You need a little luck to see some species of wildlife, and fortune was on my side as I peered into the River Laxey on the Isle of Man’s east coast. There below me, holding in a pool, was the first wild Atlantic salmon I’ve ever seen.
At this time of year, salmon run up the Laxey to return to their breeding grounds, and the locals aren’t far behind – angling for them and sea trout in the rivers forms part of the government’s unseen economy. The thing that I needed to look closely at was the tail: if it was square-cut, the fish was a sea trout, but in this case, the concave fin was conclusive.
