Useful Fishing Facts to Know Before You go Fish in the UK

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Useful Facts to Know Before You Start to Fish in the UK - Catch Limits

For detailed information about the salmon, sea trout and brown trout fishing seasons in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales click Here to go to the article.

Catch Limits

There is no formal catch limit for wild trout in the UK. If a limit is not specified on a permit it is hoped that anglers would act with moderation when killing brownies. Trout are delicious to eat but a couple of half pounders fried in oatmeal for breakfast is a feast, all you need to satisfy your hunter gatherer angling instincts.

Many clubs ask that all wild trout are returned unharmed or they set a catch limit. Some clubs require that all wild fish are returned. To compensate they stock with dye marked or fin clipped fish which can be taken. Peebles-shire Trout Fly Angling Association is a good example of a club using marked fish which ensures that the wild fish stocks are free to regenerate relatively unharmed.

The standard size limit for trout is 8” but most clubs and fishery owners set a higher limit of 10, 12 or more inches (I always look for fisheries that have a high size limit – doesn’t it just tell you something about the fishing prospects?) On the Don they ask that all fish over 3lbs are returned as this keeps the water well populated with the kind of wild fish we all dream of catching.

As to salmon and sea trout, we are for many reasons passing through a period of great concern for the future of these magnificent fish. Consequently all fishing boards in Scotland have set conservation measures which you should find out about before you commence fishing (information will be supplied with permits) but you should know that these measures have not been applied lightly.

Much has been done to promote the recovery of our migratory fish runs and from now on anglers are being asked to play their part. Face facts, how much salmon smoked or otherwise can you eat? No you cannot do as the profligate Victorians did and sell your fish at the fish market or to the local hotel, it is illegal to sell rod caught fish in Scotland. In the rest of the country and Ireland similar measures have been implemented indeed more stringent measures have been put in place such as returning all fish before June, returning every second fish, setting daily catch limits, returning all hens or large fish (large fish can carry more eggs per kilo of weigh, 700 eggs per pound, therefore they are more valuable to the long term sustainability of a fishery), issuing tags which limit the number of fish you can kill per season, and having total catch and release policies.

In the Republic of Ireland new measures have been put in place since the successful action to stop offshore drift netting. You should check the new regulations out before booking. For instance anglers cannot take fish at all on some rivers and many rivers, including the mighty Shannon, have been completely closed for salmon fishing by the Central fisheries Broad. For details about the new regulations in place in Southern Ireland follow this link: Central Fisheries Board Regulations

The same level of conservation applies to sea trout in Scotland which continue to decline in many river systems and throughout the UK and Ireland. Some rivers allow a limited number of fish to be taken, some ask, on a voluntary basis, that all fish are returned, the Spey requires that all fish over 3lbs are put back. Brown trout stocks in Scotland remain healthy and sea trout are, like steelhead are to rainbow trout, just brown trout that migrate to sea. It may be that in rivers holding migratory fish the food supply is sufficient and trout do not feel the pressure to migrate. Maybe when the number of salmon par in river systems returns to the 'plague' proportions we once knew the brown trout will start skipping out to sea again where they can get a good feed.

As to sea fishing there are no limits but advice is that you should not fish for bass and mullet in nursery grounds, should return large predators suck as shark. They are not often eaten by the anglers and killing them is a waste. In fact this advice is being promoted across all species as we move away from the days of killing everything in order to do the 'body count' at the end of the day.

Where a catch limit exists it will say so on your fishing permit, otherwise use restraint - your are an angler not a fishmonger.

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