How fast do Salmon run up a river?

[yeoman]

I was wondering if anyone knows how fast a salmon runs upstream in a river,given enough water.
How long,for instance, might it take a fresh fish to travel 20miles upstream Off a spring tide and good water.

[Deleted]

Less than a day for 20 miles assuming no major obstacles. I have caught salmon in the Don in Aberdeenshire that were fresh as they were dripping sea lice and the beat was that distance and more.

[flyboxfan]

I read somewhere that a salmon can travel at between 3 and 5 mph for periods of a few hours, then they rest and move again. Can't find the reference so dependent on my memory which may not be that good.

[Deleted]

I found this on pacific salmon...can't imagine Atlantic are too different

Vying with coho for the title of second largest species of Pacific salmon, chum reach adult weights exceeding 20 pounds. Adult fish typically spawn within a few miles of the ocean in one of the 900 short coastal streams of British Columbia. A few strains do, however, migrate long distances up major rivers. Yukon River chum, for instance, return to the same one hundred yard stretch of gravel 2,000 kilometers from the ocean.

Although normally found in small coastal streams, chum, like other salmon perform great feats of physical effort in reaching their mating waters. During ocean migration, salmon travel distances as great as 35 miles per day, and, once in their home river, may swim over 10 miles upstream each day. A flick of the tail and a salmon erupts from the water at 14 miles per hour.

[BarleBlanker]

Salmon leaving the estuary run at two speeds, very slow and very fast.

The very slow runners always stop just below your fishing but when they move again they become very fast runners and shoot straight past you.

The ones that start off as very fast runners don't stop until they are just above your fishing, then they stop or become very slow runners!


Andy