OUTDOORS Going fishing? Know your fresh salmon from your kelts

SALMON KELT After spawning, the fish appears elongated having been relieved of the spawn and its body fat over the previous months. This fish was returned unharmed a few seconds after the picture was taken.?Pic: Des Colhoun/geograph.ie

Know your fresh fish from your kelts


Killing a kelt is illegal and punishable under law

Country Sights and Sounds
John Shelley

We stood on the bridge at Ballylahan to watch the mighty Moy surging by beneath our feet. Brown and turgid, it sucked at the banks and, further down the river, threatened to spill into the low fields from which it had not long retreated. Somewhere in that brown water, we know, swim new-run salmon, heavy-shouldered fish fresh up from the sea.
A few hardy souls will be out looking for them, casting big brass lures into slow, deep pools, where those first spring fish will be holed up. Whatever chance they have of hooking into a genuine spring salmon, they have a much better one of landing a kelt, a spawned fish with little life left in it and flesh too poor for the table.
Most kelts die soon after spawning. Enough survive to create problems for the novice angler, who is certain, or would like to be, that the fish he has landed is a legitimate quarry. But how can he be sure? After all, how nice it would be to have a salmon to show off!
A brief examination of the angler’s prize will yield a few clues. Without exception, a spring salmon will have a healthy silver-blue glow about it. If in the river less than 48 hours, it will almost certainly have sea lice attached to its back or sides. As sea lice cannot survive more than a short time in fresh water, any fish that bears them is certainly fresh.
A fish in the river for more than a week will be louse-free, and a more careful inspection is needed. Look at the fins, and especially at the tail. Are they at all frayed? Perhaps they are tidy but bear signs of recent scarring. That, then, is a kelt, which must be returned alive to the water.
Then again, perhaps the fins are in good order, with crisp, clean edges. What about the belly? A fresh fish has been feeding well, almost until it left the ocean, and will be firm to the touch, whereas one that has been in the river for many weeks, even months, has eaten nothing all that time and will inevitably have a lean look about it. A fresh fish has a convex belly; that of a kelt is concave, or flat at the very best.
Still not sure? Press gently beside the anal fin. See how the vent protrudes, even a little? Sorry, that fish has spawned and cannot be retained. A fresh fish has a firm vent that will not yield to the touch. Finally, just to make sure, check the colour of the gills. In a fresh run salmon, these will be a healthy deep pink or even red, but pale and soft-looking in a kelt.
If the evidence indicates that the fish we have on the bank has recently spawned, we should set it free immediately. With good fortune, it will find its way back to the feeding grounds of the north Atlantic, where it will recover full health. Perhaps it will return once more to the same river, many pounds heavier, where we shall meet again.
No amount of wishful thinking will turn a kelt into a fresh fish. And so many kelts will be caught that mistakes are bound to happen. However, mistake or not, the killing of kelts is illegal and rightly punishable under law.
There is good news for salmon anglers in that licence fees are being held at last season’s reduced rate. There have been some changes in the list of rivers that will be open for angling – for up to date information check out the Inland Fisheries Ireland website (www.fisheriesireland.ie).
Some, none more than myself, will be disappointed to find certain rivers closed yet again. Some of these are smaller waters that only a few locals know about. They, we, watch carefully for a flood in late June or July, and fish for a few short hours as the water levels fall away. Sport can be hectic and is almost guaranteed, or it was.
We can take courage, though, knowing that any restrictions currently in place will lead to the recovery of our cherished fisheries. Given time and adequate care, even on these small waters we shall be facing that same, age-old dilemma: fresh fish fit for the table, or kelt, to be carefully returned, with an eye on the future?
Tight lines!