The reintroduction of salmon into the Rhine and its tributaries has continued since the launch of the 2000 salmon plan. A new management plan for migratory fish in the Rhine-Meuse basin was launched in 2016. Since the end of the years 2000, between 60 and more than 200 salmon have been recorded each year at the Iffezheim Fish pass on the Rhine. See details of the fish counted on the Saumon Rhin association website.
On the Bruche, the salmon go up too.
In November 2004, prior to the construction of the fish pass, nine salmon were counted at the foot of the Avolsheim dam on the Bruche, before being returned to the top of the fall. Unfortunately they were only males. The Avolsheim Dam on the Bruche, formerly considered impassable for salmon, was equipped with a bypass river type pass in 2010. Since then, spawning grounds for salmon and sea trout have been discovered annually upstream of the threshold.
This superb salmon measures 96.5 cm for 8,200 kg and was captured in the Iffezheim trap on Sunday, December 17, 2000. He was of course released upstream, after full scientific review!
On December 11, 2005, Jacky VOELKER, manager of the fishing tackle store “Fario” in Dorlisheim, caught (and handed) by fishing the pike with the dead fish, a salmon from 64 cm by Ernolsheim on Bruche. I personally found myself with a 80 cm salmon passing 20 cm from my wading shoes by fishing the graylings on the Bruche at Molsheim in the fall of 2015. The previous year, between Molsheim and Avolsheim, still fishing the grayling at the end of the season, I picked up, fishing with a nymph, a very large fish, total silvery, very fine and lively. I would not swear it was not a salmon.
These experiments suggest that it is also possible for a fly fisherman to catch a salmon in Alsace, even if it stays difficult.
