Pearls from Pomerania

1.6 million smolts are put into polish coastal rivers each year. Additionally there are 1.5 million sea trout smaolt year on year. Without anyone in Germany really having twigged this, our neighbours in Poland have been undertaking an ambitious re-stocking programme for salmon and sea trout. The first catch for this project came from Daugava in Latvia.

Salmon entering Polish rivers
Within a few years the project has had a noticable positive effect on the breeding conditions in central Europe - with a positive knock on effect for German rivers too. In 1999 alone over 350,000 smolts entered Pomeranian rivers. The project has been worthwhile - many salmon have entered the Parseta, Slupia, Rega and the drawa rivers. The overwhelming majority of the salmon return much to the great delight of local anglers.

Codename: Big Salmon
One thing is clear - Poland will become a genuine alternative to the angling destinations such as Alaska, Canada and Scandanavia. Polish salmon and sea trout are easily of comparable size - at the beginning of the 2000 season a salmon in the river Parseta was netted weighing 13.6 kg and a 1.08 m sea trout weighing 9.4kg. The largest catch so far was a 34kg salmon. Scandanavia has been looking for this size of fish for many years - the 20 or so coastal rivers and bays of Poland teem with them. Best time to fish is between March and April. Then, the season re-opens from mid-June for sea trout and mid-July for salmon until the 1st October.

Source: Angling Magazine Rute & Rolle