live there. I fished the Ayr and it wasn't great but did see one or two fish in the holding pools. I think what I am trying to say is that resolution is important. Blanket approach to "salmon are endangered" isn't strictly correct. Each freshwater catchment has to be looked at in isolation as regards population health - not returning adult health but population health. There are 30 times more parr than adults at present in rivers and these can be in equal abundance to the halcyon days of the 70's on less polluted rivers. Basically, anywhere near human economic activity (most of Souther Scotland, England, Wales, France etc) is suffering in freshwater as well as the general lower survival at sea. But the far North and Hebrides are far from intensive pressures and by and large are doing fine for salmon. Clearly a lower abundance of returning adults and those fish are smaller (I was a ghillie out here for 11 years back in the 90's and early 2000's) but regardless, in rivers like the one most of this film was done on, there were ample adults to replace the juveniles. It's a grade 1 along with most of the larger Hebridean rivers. Some that are not are purely down to managers not submitting catch returns on time, so a grade 3 is automatically put on it. But I hear you for Ayrshire rivers, some of the big East Coast ones too. Again, abstraction, canalisation, dams, pollution, agricultural waste and chemicals all impacting on juvenile densities per sq m. Then the protection of many fish eating birds and such that wasn't there in the past. It all takes its toll. There is no way back for many rivers because successive governments put economic development ahead of nature. That is a great pity and something I fight to change and ensure impacts are minimal. Again, much easier in the sparsely populated Hebrides where salmon runs have been pretty good the last few years, especially 2020 and 2022.

Thanks Jerome, it was difficult back then but technology is so much getter now for better shots. I am slowly collecting the best and will, one day do something special!

Hi David, I wouldn't base too much on this year. Back in the 1990's I estimated a good run would be 700 fish and for sure 2020 had a run similar. Why, I do not k ow? For sure 2021 was an awful salmon run for many Hebridean fisheries, yet 2020 was superb. Covid related? The good news is, parr densities and populations are still as good as decades ago, so it is all to do with ocean feeding in the main. A bit of a worry but on good ocean feeding years the runs are great. th-cam.com/video/mb-776at0-w/w-d-xo.html Check the link to an upscaled version of the film now available.

@@Allaboutsalmon will do thanks, and thank you for the positive response. Tight lines for 2022.

I think it is better to fish for them for cultural political reasons. Anglers are the ONLY people who put time, eff0rt, money into preserving the habitats. There'd be dams on every river, farmers would pollute and fish farms would be on every estuary if nobody was there as the eyes and ears. So ultimately, the few that die and the majority caught and released are unknowing martyrs to their cause a s a species. Banning angling in the Loire (for salmon) has lead to the entire river being damed, catfish put in and all other users getting their way. Now nobody knows they have any salmon and the few left will soon be gone most likely.

Your suggestion wouldn't work re banning fishing. Anglers now kill around 5% of what they catch, which is estimated to be 10% of the run, so an impact of 0.5% on the adults left to spawn. There are more fish than rhetoric would have us believe but they are not often in shoals like this, so this makes it look like there are more then there are. You can't win. All rivers in the Hebrides have fish like this when the water is low and they cannot run into the loch systems.

No problem, I have now tweaked the route and moved POI slightly and will re do next chance I get. Weather due to be poor for a week I think. Then will see if I've tweaked it better for shot composition... Was never intended to be seen and only my second day!

+Dean Read Thank you Dean. My first attempt at a drone film. It helps having a back garden like that to practice in! Just wish the weather would allow more time flying. :-) Only one flight day been possible since October.

+CallumPUrquhart That's very kind of you Callum. Enjoying learning about making films!