Salmon in the Thames

I have been reading the non migratory trout thread with interest. So as not to knock it off course and purely out of curiosity:- How many salmon have been introduced into the Thames? how many have been caught? and any theories as to why it has failed?

As a note-I read once that the Thames was so full of salmon they used to feed them to the poor. !

Thirty years ago, when the restock the Thames with salmon project was in full swing (a fishy vanity & PR project if there ever was one), the odd fish used to be caught on rod and line at Teddington or Molesey, but the new salmon never really "took" in the river, with the result that the Thames today probably gets a few visitors annually but very little more. Back in the 1980s, I met an elderly man whose great-great-something ancestor had been one of the last salmon netsmen in the Bray - Maidenhead - Boulter's Lock - Ray's Weir reach of the Thames back in the early 19th Century - 1820 to 1830 or thereabouts**. Talk of twenty and thirty pounders. Love to have seen the Thames back then.

** 1821, it appears. Boulter's Lock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brother Paul is spot on.Restocking salmon into the Thames was without doubt a bit of PR. I suspect more get caught than get reported but even so it will only be the odd fish.

Feeding salmon to the poor sounds very grand & extravagant but not when you consider that the "salmon" were almost certainly kelts.

There's a photo of a couple from 2012 here:

http://test.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Leisure/SE_FB_newsletter_October_2012.pdf

They are still around then Geoff. Like Paul, I heard of one being caught at Teddington years ago but, hear nothing now although to be fair I do not keep up to date with it as I don't live near the Thames anymore but, still take an interest. I guess the decline was due to pollution but, I am always a bit confused to this. I saw a program some time ago where the EA tested the water where they check the bug life in the water and going by the species caught, they deemed it very clean. Then I often read differently on the forum. However, going by the EA report, I would have thought there was no reason for the Salmon not to take if the waters as clean as that..

markg said:

They are still around then Geoff. Like Paul, I heard of one being caught at Teddington years ago but, hear nothing now although to be fair I do not keep up to date with it as I don't live near the Thames anymore but, still take an interest. I guess the decline was due to pollution but, I am always a bit confused to this. I saw a program some time ago where the EA tested the water where they check the bug life in the water and going by the species caught, they deemed it very clean. Then I often read differently on the forum. However, going by the EA report, I would have thought there was no reason for the Salmon not to take if the waters as clean as that..

Click to expand...

That's until it rains heavy and we get a discharge of the brown stuff from the sewage works. When i had the weir permit (many years back now) there was always talk of Salmon queueing up at Molesey weir (the one round the back that was not on the ticket) but it was mostly talk as the official figures at the time were something stupid like 1 salmon recorded per season.

Like the above posters have stated it was more of a PR thing and whilst it's a noble cause to get them back in numbers you feel that the money would have been better spent on other areas regarding fish and fishing in the Thames.

It has to do with a lot more than how clean the water is. About 15 years ago the Fraser river in BC was deemed to be the most polluted int he northern hemisphere but it didn't stop it having a run of salmon into the millions.