Atlantic salmon fishing season 2024 is over.
The past season left us with mixed feelings. On one hand, we worked on the river without any obvious failures or mistakes. But on the other hand, we still had questions about fishing, to which we still could not find answers.
In general, the picture of the autumn season of 2024 did not stand out from many others. Over 3 decades, we have encountered different situations, heat on the river and early formation of ice, drying of the riverbed and flooding after heavy autumn rains. In any situation, we always adapt one way or another and look for suitable solutions in terms of tactics and fishing techniques. Sometimes this can be done without much difficulty. But there were days when the salmon disappeared, and the search for places and effective fishing techniques was difficult and the result was not obvious. Not everything in such cases depends on us, and we understand that the main role in our successes or problems still depends on the salmon itself. Statistically, according to our results, the autumn season was one of the least productive in the last five or six years.
It is likely that the reason for the difficulties with autumn salmon fishing lies in the events of the past spring. The fish run from the sea to the river is stretched out in time, but, nevertheless, it depends on the short northern summer. All the processes of fish adaptation to river water and maturation for spawning should fit into several months. It is quite possible that the very late onset of spring, , shifted the course of the processes by 3 weeks. This opinion was expressed by local residents of Chavanga, and we on the river completely agreed with this.
But in the fall we encountered the opposite phenomenon. Almost until the end of September, summer weather lasted. The sea was warm, there was no rain, the water level in the river gradually fell. The picture was quite simmilar to August. Both resident and sea salmon were caught in the river. But we did not observe the expected mass salmon run. October came, the situation on the river was close to ideal. The long-awaited rains passed, the water level rose, the water temperature stabilized at 6 degrees, but sea fish still appeared in the catches in single quantities.
In such cases, we are always interested in the state of affairs with salmon in the sea. An increase in the concentration of fish in the coastal zone always leads to the appearance of salmon in the river. A simple rule works, the more fish in the sea, the more of it in the river. And vice versa.
It has always been like this, and it was like this this time. Single fish were caught in the sea, and single salmon were caught by us in the river. We monitored information on sea catches along the entire coast of the White Sea. Until mid-October, the situation was bleak. We went through many theoretical options for delays in the run or even the disappearance of salmon. Rumors that salmon had disappeared in Norway, and disappeared along the entire coast of the Barents Sea, gave rise to thoughts about the end of the world or the end of salmon fishing at the very least.
We hope that everything was not so sad in reality. Already at the very end, literally in the last week of our season, news began to arrive about the resumption of fishing at sea. Salmon appeared. Perhaps those same 3 weeks of delay played a role, which confused our cards back in the spring.
Perhaps the reason was the warm weather in September, when in calm weather the sea water on the coastal shallows warmed up to 15 degrees. There can be many reasons for the delay in the salmon migration to the coast.
But, nevertheless, the fish came. Considering that its run to the river in normal years lasts until the end of November and even in December, let's hope that the salmon have time. This autumn fish will rise to the river and make up 80% of our May and June catches of the 2025 season. It has always been this way, let's hope it will continue to be this way.
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