Early one morning, roughly two years ago I set out to meet with the experienced salmon angler Alan Nolan to get some test shots on the river. Without casting a thought I arrived wearing a bright red rain jacket and a black waterproof pants.
“You’re not going to see any salmon today I’m afraid.” was the greeting I got as the boot of his car opened and Alan’s ‘forty shades of green’ fishing regalia appeared! “That jacket is for going to an outdoor music Festival ! When you go riverside you’ve gotta go green!”
“The wild Atlantic salmon can be a hyper sensitive creature,” I was duly informed. Any movement , noiseor flash of colour can be picked up by their super sensory systems and the hunt maybe over before it even begins.
There was a very quick change of plan. My glaring red jacket was inappropriate for a genuine introduction to salmon huntingso Alan decided instead to show me a ‘man-made’ fish pass on the very river where he began fishing for trout as a young teenager.
This part of the river used to be a deathtrap for migrating salmon and seatrout in the past. A concrete weir spanning the Glashaboy river coupled with low water conditions often made it impossible for the returningsalmon and seatrout to migrate upstream. Migratory species will continually try to overcome an obstacle as they are genetically programmed to return to their place of birth to spawn. Eventually a percentage of them may die of exhaustion.
In the late 1980’s the local angling club of which Alan was a founder member campaigned hard to have improvements made to the weir. Fortunately, in this case all agencies involved including the Fishery Board and local county council worked together, resulting in a far better system for the migratory fish to get upstream. Downstream passage (atlantic salmon return to sea after spawning) is a different story but that issue is for another day.
Part of this box weir fish pass can be seen in thecenter of the photograph above.
As we arrived at the fish pass the light was so good that we managed to get some great footagein the leafy shades of green. This lovely sequence which will hopefully make the final cut came with a price! Someone had to film from the bank(moi)!! Someone had to get into the river (Alan). It is practically impossible for a tall strong man to withstand the flow of water through this relatively small fish pass. Yet “Salmo Salar” can swim through with ease. My inquisitive nature was well and truly awakened. Alan would continually remark that wild salmon are amazing creatures and slowly I was beginning to understand why!
These were the first underwater film tests in very fast flowing water. That was my first and last day riverside wearing RED. And the moral of the story not only does it have to be GREEN butit definitely has to be waterproof!