A record salmon?

You may or may not have noticed a report in one or two newspapers this week about claims of a record salmon on the River Ness. There has been a lot of debate over the catch on various fly fishing forums but you can see some of the first reports here.

The fish was returned and there are photographs. Although most seem to have been taken off the web since they were posted there, this one can be seen with a report on the Times website. You can imagine that the debate has fallen in to two camps - those who believe (or want to believe) all the quoted measurements and those who are sceptical.

I fall in to the latter camp. First of all there are the pictures. It looks a good sized fish but I would go no further than that.

But some reports have been suggesting it could weigh over 100lbs? Yes, and some people believe they have been abducted by aliens. It gives me no pleasure to be so dismissive but when you look at those initial claimed measurements - length 56 ins, girth 50 ins (although another post puts the girth at 40 ins) - it's difficult not to suspend belief. While there have been a very few fish that have been longer than 56 ins I have never seen a girth measurement approaching anything like that.

Georgina Ballantine's UK record rod caught salmon, landed on the Tay in 1922, was 54 ins long with a girth of 28 and a half inches. The biggest verified girth I have come across is one of almost 34 ins on a 60lbs salmon caught off Sweden by Kenneth Olsson in 1995.

Everything we know about the biggest Atlantic salmon that have been caught by any method in the history of fishing has been put together in a remarkable new book by Fred Buller, The Domesday Book of Giant Salmon. It is remarkable because it has half a lifetime of exhaustive research and photography on Buller's part, a true labour of love.

There have been unverified reports - one just less than a century old - of Atlantic salmon over 100 lbs, but nothing approaching this size has been caught on rod and line and no fish with the girth claimed for the Ness fish has ever been caught according to the records.

Some giants are still being caught on rivers such as the Alta in Norway. But a giant today is 50 lbs. A fish of a lifetime is something in the 40lb class and a very exceptional fish (certainly good enough for my lifetime)is anything upwards of 30 lbs. I have caught three salmon over 20lbs and three at a little under and have lost two in the 30lb class but I'm still waiting for the really big one.

This year on the Dee there were one or two very big ones about. I saw one that must have been approaching 40lbs. But it's easy to get carried away with size, particularly in these days of catch-and-release when we don't always have scales. As for the conversion charts, they are rough guides for those of us who aren't worried about a pound or two either way.

So it's conceivable that a fish could be caught in Scotland today in the 50lb class. But whether this was one, remains to be seen. Perhaps we shall never know. As a fisherman I know how dispiriting it is to be doubted. The angler who caught the Ness fish and his fellow witnesses must be feeling this just now. But they know how big it was and, let's face it, there is nothing that anglers like more, than to talk about big fish - except, perhaps, catching one.

NB. Since writing this I have found this link to a Scotsman article that suggests a size nearer 45lbs, still an exceptional fish but nowhere near the claims made earlier. The report also says that no tape measure was used. As a guide, if you ever catch a big salmon and want to estimate its girth, look at your own first.