Salmon leaping at Hexham weir
Yesterday was the first time I have seen this spectacle. The fish were farther out than earlier in the week but still an amazing sight. Their colours were extraordinary and ranged from silver to pink to orange to dark. Most of the leaps we saw were unsuccessful but they tried again and again.
If they made it up the first stage of the weir there was still the challenge of the second step. Several were stranded in between as there wasn't enough water to make it easy for the larger fish to swim up the second stage and many eventually fell back to start all over again.
These are just fabulous Chris! The fifth one is a nice fresh sea trout by the way! Spots below the lateral line and if you enlarge the pic you can see the maxilla extends behind the eye. Also straight back edge to tail.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil. I wasn't really aware of all the colours in real time, other than flashes of silver or pink which I thought was just the way the light was reflected. It is only when you look at the frozen images that the amazing colours become apparent. It was a great experience, with dozens of spectators cheering the salmon on. All we needed to complete the scene was a couple of grizzly bears!
ReplyDeleteActually looking again on the computer rather than the iPad, I think 3-5 are sea trout. Sorry hadn't looked very closely. They really are fabulous images, I think the best of leaping fish I've seen, and that's with a large sample size!
ReplyDeleteIf I'd been there, the grizzly criterion would have been met!