River Ribble Salmon run (1 Viewer)

rozinante · Oct 20, 2007

Spent a great afternoon watching salmon leaping Stainforth Force. Autumn colors in the sun and the king of fish.

Saw over a dozen attempts in little over 1 hr. Only 1 successfully made it. I estimate the fall as 7ft (2.1m) and the fish between 20" - 28" (50-70cm). It looks totally impossible but sufficient must make it I suppose.

There were also a couple of tiddlers of about 8" (20cm) making pathetic but brave attempts. Can anyone suggest why they would be trying to get up? Far too young to breed I would think. Could they have been trout caught up in the excitement?

A CHAPLIN · Oct 21, 2007

Hi,

Thank you for the fabulous photos. I guess the smaller fish do get caught up with the excitement and living in shoals they follow the bigger more experienced ones as they know where the better fish are, not knowing sadly they are also travelling to their deaths after spawning. Purely guessing of course.

Like young kids, playing follow my leader or "if he can do it so can I".

Fabulous photos, hope you used a tripod or your arms must have been aching.

Ann :egghead:

WCA · Oct 21, 2007

Hi,

Many thanks for posting your photos and bringing this to my attention. Living in Lancs, I'm certainly interested in making the effort to witness this spectacle, something i've always wanted to see.

Could you provide a six grid grid ref for the falls please.

Cheers,

Bill.

rozinante · Oct 21, 2007

A CHAPLIN said:
Hi,

Thank you for the fabulous photos. I guess the smaller fish do get caught up with the excitement and living in shoals they follow the bigger more experienced ones as they know where the better fish are, not knowing sadly they are also travelling to their deaths after spawning. Purely guessing of course.

Like young kids, playing follow my leader or "if he can do it so can I".

Fabulous photos, hope you used a tripod or your arms must have been aching.

Ann :egghead:

I think you are right about the tiddlers getting carried away Ann. Such an amusing contrast to the impression of power you get from the big fish. The close up in the first pic shows the flex of the tail to get the drive. Absolutly incredible!

No tripod I am afraid. Just elbow and Knee.

Biggest problem initially was the delay on the digital camera. It was far better once I found out how to make it shoot instantly. Doesn't help with focusing though as you can see.

I can't imagine how any body ever gets a shot of these focused on the fish. For me it was just a question of pointing at the fall and instantly shooting if anything vuagely dark broke the white of the splash at the bottom. Dozens of shots of moths and blowing leaves later I finaly got it.

WCA said:
Hi,

Many thanks for posting your photos and bringing this to my attention. Living in Lancs, I'm certainly interested in making the effort to witness this spectacle, something i've always wanted to see.

Could you provide a six grid grid ref for the falls please.

Cheers,

Bill.

Certainly Bill.

If you sit on SD 818 671 for an hour or so over the next week or so, I think you should see some.

If you come from Horton in Ribblesdale direction, the road down to the falls is on your right just before you go into Stainforth. If you come via Settle, on your left just through. The lane down to the river and bridge are very narrow. There is not much parking down by the river but if during the week you should be ok. On a weekend it might be best to park in Stainforth Pay & display car park and walk.

PM me if you are going to be in the area for the day and want some other nearby places of interest.

Just realised, these fish must have passed Bill & Ann to get here.

Couple more pics of the upper falls and the bridge down from Stainforth.

Carless · Oct 24, 2007

Thanks for the photos.

Geoff Pain · Oct 25, 2007

Just realised, these fish must have passed Bill & Ann to get here.

They must have past me as well,I live just down the road from them.

rozinante · Oct 25, 2007

Geoff Pain said:
Just realised, these fish must have passed Bill & Ann to get here.

They must have past me as well,I live just down the road from them.

Lucky you Geoff, it's a great area.

Carless · Oct 31, 2007

Fish jumping like this is something I must see one day. I did see a massive brown trout in a small river with many small waterfalls and some weirs. The fish was a short walk from where the river emptied into a reservoir. Perhaps if I'd been patient enough to wait around I would have seen it go upstream past these obstacles.

sidwemn · Nov 2, 2007

This reminds me of an incident on the Ribble many years ago. I was probably only 8 or 9 but will always remember it. It was in the Autumn, so may have been the half term holidays.

I was at Stainforth with my family, and was messing about on the bank of the river between the falls and bridge. I remember finding a fish. "Dad! Dad! come and look at the fish I've found". No response. I bent down and grabbed it by the tail. I just managed to lift it out of the water with both hands. It must have been at least 2 foot long!

I assume it was a salmon perhaps exhausted after leaping the falls as I don't remember it srtuggling when I picked it up, but remember it taking off when I dropped it back in the water!

Martyn

timwootton · Nov 5, 2007

Great images Rozinante - would love to see this in God's Own County. I must get home more often - really excellent - well done.

rozinante · Nov 5, 2007

Glad you all enjoyed them.

It was certainly one of those magic moments for me, and such a surprise that they are so close to home.

Apparently their presence is due to the fact that the Ribble is the only Yorkshire river that runs West. All the others running East into the North Sea being too distant from the coast.

Twite · Nov 6, 2007

rozinante said:
There were also a couple of tiddlers of about 8" (20cm) making pathetic but brave attempts. Can anyone suggest why they would be trying to get up? Far too young to breed I would think. Could they have been trout caught up in the excitement?

Hi Rozinante.

I have just come on this thread.
There are a couple of possibilities for seeing the small fish trying to travel up river, both involve spawning. They could be Brown Trout moving up to the same spawning areas as the Salmon. Or they could be Salmon parr, these are salmon that have not smolted. Smolts are young salmon that have not undergone the physiological changes that prepare them for life in the sea. Salmon that go to sea for at least 1 winter, return as grilse, or more than 1 winter at sea to return as multi sea winter fish.
Some of the parr are known as precocious parr, this applies to males only. These are to all appearances immature fish, but they have fully developed sex organs and are able to fertilise eggs. Precocious parr usually stay as close as they dare to females who are about to shed their eggs, and as she sheds the parr rush in and fertilise the eggs alongside the large male fish that has put in all the effort to keep other males away. This isn't without risk to the parr as the large males are very aggressive and will kill them if they catch them.
I hope this isn't too long winded.

Twite.

rozinante · Nov 11, 2007

Twite said:
Hi Rozinante.

I have just come on this thread.
There are a couple of possibilities for seeing the small fish trying to travel up river, both involve spawning. They could be Brown Trout moving up to the same spawning areas as the Salmon. Or they could be Salmon parr, these are salmon that have not smolted. Smolts are young salmon that have not undergone the physiological changes that prepare them for life in the sea. Salmon that go to sea for at least 1 winter, return as grilse, or more than 1 winter at sea to return as multi sea winter fish.
Some of the parr are known as precocious parr, this applies to males only. These are to all appearances immature fish, but they have fully developed sex organs and are able to fertilise eggs. Precocious parr usually stay as close as they dare to females who are about to shed their eggs, and as she sheds the parr rush in and fertilise the eggs alongside the large male fish that has put in all the effort to keep other males away. This isn't without risk to the parr as the large males are very aggressive and will kill them if they catch them.
I hope this isn't too long winded.

Twite.

Thanks for all the extra info Twite. I didn't know that about precocious parr, how strange. Although they do have quite a strange life cycle altogether.

The thing about the small fish leaping, either salmon or trout, was the impossibility of it. I know they can achieve amazing feats with staircase type falls but this was a single drop. There might be stepped routes around the side though during different water conditions.

DEREK.C. · Nov 17, 2007

River Coquet

I thought a few of you might be interested to see these i took , on October 11th at the River Coquet at Rothbury, Northumberland . I was captivated for an hour,with at least 50 passing in that time.

rozinante · Nov 18, 2007

Thanks Derek.

It looks like you could have reached out and caught that first one. Were they actually getting up? As I said above, the ones I watched were not having a good day.
The sense of power and strength is amazing though. Especially when you remember they are generating that thrust from water!

DEREK.C. · Nov 18, 2007

rozinante said:
Thanks Derek.

It looks like you could have reached out and caught that first one. Were they actually getting up? As I said above, the ones I watched were not having a good day.
The sense of power and strength is amazing though. Especially when you remember they are generating that thrust from water!

Yeah, they managed okay,although to be honest , it probably wasnt the hardest stretch of the river.

griffin · Nov 28, 2007

The smaller 20cm fish could be sea trout smolts that left the river in May and have only spent a few months in the sea and come back with the 'adult' shoals ? Most of these come back (if they are going to without seriously fattening up first) in early Spring (Feb) though, certainly here in the NE. It is far more likely that they are Brown Trout trying to reach more suitable spawning grounds upstream.

Nice someone else knows about precocious parr !

Keith Dickinson · Nov 28, 2007

rozinante said:
Glad you all enjoyed them.

It was certainly one of those magic moments for me, and such a surprise that they are so close to home.

Apparently their presence is due to the fact that the Ribble is the only Yorkshire river that runs West. All the others running East into the North Sea being too distant from the coast.

There was footage on last night's Look North programme of salmon leaping the weir at Knottingley in West Yorkshire and the fish ladder is being upgraded at Castleford. So there is chance of salmon again in at least one of the east flowing Yorkshire rivers.

patmartin · Nov 29, 2007

Keith Dickinson said:
So there is chance of salmon again in at least one of the east flowing Yorkshire rivers.

I'm sure the Yorkshire Esk which flows into the North Sea at Whitby has a viable Salmon and Sea Trout population. Pat

Gill Osborne · Nov 29, 2007

According to my neighbour who walks his dog along that way twice a day there were a large number of salmon jumping up the weir along the River Aln, below Alnwick Castle, last Thursday (22nd November).
I only found out that evening as I was chatting to him so popped along that way the next day after work but by then they'd all passed through :-C My neighbour didn't see any either as he'd taken his camera along to see if he could get some photos.

So, seeing salmon jumping is STILL an unfulfilled ambition of mine! :stuck:

River Ribble Salmon run (1 Viewer)

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