End of the Season for the Frome

The last weekend of the Salmon fishing season is always met with mixed feelings by myself and a few of my friends who fish the river. It seems very early in the year year for the season to end as the main runs don't really get underway until mid May. Historically the river had a good spring run with fish being caught from March onwards. Like many rivers the Frome has seen a change in both the type of fish and also the times of year that they run.

We can continue to fish for Sea Trout until the end of October and obviously, we catch a fair few Salmon as 'Bycatch'

I ventured down to the river on Friday evening as it was the last day of the Salmon fishing and despite covering a fair amount of water didn't even see a fish let alone catch one. It was a shame as last year i took a nice fish of about 12lb on the last evening of the Season.

I did return to the river for a quick session this morning and tackled up with the fly rod and a small black fly in hope of finding a good sized Sea Trout.

I was not to be disappointed, after about half an hour I was taken by a good fish with put up a fair scrap on the 8# 13' rod. the Sea Trout had been in a while and was starting to darken a little. once unhooked I returned the 3 lb fish and made my way down stream in hope of finding more of the same. I fished right down to the bottom footbridge but only had a couple of pulls. On returning to the hut i decided to try my favourite pool once more as something felt right. After two casts as the fly swung slow and deep behind the ledge at the neck there was a sharp but heavy double tap. I raised the rod and was into a solid fish.

The fish kept deep and it was a couple of minutes before I saw a good strong fish of about 15lb. After a good fight with numerous runs the fish finally came to the net, amazingly the hook came out before id even lifted the net clear so i dipped the rim and the strong fish swam back to her hole.

as I'd left my camera in my wires bag after the Dorset show yesterday I could not get any pictures which is a shame as the fish was surprisingly fresh. It would be very welcome if the season could be changed to reflect habits of the Frome fish of today.

Until then I guess I'll just have to accept the out of season fresh Salmon as welcome 'bycatch'