When we consider the situation of the salmon and sea trout and the fisheries associated with them, we need not look any further than the fishery reports of the 1960s and 1970s as a starting point for what we have today. In those halcyon catching days, enthusiastic fishers would expect to catch in the region of 20 to 30 salmon in a week and expect to replicate that in the following subsequent years. These were the days, primarily, of private beats and cherished tenancies (often with dead-men’s shoes associated with them). Before that era, salmon fishing, and to a slightly lesser extent, sea trout fishing, was seen as being out of the reach of many and the preserve of the well-heeled, very well-connected, or landed folk.
“fishers would expect to catch in the region of 20 to 30 salmon in a week”
The 1960s and 1970s gave way to the 1980s and an upsurge of new, and relatively uber wealth, among a good number of people. This newfound wealth
