Rainbows in the River Exe

[Flyboxfan]

Earlier in the year (May June) there was some talk about Rainbows in the Bolham area of the River Exe. These were not the usual escapees as they were much larger, I caught a small one (over 2 1/2 lb) but some were very much larger than that and one of them that I saw was larger than the 7lb salmon that I caught last year. They were very pale, without spots but had the pink band running along the lateral line. The appeared in small groups of about half a dozen fish. But disappeared again after a couple of weeks and haven't seen anything like them since.

Various explanations were heard... slob rainbows that had gone down to the estuary, rainbows that had spent a short time at sea, large escapees

Did I dream all this or did anyone else catch one, see one or hear of themjavascript:add(%22%20???%22)

Many thanks

[Pete Tyjas]

Hi,

IMHO they are probably larger escapees. There are a couple of fish farms on the river just upstream and I have seen them caught up to around the 5lb mark. Steelhead on the Exe would be pretty cool though!

I remember a time when I had a free couple of hours on the Taw and water looked good for salmon.Second cast I was slammed by a fish. I couldn't believe my luck and on bringing the fish in saw it was a rainbow. I took the fish and it weighed just under 7lb and judging by the colour of the flesh and contents of the stomach had been in there quite some time.

[flyboxfan]

Thanks for that.

A friend (who is much more experience at fishing and catching rainbows) than I am thought that it wasn't a normal rainbow, being totally washed out and having no visible spots. This may be explained by the fact they could have been in the river a long while. Rainbows to 6lb have be caught on this beat before I fishes it.

[sandy]

A few escapees have been known to run the River Awe in Scotland after visiting the Sea in that area. They lose a lot of their colouring and it is usually only the male fish that keep the pink stripe the females are often just all silver like a fresh salmon.

Unlikely to be breeding though as nearly all Rainbow escapees are Triploid so they'd be short lived.

Sandy B.O.