Buckland Frank

Helped the river Wye to prosperity by introducing 700 young salmon from the river Rhine

Daly Doreen

Credited with landing the largest salmon at Cowponds (Winforton) on the river Wye, on 13th March 1923. The official weight of the fish was 59.5 lbs and was 52.5 inches long and had a 29.5 inch girth. It was caught with a 2 inch aluminium minnow that was manufactured and supplies by H C Hatton.

Doreen Daly with the 59lb 8oz salmon caught in Cowponds with J Jellis who gaffed the fish: Picture by kind permission of George Woodward

Duke of Beaufort

Successive generations of dukes of Beaufort have been great benefactors to the Wye by making financial contributions and selling netting rights to the Wye Conservators, thus ensuring that they were viable and were able to carry out their valuable work of improving the Wye.

Gilbert H A

A Wye fisherman, adept at spinning and author of the book "The Tale of a Wye Fisherman" published by Jonathan Cape in 1928 and revised in 1953. He painstakingly chronicled the recovery of salmon after stocks were decimated by intensive netting in the latter half of the nineteenth century. His book makes fascinating reading for any salmon fisherman.

Hatton H C

A Hereford tackle dealer who developed the aluminium minnow, which was one of the most successful spinning baits to be used on the Wye.

Hotchkis John

Champion of Wye conservation who, after great perseverance, turned the fortunes of the river Wye around, mainly by buying up most of the netting rights along the river Wye.

Hutton J Arthur

A great diarist who fished for salmon at Hampton Bishop for the first half of the twentieth century. He recorded a great amount of data on the weather, river conditions, fishing methods, water management and salmon habits, which is compulsive reading for all salmon fishermen. He later went on to become chairman of the Wye Conservators in 1921. Hutton also perfected a method of interpreting the pattern of rings on a salmon scale to establish how many years the salmon had been a smolt and how many times it had returned to the river and how long it had stayed at sea.

J Arthur Hutton outside Colcombe House, Hampton Bishop in 1916: Picture by kind permission of George Woodward

Lloyd John

John Lloyd was great opponent of John Hotchkiss and a spokesman for the netsmen along the length of the Wye. He was a useful member of the Board of the Wye Conservators, initially, and was sent out to inspect fixed engines (nets) that were supected of illegality. However, he later went on the became a poilitician and used his power to impede the removal of netting from the Wye but subsequently lost the bitter battle against Hotchkiss.

Miller Alexander

A very skilled and experienced netsman and was recruited as Superintendent Water Bailiff by the Wye Preservation Society, and was allowed to employ thirty-seven watchers, which was a very large number at that time, who had the job of protecting spawning fish.

Pashley Robert

The most successful salmon fisherman in the history of the river Wye. He caught over 10,000 salmon from 1906 to 1951, most of them with the fly. No less than twenty-nine of these fish weighed over 40lbs. His best year was in 1936 when he caught 678 salmon. He fished the lower Wye mostly at Goodrich and Hill Court.
Pashley was also chairman of the Wye Conservators from 1940 to 1949.

Robert Pashley with a 44lb salmon: Picture by kind permission of George Woodward