It comes as no surprise to non-Norwegian anglers to hear of precious adult salmon being killed on Norwegian rivers by anglers who seem either totally unaware of the plight of their river’s salmon populations or simply couldn’t care less. But the results from a recent survey of divers really does come as a shock and perhaps a wake-up call for anglers and river managers alike!

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No surprise to me: Norwegians seem to have trouble with two things: putting fish back when scarce or putting the cork back in a bottle (without emptying it first). In most rivers their fish are relatively large so the loss of any one individual is proportionately more damaging. Your Dee comparison is most apt too: the absence of colour and hence lost days is similar and I have a suspicion that both Dee and Norwegian rivers have a higher %age of taking fish. I watched the Orkla decline year on year. Massive numbers of camper vans fishing 24hrs/day

NK

I couldn't agree more, a lot of it is to do with tradition I am sure.
Many years ago a scottish gillie would have frowned had you suggested a nice fresh springer should be returned, but today Catch and Release has become mostly a new tradition!!
Aided of course by the high quality pocket digital camera!!!

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The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'

It was my dream to fish in Norway under the midnight sun, not anymore. When I was a kid Norway was the place to fish. After watching a programme on "Shed" recently where a group from England went for a week and caught nothing I think I will give it a miss.

I'll just have to dream about somewhere else ...................Patagonia

Was posted in the other Norway thread, perhaps Ephemerella would like to come on this thread to defend catch and kill.

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Malcolm
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Quot homines tot sententiae

Playing devil's advocate here because i release over 90% of my salmon, but was the diving a point in time? surely the divers couldnt have been in the water to see each fish spawn? I'd guess there were many thousands that were missed.

That said, the graph is pretty damning.

My own experience of fishing a pure catch and release river may be of some interest. I have grown to learn the river and the lies, but the trend is plain to see.

2010 catch 28salmon
2009 catch 30 salmon
2008 catch 18 salmon
2006 catch 16 salmon
2004 catch 8 salmon
2002 catch 1 salmon
1998 catch 4 salmon.

not scientific i know, but there's a definite trend here.

I concur with that although aren't we are quick to criticize - how many managers in this country would have the courage to poison out an entire river system, as the Beiarelva was, to rid it of a damaging parasite?

A couple of past posts but the maps illustrate Norway's problem well. I expect the Norwegian goverment closed the river to all angling until they thought catches were sustainable? The anglers moving on and taking it on the chin.

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Save the softmouth trout

I think you will find that most Scottish district salmon fishery boards have a contigency plan in place, which includes blocking the river to stop fish getting further up then poisoning.

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Malcolm
<')\\\\\<<
Quot homines tot sententiae