JUMP AROUND - SPAWNING SALMON

Get settled by the water’s edge and marvel at fish bravely leaping homewards to reproduce

With fishing topping the poll of Britain’s most popular outdoor pastime, it is somewhat surprising that the fine art of fish-watching appears so far down the pecking order, when compared to birdwatching. But on a few key days spread across October and November, Atlantic salmon are capable of putting on a display that measures up to any performance our feathered friends are able to muster.

The spectacle of salmon leaping up their natal river can be traced back to a previous autumn when they started their lives as pea-sized eggs laid by their mothers in gravelly riverbeds. In April or May, they hatch as ‘alevins’ before becoming fry and feeding on aquatic invertebrates. The minority that are not picked off by predators will then steadily develop into larger ‘parr’ with distinctively patterned flanks. Depending on water temperature and food availability, they might spend several years in the river system before a silvery sheen replaces the parr marks and they undergo a physiological change in preparation for saltwater.