I havent put this thread in the Salmon fishing section as I thought I would probably get slightly biased opinions from regulat Salmon fishermen.

I am looking to have a crack at Salmon fishing in the next year and was wondering what the opinion is on the best value Salmon fishing available on the basis of Salmon per hour per pound i.e. the number of fish caught in the number of hours spent fishing for them, per pound spent getting there/paying for the fishing.

I guess Im looking for a decent chance of catching fish and not wasting my time but am obviously as happy as the next bloke to take a blank!

Is it frugal to go overseas for a bash at it or up to Scotland or the cheaper beats in Wales with a lower chance of a fish?

Mowgli

I would think that the cheapest option would be to find some local fishing, it would cut on traveling and accommodation costs for a start.

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Value for me is my BAA ticket which gets me onto a fair few salmon pools on the Severn,still got to catch a fish but good excercise and a slowly growing knowlege of the river and its moods!
Big thanks to Tom Rigby for keeping me at it !

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

I agree local fishing is cheapest but the Salmon per hour element is quite important too! If you spend 100 hours to catch 1 fish for 50 quids worth of petrol when you could spend 10 hours to catch 1 fish for 500 quid I think they probably work out about even

If you understand the stopping places and movements of salmon in a river then you can maximise your fishing time, most anglers don’t seem to know this or bother applying it and waste a great deal of their time.

There is good value salmon fishing throughout the UK and normally, if you have tide tables or/and are prepared to find/fish unusual places early, then you will beat the crowd and maximise your fishing.

I know of a fishing club that charge £25 per year and with one of their waters, widely considered rubbish, if you can be bothered to fish before 5am in the summer then everything is different and there is a 25% chance of a fish from a certain lie at a certain time of even a neap tide. Another stretch on a spate river has a rock around which fish congregate but this only happens for short periods in a very high flood. Most consider the place to be completely rubbish and it is at most heights, but I know that if you are prepared to fish that place when it is 4-5 foot above normal then 3 or 4 salmon is nothing when using a fast sinking line. Learning/finding these places takes a lot of time, but put the time in and you can drive between a few lies on different stretches/rivers and you can be a successful angler on many days. I know of a stretch that has poor access and to get to a great pool you have to walk 2 miles over rough ground, needless to say there are not many people who bother.

It is because these places can not be easily fished, or the periods of good fishing are irregular, that they are cheap. The places which you can easily drive up to, or walk to, and fish easily etc will have a high price attached to them.

As you are in the south west, the East Lyn takes a lot of beating. If you can time it right, after a spate, you can have some spectacular sport.

Hi Mowgli, I think for best value you should be looking at a scottish spate river. yes if it's hot and sunny your fuked, but if you catch the river right, thinning down after rain, you'll have some excellent sport. there are plenty of small/mid size rivers where you can wet a fly for not much. To me there's something magical about Scotland too, especially if youve driven miles to get there. you'll be praying every tiny little speck of cloud is going to pour rain on you!!

I'd also not go until later in the year. Sept preferably. there should be plenty of fish in the river by then. Alternatively, say *******s to it, and book a week in iceland. take it from me, you won't regret spending a penny.

One of my friends took a rod at Broadlands on the Test this year and caught six salmon. Price of rod was about two hundred and fifty quid! Any salmon fisherman in this part of the world will tell you that is great value for money.

Testwood and Nursling below Broadlands on the Test regularly catch in the region of 500 salmon per season and rods are available at a reasonable cost.

There must be some good salmon fishing near you in the south west - you don't have to go abroad or to Scotland although I agree with BrownieBasher and look forward to my trip every year.

Reg Wyatt

there is always the tyne best salmon river in the country and yes there are a few free stretches and some for not a lot of money like £5

If those are your only criteria, I'd think pacific salmon in Alaska or British Columbia would produce a number of salmon per hour per pound spent that would be very difficult if not impossible to beat.

It's completely possible, even common in fact, to land 50+ salmon per day in prime time in Alaska or BC. Figure 5 days of fishing, that's 250+ fish easily, even if the average was an anemic 5 pounds that's 1250 pounds of fish landed for a week of fishing.

I can't see how you'd ever top that if you spent the same amount of money anywhere else. Again, if those are your only criteria.

For Atlantic salmon, I think Canada would be the place to look to maximize the pounds of fish landed per GBP spent.

Grouse