Salmon Fishing

Bit of an odd request I know but I want to organise a surprise for my girlfriend's birthday.

She is totally addicted to smoked salmon so I want to take her away for a weekend's salmon fishing.

Ideally I'm looking for somewhere where as beginners we could fish for our own salmon and, if we caught any, we could arrange to have them smoked. I'm thinking Ireland or Scotland.

I've googled and found a couple of possibilities but does anyone have any recommendations?

I'm aware that this thread will probably degenerate into fish based puns but i need kelp!

takes tips from goodhead on good girlfriend gifts

My girlfriend likes chicken
perhaps I should take her to a farm to catch a few, we could arrange to watch them get de-featherd and have their throats cut
Genius! She'll be so chuffed

My girlfriend likes black pudding...

http://www.inchbegfishingschool.com/

http://caughtbytheriver.net/

Dunkeld - it's beautiful

Word of warning -it's not like mackerel fishing, it takes some people years to catch a salmon. There are certain places and times when it's more likely but your looking at serious £££

Ireland.
will be a bit cheaper, i fished the river lee and blackwater a fair few years ago.
amazing watching them leap in front of you but not a bite for me. salmon do not eat while in the river so you are trying to get them to snap at something they used to eat. i could already flycast and you will need the basics unless you go spinning but that's cheating and many waters do not allow this.
maybe try trout fishing as it's cheaper and more accessible. sea trout are nicer eating but i don't know if you can buy a days fishing as easily.

If all else fails, take her here:

http://www.formans.co.uk/

^ tis a good smokery.
Gf's dad designed their new building, so we got a ton of stuff free.

Some fisheries, gravel pits and the like where they raise fish from eggs then release them into lake, have started to stock land-locked salmon, which will be much easier to catch, but probably more fatty and less tasty than wild ones...many have huge rainbow trout too..I think some fisheries have on-site smokehouses...

Not an expert but you may find that many fisheries have a stict limit on how many fish you can take (as low as 2)....and some you have to put them all back (coarse fisheries?)

I'm going fishing myself this very afternoon....here in Germany, where, like France, they absolutely expect you to eat the fish!.....

Thanks for the answers / pm's all - some good tips.

I'll update once I've got there.

Salmon don't feed in freshwater,nobody knows why they take the fly. Some anglers fish all season and blank,if I was you I'd do a whisky tour, I can recommend the Aberlour distillery.

Thanks but my girlfriend hates Whiskey. Which kind of defeats the point...

... red wine however...hmmmm

trout > salmon

Word of warning -it's not like mackerel fishing, it takes some people years to catch a salmon. There are certain places and times when it's more likely but your looking at serious £££

This. I've never caught a salmon despite having been groomed from an early age by my dad who's an obsessive fly-fisherman. He's only ever caught a handful in his 60 years.

That said many people, for a more 'guaranteed' trip (as if any fish catch is ever guaranteed) head to Scandinavia. Norway is a biggy. Can be very pricey but if you research it well it could be good value and a heck of a trip. The numbers of salmon in UK and Eire rivers are really suffering - for a variety of reasons - drift netting/habitat loss/aquacultured (farmed) fish escapes (whether interbreeding/sealice etc).This is also the case in Norway but the numbers are still greater there than here. And also the sizes of individual fish over there are usually considered bigger.

Key salmon rivers in Norway are the Namsen, the Suldalsagen, the Beiar and the Stjordal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-x-NiiedjM

vangerris!