THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Other boats also came ashore with stories and evidence of various mixes of salmon, smaller sea trout,
pike and cod. Yes, cod. But the important thing here is that they weren't all private boats. Small, fast,
guided boats offering exactly the same mix of fishing as Sven enjoys are also available, with spaces up
for grabs even in the trolling competition.
Theoretically then, anybody could go over there and enjoy the same thing, which despite my views on
sea trout as a species, and to get around the lack of salmon over here in home waters, would be
something I would most strongly recommend.
For identification purposes, in the salmon, the tail is concave at the edge, or put another way, slightly
forked, whereas that of the sea trout is square cut and straight. The 'wrist' or caudal peduncle just ahead
of the tail also differs between these two similar looking fish.
In the sea trout this is broader, and when used as a gripping point to pick the fish up will usually see it
slip free. Salmon on the other hand are narrower and therefore easier to pick up and grip in this way.
Sea trout are also often heavily spotted, some of which extend down past the lateral line which is not
the case with salmon.
The maxilla, which is the bony plate along the upper jaw, extends beyond the eye in sea trout, which
again is not the case with salmon.
A scale count from the adipose fin down to the lateral line is also a potential pointer, though
unfortunately, this number can over-lap between the pair, with ten to thirteen scales in the salmon, and
thirteen to sixteen scales in the sea trout. Great if the result is clear cut, but of little value in its own
right if it comes out at thirteen exactly.
Associated audio interview numbers: 66, 83, 95, 99. 107 and 155
HUMP BACK SALMON Oncorhynchus gorbuscha
Bucket List status – no result yet
349
The smallest of the Pacific salmon
species, humpback or pink salmon as
they are also known, are one of the
main bread and butter fish along the
north east coast of the United States on
into Canadian waters, where they are
exceedingly common and popular as an
angling sport fish.
Just what a specimen might be doing
visiting the British Isles is anybody’s
guess, but visit us it has, or should I say,
they have, as there have been a handful
of authenticated reports from as far
Alex Wilkie, Humpback Salmon
afield as Scotland and Cornwall over
recent years, dating back to a specimen
caught in a bag net in the Aberdeen area in 1960, and formally identified at Pitlochry, then later the
British Museum.
Other isolated occurrences in Scottish waters have come from Montrose where one was commercially
caught, and from the River Tweed where a specimen of 3 pounds 8¾ ounces was taken on rod line by
Louis Hunter in 2007, a fish which holds the current British rod caught record.