A SEVERN fisherman has launched the salmon season in the estuary by landing a 12lb fish, and has found evidence of fishing in the same spot around 700 years ago.

But the extreme heat – and new lease arrangements – could threaten both the fish and the fishery.

Martin Morgan, of Black Rock Lave Net Fishery in Portswewett, caught the fish and says there is evidence that fish stocks are improving. But he warns that we are heading for a drought which could have serious consequences.

“We don’t see the effects on the rivers in our area, as it’s tidal, but upstream on the Wye levels are really low,” he said. “The fish won’t get into the rivers to spawn if this continues and they’ll be stuck in the estuary.

“Our season began on June 1 and we’ve seen plenty of fish, but this is the only one we’ve caught so far as, despite the hot weather, fishing has been hard, with the wind direction – the most important factor – stuck in the north east quarter.

“My grandfather wouldn’t have left the house with the wind in that direction, but our persistence finally paid off. Salmon swim into the wind and our fishing grounds, which cover an area of around three square miles, have only a handful of places we can fish and none where we’ll find many fish under those conditions.

“Persistence paid off however, and I managed to winkle out a fine fish of 12lb in an area we call ‘the Gut’. At around the same time we found some very old fishing baskets and a knocker, like the ones we use to kill the salmon.

“The tide uncovers them a lot more regularly since the Second Severn Crossing was built and they tend to stay uncovered now.

“They look like they were made yesterday, but we’ve had them carbon dated before to between the 12th and 15th centuries. Now we just record what we can in situ as they disintegrate so fast out of the river mud.

“My brother Richard has made replicas of them, based on examples that went to St Fagans National Museum of Welsh History. This kind of basket was used to catch lamprey, shrimp and eels. They’d be tethered to hazel stakes and we’ve also found the ancient tethers made of woven willow.”

The fishermen finally resolved lease issues with Natural Resources Wales (NRW), reported in the Review in May, and signed a new 10-year lease for the lave net fishery a few days before the season began.

“The backbone of the previous Welsh Assembly lease remains,” Martin added, “protecting salmon stock with a fish limit, and protecting our ancient fishery and our way of life.

“We are concerned that the new lease makes it easier for NRW to close us down, but we had no alternative but to sign if we wanted to keep fishing and we are just hoping they’ll allow us to continue.

“We’re allowed to catch 15 fish as a group between June and August, or a maximum of five a month. ”

To find out more, visit www.blackrocklavenets.co.uk