The 2011 to 2016 season salmon rod catch data by Stock Assessment Area, was collected at Statistical Salmon Fishery District level and split into stock assessment areas retrospectively by the data providers, where possible. Sea trout data from 2011 to 2016 was not split into stock assessment areas and are therefore, not included. The 2017 to 2025 season salmon and sea trout rod catch data are the summations of reports from individual fisheries. Stock Assessment Area data is not comparable with Statistical Salmon Fishery District data. This is because:
Retained salmon, retained sea trout, and caught and released sea trout are included in the dataset though not used in the stock assessment. However, this does not include catch from below fish counters used in assessing stocks.
Salmon rod effort, and percentage of salmon catch covered by rod effort, from the 2023 to 2025 seasons are included.
No attempt has been made to correct for non-returns or incomplete information held in the register of fishery contacts.
Stock Assessment Areas included in this time series are those where the conservation status of salmon stocks are assessed for the Conservation of Salmon (Scotland) Regulations 2016 and the data will be used in the conservation assessment of rivers for the 2027 season. Assessment Areas are individual rivers draining to the coast, except for those areas where fishery catch cannot be assigned to individual rivers. In such cases, rivers are combined to form geographically-coherent groups of rivers.
A list of Stock Assessment Areas with their corresponding Salmon Fishery District and Salmon Fishery Region is available to download below.
Marine Scotland has published a summary of the "2025 Official Statistics for the time series (1952 to 2025) for salmon and sea trout” https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781807750060. Time series data, by District, are available from "Marine Scotland Data" https://doi.org/10.7489/12564-1 and summary data are available from our data visualisation application, accessible from the related content section below.
Form return rates, from the 1997 to 2025 season, for Scotland are available from "Marine Scotland Data" https://doi.org/10.7489/12566-1
]]>Stock assessment area
Description: stock assessment area identifier
Unit:
Type: categorical
Levels: 173
Note: Stock Assessment Areas are individual rivers draining to the coast, except for those areas where fishery catch cannot be assigned to individual rivers. In such cases, rivers are combined to form geographically-coherent groups of rivers. See resource "Salmon and Sea Trout Assessment areas and corresponding District and Region"
Year
Description: year of season fish were reported caught
Unit:
Type: discrete
Levels: 2011 to 2025
Note: Sea trout and finnock catch is not held by Stock Assessment Area for seasons 2011 to 2016. Salmon rod effort information is published from 2023 onwards.
Month
Description: month fish were reported to have been caught
Unit:
Type: discrete
Range: January to November
Note:
Month Number
Description: number of month that fish were reported caught
Unit:
Type: discrete
Range: 1 to 11
Note:
Released wild MSW
Description: number of wild multi sea-winter salmon reported as caught by rod and subsequently released
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: 0 to 3212
Note:
Retained wild MSW
Description: number of wild multi sea-winter salmon reported as caught by rod and not returned to the water
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: 0 to 1386
Note:
Released wild 1SW
Description: number of wild one sea-winter salmon (grilse) reported as caught by rod and subsequently released
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: 0 to 1138
Note:
Retained wild 1SW
Description: number of wild one sea-winter salmon (grilse) reported as caught by rod and not returned to the water
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: 0 to 456
Note:
Released sea trout
Description: number of adult sea trout reported as caught by rod and subsequently released
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: blank, 0 to 642
Note: Finnock (may also be known as whitling or herling) are not included in the sea trout figures. Cells are blank for seasons 2011 to 2016 because sea trout by stock assessment area is not available for these seasons.
Retained sea trout
Description: number of adult sea trout reported as caught by rod and not returned to the water
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: blank, 0 to 423
Note: Finnock (may also be known as whitling or herling) are not included in the sea trout figures. Cells are blank for seasons 2011 to 2016 because sea trout by stock assessment area is not available for these seasons.
Released finnock
Description: number of finnock reported as caught by rod and subsequently released
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: blank, 0 to 447
Note: Finnock (may also be known as whitling or herling) are not included in the sea trout figures. Cells are blank for seasons 2011 to 2016 because finnock by stock assessment area is not available for these seasons.
Retained finnock
Description: number of finnock reported as caught by rod and not returned to the water
Unit:
Type: continuous
Range: blank, 0 to 196
Note: Finnock (may also be known as whitling or herling) are not included in the sea trout figures. Cells are blank for seasons 2011 to 2016 because finnock by stock assessment area is not available for these seasons.
Salmon rod effort
Description: number of rod days reported as fished for salmon
Unit: rod days
Type: continuous
Range: blank, 0 to 4779
Note: Salmon rod effort is published from the 2023 season onwards. Cells are blank for seasons 2011 to 2022.
Percentage of salmon catch covered by effort
Description: the percentage of total salmon catch which was reported with rod days effort
Unit: percent
Type: continuous
Range: blank, 0 to 100
Note: Salmon rod effort information is published from the 2023 season onwards. Cells are blank from 1952 to 2022 and where no salmon were caught from 2023 to 2025.
Stock Assessment Area
Description: Stock Assessment Area identifier
Unit:
Type: categorical
Levels: 219
Note: Stock Assessment Areas are individual rivers, except for those areas where fishery catch cannot be assigned to individual rivers. In such cases, rivers are combined to form geographically-coherent groups of rivers. The assessment area "North Harris SAC" includes parts of two Salmon Fishery Districts (Fincastle and Resort).
Assessed
Description: describes if Stock Assessment Area is assessed for the Conservation of Salmon Regulations
Unit:
Type: categorical
Levels: yes, no
Note:
Statistical salmon fishery district (1868)
Description: Statistical salmon fishery district identifier
Unit:
Type: categorical
Levels: 105
Note: Salmon and sea trout catch and effort is published at "Statistical salmon fishery district" level which aligns with Salmon Fishery Districts described in The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act 1868. Legislatively, some of these districts have been superseded. The assessment area "North Harris SAC" includes parts of two Salmon Fishery Districts (Fincastle and Resort). There are no Stock Assessment Areas in the Drummachloy, Gour, Orkney and Sanda Statistical Salmon Fishery Districts.
Salmon Fishery District
Description: Salmon Fishery District identifier.
Unit:
Type: Categorical
Levels: 53
Note: The Conservation of Salmon (Annual Close Time and Catch and Release) (Scotland) Regulations 2014 contain links (via footnotes) to district designation orders (where these differ from The Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act 1868). Salmon and sea trout fishery catch and effort is not published at this level but can be created by summing data from the related Statistical Salmon Fishery Districts. There are no Stock Assessment Areas in the Orkney Salmon Fishery District Districts.
Region
Description: salmon fishery region
Unit:
Type: categorical
Levels: Clyde Coast, East, Moray Firth, North, North East, North West, Outer Hebrides, Shetland, Solway, West Coast
Note: See "Collecting the Marine Scotland Salmon and Sea Trout Fishery Statistics" {http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805258438}. There are no Stock Assessment Areas in the Orkney region.