FISHERMAN on the River Wye have enjoyed a much improved catch of Atlantic salmon this year.

By the end of May, more than 400 fish had been landed since the season started on March 3, which is the best spring since 1996.

In addition, anglers have been catching salmon as large as 35lbs.

Catches in May were double the five-year average for that month while one beat reported catching 10 salmon in a single day.

June started well too, with a further 24 salmon reported on the first day alone.

Many lucky anglers caught their first ever salmon on the Wye this year.

Rufus Ulyet, from the West Midlands, had not caught a Wye salmon for 25 years but managed to land four in one day from the Wyesham beat on May 18.

All the salmon caught were returned to the river to continue their journey upstream to spawn this autumn and to continue the build-up of numbers for future years.

In the early part of this century, the Wye’s spring salmon catch barely averaged 60.

The upturn follows a decade or more of work to put right the damage done to stocks of this iconic and economically-important fish.

The work has included fish pass construction and barrier removal to re-establish access to spawning grounds, restoration of juvenile habitats, and buying off commercial netsmen.

On the upper Wye, a pioneering scheme has been developed specifically to restore those streams affected by acid rain and, more recently, to reduce the effects of agricultural pollution.

Crucial to the upturn has been the increasing numbers of fish that were released to repopulate the areas of the catchment re-opened and improved.

Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith, executive director of the Wye and Usk Foundation (WUF) said: “There have been encouraging signs that the salmon stocks were recovering over the last five years but 2015 has been the best to date.

"We are always hostage to such things as unfavourable weather and algal blooms, but this is promising to be the best year since the stocks collapsed more than 25 years ago.

"Our project partners the Wye Salmon Fishery Owners Association (WSFOA), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Environment Agency (EA) deserve special thanks for their essential support during the bleaker years.

"We are once again welcoming visitors from all over UK and the continent to fish and stay in this beautiful part of Wales and the Marches.”

For Natural Resources Wales, Peter Gough, Senior Technical Fisheries Specialist, said: “The start to the 2015 season is really encouraging and the Wye is performing better than the majority of other rivers.

"The exceptional work to restore the catchment needs to be repeated elsewhere if we are to maximise the numbers of smolts (juvenile salmon) going to sea.

"This is a great return for all the hard work put in by WUF and all of the active project partners on the river, but we still need to stay focussed on the remaining challenges.”

Keen Wye salmon angler Tom Rigby said: “Anglers have been fishing in expectation rather than hope this year and with a real spring in their step.

"We've seen the best catch of spring run salmon for two decades and they just seem to keep on coming in from the sea.

"I can only snatch the odd hour fishing but I've managed three on the fly for an average weight of just over 20lb.

"Friends fishing the local rivers are all talking about how wonderful it is to see such a strong run of fish.

"The work the Wye and Usk Foundation and their partners have done opening up fresh spawning areas, improving water quality and reducing acid levels has been pivotal to this revival.”