Just in case you don't know: nowadays sea trout is a protected species in Holland. It means that you, if you catch one, no matter if it is in fresh water or salt water, you have to carefully release the fish directly, unharmed !!!!!

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July 21st, 1976, the river Esk in Canonbie (Scotland).

Rob and I have fished all night. Not a single take we got. We heard the splashing of jumping salmon or seatrout in the dark night though. The other anglers didn't get one either. After I have fished a pool, i climb up the bank in the light of early morning. I'm tired and lie down on a nice piece of grass. After a while Rob passes and he wakes me up. Still sleepy I get my rod and wade out in the water, bring out some line and fish back the little black fly that I got from the river keeper. Then comes the pull of a fish and a bit later my first ever seatrout glides into the net. A moment of sheer happyness. The fish was released.

Never ever would I have dared to dream that it would be possible to catch a wild sea trout in the Netherlands. Accoording to the RIZA research, they have, contrary to the salmon, never completely disappeared from the Dutch coastal areas. Since the eighties anglers started to catch sea trout more or less regularly. Often as a valued surprise while fishing for garfish, mackrel or bass. It would be fantastic if sea trout and salmon would establish a good and stable stock on the Rhine and Maas river systems.

December 8th 1985, IJmuiden.
For a while there are circulating rumours that sometimes a sea trout is caught by anglers along the Dutch coast.

After I have tried it myself for a while at Den helder without any success, Bert Rozemeijer takes me with him for a day to IJmuiden. The fog hangs over the water, water is let out. It doesn't take long before I feel a fish slamming my spinnerbait. A minute or two later my first Dutch sea trout is a fact. My biggest sea trout, 70 cm, caught January 15th 1990. After taking the picture the beautiful fish was carefully returned. I hope he or she has made it to the spawing grounds.

Up till now I have not caught one on fly. My friend Frans did, look at the picture at his website.

In the mean time there hase been a lot of research done by the OVB and the RIZA. It proves that wild sea trout runs up the Dutch waterways to the river Rhine and Maas, to spawn in tributaries in Germany and in Belgium.
Read the very interesting news letters about the migration.

Despite the barriers in the form of weirs and sluices etc, some salmon make their way to the spawning areas on several rivers in Germany, like the Sieg, Saynbach, Ahr, Lahn, Wisper etc. and to some areas in Belgium. This is the result of stocking programs. Especially on the river Sieg a few dozen of salmon reach the redds each year. You can read about it on the following links, although the most are in German language:

The Wörpe     Salmon and sea trout in the rivers Sieg, Bröl and Agger Salmon running up the Ahr First salmon retuns in the Wisper The German salmon society. IG-Lahn International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR). The Atlantic Salmon Trust

Now, in 2006, the situation is still far from good. Salmon and seatrout are caught, in particular in the Dutch coastal areas, as secondary catch in the fishing nets. Most of the time they do not survive. Illegal trade is still occuring. So in our country there remains a lot to do to protect the salmon and seatrout and to enable them to reach the spawning areas. On the website of "sportvisserij Nederland" there is a lot of facts, numbers and information to be found, but it is all in Dutch language.

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