Following a consultation and an Inquiry, new fishery bylaws affecting salmon and sea trout fishing in Wales came into force on 1 January 2020.
National Resources Wales have issued this press release (extract below).
More information is available on the NRW website .
‘New byelaws which will help protect increasingly vulnerable and threatened stocks of salmon and sea trout in rivers wholly in Wales are in place for the 2020 season.
The byelaws came into force on 1st January and will be in place for 10 years and mean all salmon caught by rod and net fisheries must be released alive with minimum injury and delay.
Measures have also been introduced to help protect sea trout in many of our rivers, with all rod-caught sea trout over 60cm to be released alive.
In addition, new controls on angling methods will improve the survival of released fish so that they can contribute to spawning stocks.
Currently the only exceptions are the cross-border Dee and Wye rivers where we continue to work with Welsh Government on the process to confirm new rod fishing byelaws in the next few weeks.’
An example of the new byelaws for the River Usk is here.
2019 NRW fisheries newsletter here.
See also the poor state of sea trout and salmon stocks in Wales