Martin Ellis was out filming with a GoPro camera mounted on a stick when the fish cruised into view, its speckled flanks and powerful tail picked out against the chalk stream’s swaying weed.
He has spent more than five years recording life beneath the surface of the Test and says this is the first time he has filmed a salmon, raising questions about what the sighting might mean for the health of the river.
Sharing the image in the Daily Echo Camera Club, he said: “Is that a sign of improvement in water quality or because of the low water levels? Your thoughts?”
it comes after salmon fishing on a stretch of the river was banned for the first time earlier this year.
Numbers of Atlantic salmon have crashed to what experts describe as crisis levels.
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has warned that chalk stream salmon are now at risk of vanishing altogether, with only low hundreds returning to the Itchen and Test in recent years where thousands once ran.