Salmon Fishing – is it really expensive casting practice?

Salmon Fishing – is it really expensive casting practice?

For the second time in as many months I have heard a well-known sporting agent publicly lamenting the lack of salmon in Scotland and begrudging the money they spend chasing our elusive silver. In the process implying they are calling time on their fishing north of the border, a sentiment I fear widely shared.

I would be a fool to sit here and try and counter their arguments on the number of salmon returning to our rivers, it breaks my heart, but I won’t give up on them. I will however talk about what is still possible and the mindset you need to fish in Scotland these days. I do this because I feel we are in very real danger of talking our salmon into the history books. 

Looking back in my fishing book I can see my first Scottish entries appearing when I was 8, 35 years ago. I caught my first salmon at 9 and since then I have been extremely fortunate to fish all over Scotland, fishing some of the least and best-known rivers and beats, becoming a fully fledged lodge rat! I now spend circa 50 days fishing a year (I cast a line for salmon/sea trout every day, but I don’t count this as a days fishing and my wife must never know….. ) and another 20 to 30 guiding and instructing. My love of fishing in Scotland was embedded at an early age at Kinlochewe on the West Coast and Garynahine on Lewis. 

I would like to think I am a fishing Ted Lasso. My enthusiasm for fishing in Scotland has not and will not be affected by the slump in returning salmon. I have high expectations for the rise of the sea trout. with the sand eel fishing ban and last year’s catch returns, some rivers quietly breaking records! I think most people think I am bonkers when I wax lyrical about my fishing adventures as very few end up requiring the net!

Why am I still so positive? 

I call my mind set a ‘’spate river mentality’’ which developed when I was growing up. Driving from North Norfolk with my parents to fish on the spate rivers of the west and north, fingers firmly crossed that we get rain, knowing that we would have a great time even if our prayers for went unanswered. It used to be said that one in every four years would come good. Beaches, trout lochs and estuary fishing all come into play when the river is not behaving, proper spate river fun. 

 I don’t look at catch averages. Never has anything been more misleading than a 5-year average. Designed in the good old days as an excuse to increase rents or a tool to sell estates, they only tell a tiny fraction of the story. It doesn’t tell you how many rods were fishing, how they were fishing, the water height or how good the fishermen and women were! The idea of using 5 year averages to book fishing on a spate river is frankly ridiculous. When I was an agent, I was always sceptical of those who asked for them. I remember my father’s week on a river being constantly moved because they caught fish. What the agents hadn’t taken into account was that they were up at 6am fishing when conditions required, and they are all really quite good fishermen and women.

 I don’t spend a fortune on my fishing. In his article ''Salmon Fishing - Expensive casting practice'' Mark runs through his annual number of days fishing and his expenditure. I fish a few more days than he does, but I spend roughly an eighth of what he does. His article is based on the premiss that salmon fishing in Scotland has become too expensive for the return. I would argue, if you know where to go and are in the right head space, salmon fishing in Scotland is extremely good value and you can still catch fish. It also hurts less when you don’t....

I can genuinely say without hesitation, that Scotland still offers our young the perfect place to start their fishing journeys. In his article Mark  laments that his children have not caught a salmon yet. My experience is different, both my sons have caught their first salmon, Alf was 5 and Harry 10 when he caught a 16 lbs salmon. The boys are now 12 and 14 and Harry the eldest is mad about his fishing. I worry that if we rather naively paint a picture of Scottish salmon fishing as expensive casting practice, Harry and a handful of others will be the last of us with a passion for Scottish salmon. As we talk ourselves out of Scottish salmon fishing, the young will see our fishing huts turned into ‘’for rent’’ posh wild swimming huts and the lodges become expensive yoga retreats for rather odd London types looking to experience the wild, whilst sitting in a piping hot roll top bath. 

I guess it all comes down to you:  

If you are a salmon nut, Scotland still offers you some spectacular sport, you just need to roll the dice. Think spate!

For those who love fishing and the craic, Scotland hasn’t changed at all and everything you need for a belting fishing holiday is still here.