Caernarfon
Photographs of Salmon Fishermen
Supplied by David Ellis

Hi Dafydd,

            Sorry I can’t send better photos, the photos you see are from a cine camera transferred to a video then snapped with a digital camera, I might be able to get better once later on.
             I am told that there is only one film of the salmon netting of the Caernarfon fishermen, the one I saw lasted about 4 min. I have 2 films of the fishermen but only from the 60's, they were also taken with a cine camera, one is from the beginning of the season to the end, the other are just bits, some day the films will be worth a bit as it was a bit of history of Caernarfon which will never come back, there was 7 boats operating from the dock at one time, I believe that the Salvation Army held one licence to help the poor, other stories are that the Royal Navel Reserves had another,  but in 1981 the river authority and the Seiont and Gwyrfai Angling Association called for a public enquiry to remove the salmon nets,
            No net licence was lost at that time so the river board at that time reduced the fishing area from 67 miles of coastline to just 2, the increase in the net licence went up 10 folds making is impossible to make a living, another rule was that if a licence was handed in or the licence holder died- the licence would also die.     
            What a pity, so many locals and visitors would spend all the tide just watching the salmon fishermen and listening to the jokes and leg pulling from the crew,  all I can say is that I spent 25 best years of my life fishing the Menai Straits, so did a lot of others.
             As I said I will try and get you better photos, do your best with what you have for now.

Kind regards

David Ellis