Salmon exist at every edge of the North Atlantic sea board. From Canada in the west, to Russia in the east, Portugal in the south and Greenland in the north, Salmo salar run these rivers. Yet it is only in the British Isles that you can legally catch a salmon in every month of the year.
Starting on 1 January in Donegal and ending on 15 December in Cornwall, it is not unreasonable to hope for a bar of silver to inhale your carefully cast fly. Our temperate clime, avoiding both the Arctic ice and the Mediterranean sun, means that British salmon can run into the rivers on almost any day of the year.
“The river was 4ft over the gauge, but if your fly’s in there’s a chance”
As such, our salmon have developed distinct runs within each season: from the extra-fat ‘springers’ that come from February
