What do salmon eat in the sea?

Fly fishing for salmon is, to some degree, still a riddle – and anglers will spend countless hours fishing over seemingly uninterested fish that have left a greedy, a la carte life at sea to return to their place of birth, fully nourished and with little or no need or desire for sustenance…Suddenly – and with no reasonable explanation – the fish will rise from the bottom to grab your small fly.

Is it hunger, a memory of food or just frustration that triggers this irrational event? We can’t tell, but it inevitably has to do with the behaviour and characteristics of the food salmon have been feeding on for millions of years –

Follow us to see the treats on the salmon menu carte as we delve deeper into the mind of this most demanding and frustrating of gastronomes

It has been an eye-opening experience for us to uncover the information on salmons feeding behaviour at sea – and we think that you will be equally entertained when you see the images of these rarely seen critters.

Here Hyperoplus immaculatus commonly known as Sand eel or sandeel

A common denominator in all the evidence we have read about salmon feeding behaviour is that Atlantic salmon are opportunistic feeders that will eat the food at a given location and time.