2025 Salmon Stocks Assessment & 2026 River Gradings

Roger Dowsett

Added on 03 November 2025

Salmon Catches on the HiFly Map & Website

We have today published version 1.4.1 of the HiFly Map which updates the salmon catch data for all 111 river/loch systems that fall into the Highlands map coverage area.

This data is presented on the individual Salmon Fishery map pins, as histograms of annual catches by month, for the 5-year period up to and including 2024.

We have also updated the 5-year catch histograms displayed in the listings, for each of the Salmon Fisheries on this site.

While 2024 salmon catches were up significantly from 2023, which was the lowest since records began in 1952, there are still many fisheries on the west coast and in the Hebrides with few or zero reported catches.

Anecdotal reports suggest that catches in the Hebrides at least, may be under reported.

River Gradings 2026

In August, the Scottish Government published its 2025 Salmon Stocks Assessment and proposed River Gradings for 2026. In the Highlands, most of the larger rivers on the north and east coast have their Conservation Status designated as ‘Good’ (previously Category 1), while most of the smaller spate rivers on the west coast and in the Hebrides are designated as ‘Poor’ (previously Category 3).

The Conservation Status has improved for 7 fisheries:

• The conservation status for the Inver, Kanaird & Barvas (Lewis) rivers have all been upgraded from Moderate to Good.
• Dunbeath Water, Kinloch, Morar and Steisavat (Harris) systems have all been upgraded from Poor to Moderate, meaning they are no longer compulsory 100% catch & release.

4 fisheries have been downgraded:

• The Wick River & the Hinnisdal River (Skye) from Good to Moderate
• The River Etive and Laxadale Lochs (Harris) from Moderate to Poor.

All Salmon Fishery pins and listings have been updated, and a new map layer showing colour coded river paths updated for the 2026 gradings, has been created for the Aquaculture map.