A historic, rare and special capture was reported to one of our water bailiffs, recently. A visiting angler spent a few hours lure fishing whilst visiting the area and had quite a suprise when he hooked and landed a “silver tourist”!
Derbyshire Derwent salmon!
The cock salmon was hooked close to Belper town centre, on a small Fox spinner which was intended for pike & perch. Despite being hooked on 50lb braid, the fight from the fish was of such intensity that it still took 45 minutes to land!
The lucky angler had purchased one of our discounted Autumn permits, available from October onwards, to take advantage of fishing our stretch of the Derwent.
This salmon capture is highly significant. It may be the first salmon caught on rod & line in Derbyshire in well over a century! Certainly we cannot find any mentions of captures from the Derwent, and earlier in 2017 another cock salmon was found dead at Belper weir, which was the first salmon recorded at Belper for over 100 years!
Belper is only a few miles from the centre of England (Morton parish, Derbyshire) – as far inland and away from the sea as an English town can be. So in order to get here, this salmon has successfully negotiated the Humber estuary and passed through large towns and cities such as Hull, Gainsborough, Newark, Nottingham and Derby. It has overcome numerous weirs – including many formidable ones on the Trent, such as Collingham Weir – and has swum over 140 miles inland, upriver! That is one incredible journey, and we’re pleased to say that the captor released the fish alive and reported that it swam off strongly – hopefully far enough to meet a female at their spawning grounds.
Who knows, the parr this fish helped create may already be hatching in the Derwent…?!
The River Derwent once had a thriving salmon population and this significant capture is yet more evidence that salmon are migrating further up-river and in greater numbers than has been seen for decades. The whole River Trent catchment is seeing an increase in salmon numbers which is great news for Derbyshire.
Other recent mentions of salmon in the River Derwent:
- First salmon recorded at Belper weir for 100 years
- Salmon returning to Derbyshire’s rivers
- Salmon photographed leaping Borrowash weir on the Derwent
- Salmon parr in Derbyshire river a first since Industrial Revolution
- Salmon parr spotted in Derbyshire Wye – tributary of River Derwent
- Largest fish pass in the Midlands constructed at River Derwent weir
Further information on the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar), and salmon conservation in the UK:
- Salmo salar on Fishbase
- Atlantic salmon on Wikipedia
- Atlantic Salmon Trust
- Salmon & Trout Conservation UK
- Angling Trust – Save Our Salmon campaign
- Environment Agency – 5-step approach to salmon conservation
- North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization
Have you spotted or caught a salmon in the Derwent?
Although the above capture is historically rare, recent conservation efforts seem to be slowly increasing the number of salmon travelling upstream in the Trent system, including the River Derwent. If you have any verified sightings or captures of salmon from the river, please send us an email via our contact page.