A Small Fisherman is Born!

I have just returned from a few days fishing on the River Lochy near Fort William. It is one of my favourite rivers, even though I have never managed to arrive in the right week at the right time. In fact I have only caught one fish in four or five trips, however as I get older and definitely wiser there has come a realisation that catching a fish is not the only thing to enjoy on a fishing trip.

Anticipation of an event is a very enjoyable thing in its own right and here the Lochy comes into its own, as it has a run of seriously large spring and early summer fish. The feeling that any contact with a fish could be one of these salmon, keeps ones enthusiasm going and hope really does springs eternal. When this sense of excitement on the river is combined with lovely fly water, varying wildlife and differing views of the majesty of Ben Nevis from every pool, perhaps someone who has not fished there, can start to understand what makes it special. This is further enhanced by the privilege of fishing with our professional ghillie Willie Ritchie who has such enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the river and its environs.

On departing Appleby with Eddie Braithwaite on the Tuesday evening after the annual horse fair it was raining and continued to do so all the way to Fort William. My hopes rose as I was aware that the Lochy had had no water since very early May and that the fish were waiting in Loch Linhe ready to run. Sadly when we arrived it was apparent that the Lochy catchment which is north west of Fort William had missed the rain. Life though does have its compensations, I had booked a new lodge for the party, which had recently been refurbished and it was simply splendid right down to a master bedroom where Edward and Mrs Simpson had been guests. A first meal of local langoustines freshly caught that day and a roast rib of beef from Comrie soon made me forget the low state of the river.

Despite the low water we fished hard on Wednesday and Thursday and did see the occasional fish. On the Friday Willie kindly offered to take Father and I trout fishing on Loch Akraig. It was a 25 minute drive up to the loch which took in the Caledonian Canal and Loch Lochy itself as well as several splendid views and a succession of very nice properties. The loch itself was very impressive some 18 miles long, 500 ft deep in places with lovely mountain scenery. Willie was waiting when we drove up and we were soon in the boat motoring up the loch on an ideal overcast windy morning, with a decent swell on the water. I was really looking forward to this as I had never participated in proper highland loch fishing before.

After motoring 3 miles or so we stopped and started to fish the drift. Willie had set us up with fairly stiff 11ft single handed trout rods with a team of 3 flies on each and we were instructed to cast them as far as possible and strip them rapidly back in. If we felt a anything at all then an immediate positive strike was in order. After a while I managed to get into a reasonable rhythm and achieved an adequate distance on my casts but not as far as Willie when he took over Fathers rod. It was surprisingly hard work and requires concentration at all times or boy can you get into a mess! We tried hard for some 4 hours and apart from one take that did not hook up we caught nothing, apart from a tired cast of mine that caught Willie's hat and plucked it clean away into the water. Apparently the trout fishing in the loch normally goes off around early July and Willie speculated that perhaps it had happened earlier than usual. A shame, but it was still a great experience that I will have another go at in the most lovely of surroundings.

On Saturday morning we met up with Willie on Beat 1 and amazingly the water had got even lower and it just looked hopeless for salmon fishing. I therefore tackled up for wet fly trout fishing with my 8ft Merlin. Jerry and Teresa arrived and I suggested that as they had not really fished for trout before they get Willie to take them for the morning and teach them how to catch some trout. With my second rod and a borrowed rod from Willie we were soon organised and went our separate ways. I started of with my usual North Country spiders, a greenwells on the tip and a snipe and purple on the dropper even though I had been given some home tied local flies. It is great to see if what works at home is effective elsewhere. My first fish caught me totally by surprise, second cast in quite fast water, a nice beautifully marked half pounder. I continued to catch fish all morning of all sizes up to 2lb on both flies, truly great fun, one forgets how well they fight and what speed they can move at. I was late for the rendezvous as I forgot the time but so had everybody else! Jerry and Teresa had both caught fish and we had all kept one trout for lunch. Whilst comparing experiences it occurred to me what an opportunity it was to get my nephew William into his first fish so I asked Willie if he would take his young namesake out after lunch!

William was impressed with our fish for lunch and soon excited about having ago himself in the afternoon. After an excellent lunch of pan fried trout in butter and olive oil, for once we were on time and hoping that the trout were still taking. Willie took William under his wing, teaching him how to wade properly in the river and to cast. Soon William was getting knocks but was not quick enough to convert them into hooked fish. The two Willies moved downstream with official photographer Teresa ready for the big moment. I stayed with Jerry and he soon got into a good trout in a spot where I had some success in the morning. We then moved down to join the others and say goodbye to Willie and there was one beaming nephew who had caught 4 fish, including 2 at once. I wish that I had caught my first fish at seven and a half instead of 27 ½! Willie then left to go and teach fly tying to the youngsters of Fort William. Whilst our William was keen to keep fishing. We got my spare rod from the car and he was soon into his first fish totally on his own. It was his biggest fish of the afternoon and was proudly taken home, a true hunter gatherer in the making and a lucky one to have had such a special start to his fishing adventures. Touchingly, I think he realised, as walking up from the river he asked if I had Willie's number. He then rang him and told him about the fish he had caught on his own, and thanked him for teaching him.

I guess I have really come back in a full circle to where I started. What a brilliant fishing trip we had, even on low water and no salmon. The whole party from Eddie who came with me just for the craic and to do some walking to Richard and Sally Clark who fished a little but toured the area and retreated to the royal bedroom each night, we all had a ball.

trout fishing at The Tufton Arms

Early Season Salmon Fishing on The River Dee

On an early season trip to Lower Crathes near Banchory on The River Dee for the first time in my life I encountered “grue”. I was aware that suspended ice in the water could prevent fishing as my Father had encountered grue many years earlier on the Tweed and I could clearly remember his frustration of not being able to fish Hendersyde at the time.

We stayed overnight at Comrie on the Sunday night and set of early in the morning to miss the rush hour traffic through Dundee and made good progress. The route through Fetticairn was blocked with snow so we carried on to Stonehaven and cut across to Banchory. Although very cold it was now a lovely sunny morning and as we turned inland the scenery in the snowy landscape was lovely. Our spirits were high and as we got to within a few miles of the river we noticed several fields where the snow was sparkling as if there were a million diamonds embedded in it. We stopped and tried to take photographs but unfortunately they could not do this natural phenomenon justice. Doubtless it was caused by the temperatures of -10c creating ice crystals that were refracting the sun, but it was fantastic.

We carried on and rapidly reached the bridge downstream of our beat and were horrified by all the ice floating down the river and Father became a prophet of doom with gruesome tales of grue. On arriving at Crathes we met up with Cleeve and started learning more about grue. How many days it could last for, what was required for it to stop. Apparently a rise in water could stop it which would be associated with a rise in temperature, however as the prospects for Monday were non existent, we went and took possession of our two holiday cottages on the Inchmarlo Golf Course. Strange to be on a golf course under 5ft of snow and I still have no idea where the fairways and greens are, and will have to go back and have a look another time.

After a good first night and a bit of session to put the worlds to rights we did not rush to the river, as Cleeve reported that there was still grue everywhere but he hoped it might clear by the afternoon. Sadly it did not, but being of a inquisitive nature we did try and fish for the hell of it. There were now big rafts of ice coming down where the the grue had been compressed together by ice narrowing the channels from each bank. The only choice was a wet cell 2 and a big tube. It was quite fun in that there were small areas of clear water between the rafts of ice that were moving quite quickly and to hit them was a bit like dry fly fishing with a 15ft rod! We got better at it, Cleeve thought I am sure that we were mad and there was definitely very little chance of a fish, but at least we tried. I felt very sorry for Paul a friend who was on his first fishing trip after having some casting lessons on the Eden a few weeks earlier. I had thought that it would be a great introduction to Scotland and Salmon fishing and that he would at the very least get hold of a few kelts. I have fished for 20 years for salmon in February and March and never lost a day to grue and he had already lost his first 2 days.

After an excellent evening where Paul revealed well hidden culinary talents to produce a quite awesome curry, that will make him even more welcome on future trips. Rose and I decided to drive up the valley to Balmoral and see if the grue coming down was getting any less further upstream. Driving past Potarch Bridge we saw a ghillie breaking ice in readiness for his rods and were encouraged a little by this. The temperature was still – 10 and the gritters were out in force going along in tandom which I had not seen before as we arrived at Balmoral. The castle was shut up, but we stopped on the charming bridge built by Brunel and looked at the water and there was not very much grue present. After a stop in Ballater always a lovely little town I think, we returned to Crathes full of optimism. When we got there the river was still grued over. Robert the ghillie from West Durriss paid us a visit and we found out more about the vagaries of grue. It forms in the large pools on plant matter or on shingle where small portions of ice form in the water which is at freezing point. As these get bigger they start to float and rise to the surface a bit like the crushed ice you get from supermarkets. The bridge over the Dee at Balmoral had little grue because it is in a long rocky part of the river where the water cannot get a fixing to freeze the same. Apparently there can be grue above Banchory and some beats below Banchory can still fish. Fascinating but still no good to us!

Finally on Friday morning we could fish, the grue was largely gone, but there were large chunks of ice coming down, some of which were 10 metres across and several inches thick making wading very dangerous. But at least we were all fishing, sadly the two Pauls and Father had to go home at lunchtime and John Young and big Gavin from the River Earn had arrived to take their place. Conditions were improving in the afternoon and the ice rafts had passed through, however the river was starting to rise a little and colour up, I therefore decided to put a brighter fly on and chose a Dee fly that Paul Zissler had copied the year before on a brass tube that had some orange in it. Third cast once I had lengthened I had a take, quite gentle, my first thoughts were a kelt and I did not disturb John Young fishing downstream of me. The fish went on a little run and I started to hope that it was a springer as there was none of the head shaking movement that kelts often give. I put some pressure on and moved the fish back towards me, it came for a bit and then it was off downstream a solid 120 yard run. No chance now of not disturbing John, and he went for the net. The fish came back steadily and I got the backing back on the reel and we had a good tussle until it went on another long downstream run, this time I had to get out the river and chase it down the bank, trying to not let it get too far away. I had got to within about 75 yds of it when to my horror I saw a large chunk of ice about the size of A2 paper moving down my fly line. Helplessly I watched the ice move along the line and force the salmon to the surface, so that I saw the ice with the salmon's head above it. There was then a jolt and a lurch and the ice had gone, amazingly I still had the fish on the end of the line but something was wrong with it. The fish was wallowing in the side of the stream and drowning and appeared foul hooked in some way. I carried on down the bank retrieving line and managed to get some sideways pressure on the fish which could not fight at all and rapidly I was able to sweep the fish over John's net. A relief as it was a lovely hen fish of some size and I was in danger of killing her. The hook was stuck in her anal passage and this explained her inability to swim. We rapidly got the hook out and resuscitated her in the 32 degrees water, thankfully she was soon away with no harm done. John pronounced that it was a good “wee fish of some 15lbs” I argued that it was heavier having held it and felt its weight and put it in the records at 16lb.

As a sequel on looking at the photograph of myself and the fish and attempting to gauge the length I think that it may have been more than the 16lb. On discussing this with John Young he told me that actually he had had in his land rover a proper net for weighing fish but had forgotten it in all the excitement. I commented that this was a pity as it would have been nice to have settled the discussion to the fish's weight. John answered “It does not matter, the net would not have made any difference at all, the fish would still have weighed 15lb!” Which I guess proves it is impossible to have the last word with a scotsman! John did manage to catch a fish the next day which suggested that we could have had a decent week with out the grue.

Salmon Fishing at The Tufton Arms

Sea trout and Salmon Fishing at Newton on the River Lune

River Lune May 28th 2009

I had received a lovely invite to fish on the River Lune from Rob and Annie Rusby and although I have a lot of things going on at the moment, the temptation to go got the better of my conscience. I managed to get off straight after lunch and arrived at the fishing below Kirkby Lonsdale at 3.00pm. As the Rusby's were delivering wine and not arriving until 4.30pm I elected to fish the top most pool Coneygarth, as I had plenty of time to walk up there, and the two labs Tia and Bolly would get some exercise. A quick look at the river revealed a nice water of perhaps a foot above summer levels with a good tea coloured stain to it.

As I had been invited primarily to fish for salmon I put my salmon rod up and after some deliberation elected to put a fairly bushy size 8 cascade double on. However remembering successful times for sea trout later in the season in the past I decided to add a dropper and try to cover all eventualities. The wading is very easy in this pool and I do not think that the bottom is rocky or weedy so I felt it was worth the risk of fishing two flies. Having added a smaller thunder and lightening type double as a dropper I set of.

The afternoon had got even better, it was warm still but some cloud had come over and I walked upstream with some optimism. The pool has a fast running neck which runs into a widening main pool which continues on for some distance gradually getting slower. On this height of water the pool was still a good 200 yards long. I went in just below the neck and was relieved that by tapering my leader and using different sized flies they were turning over perfectly even though I was spey casting rather than overhead casting as I wanted to fish fairly square. After about a dozen casts I got a take as I was stripping near the end of the swim. It dashed of and I thought sea trout immediately and after a brief fight I beached a nice 2lb sea trout on the large cascade which I returned. As I continued down the pool I caught a further 2 sea trout all on the cascade of a similar size and was starting to regret not fishing with my sea trout gear as the fish were outfaced by the 15ft salmon rod.

I then went back to the top of the pool and as the water was clearing rapidly and had fallen back a little I started higher up the neck in the much faster water. I was rewarded with three more sea trout in quick succession and a feeling of pleasure and elation at seeing and catching so many sea trout. The last few years have been increasingly tough for catching sea trout over the whole country and it would be fantastic if there is a recovery in numbers. I returned all the sea trout but would have been tempted to have kept one but did not as I thought that the law prohibited taking all migratory fish until June 15th However on catching up with Robert and Annie they asked if I had kept one and I said “no its illegal” Robert informed me that it was legal to keep a sea trout and that the laws just apply to spring salmon. I disagreed and several friends in the hotel later agreed with me, but a quick google in the morning proved us all wrong and an apology to Robert was due.

Sadly the clearing of the water and a slight drop in temperature signalled the end of the sea trout though Robert did catch a 2lb plus brownie which the water there is stuffed with. We rounded of a special afternoon for me with a meal back home at The Tufton. I owed Robert a favour so I did the wines out of my own cellar. A 1997 Alsace Pinot Gris, Grand Cru as an aperitif and to go with various starters. A 1998 Château Corbin-Michotte to complement the local racks of lamb. Definitely the highlight of the evening the Corbin was judged blind by Robert and he placed it initially as an older wine of perhaps Figeac or Ausonne class in St Emillion. I was delighted as I have several cases of it and have much pleasure in store. With cheese and putting the world to rights we enjoyed an old favourite from Beaune, Phillipe Dufouleurs 1997, Cents Vignes. A perfect end to a wonderful day.

Sea Trout Fishing
Salmon Fishing
Vintage Wines in Cumbria

Spring Salmon Fishing a Fickle Affair

Each year on the completion of the shooting season my thoughts turn immediately to salmon fishing and I experience a desperate yearning to get the rods out and get started. So when Frank rung with an opportunity to kick the season off on the River Dee fishing West Durris and Lower Crathes I said “yes” immediately. It is a world famous beat that I had never fished before and was a chance to get started a week earlier than usual.


We commenced fishing with the two Roberts on Monday 16th February on a nice morning but with a rising water, which sadly by the end of the day was up to 6ft and still rising. I did get an appreciation of what a fantastic beat we were on, a veritable oasis of fly water for nearly all heights of water. Though unfortunately for us not at 6ft plus. We did fish on the Tuesday and caught a few kelts, but the highlight of the day was a casting demonstration from world champion Gordon Armstrong who was fishing with us. Equally remarkable was watching Franks 12 year old son Tom casting after just one day of tuition from Gordon. Not a big lad for his age but using a 14ft rod with a full sunk line he gave a perfect imitation of Gordon’s technique casting a good 25 yards plus with fantastic turnover of the fly. A lesson for us all in that timing and technique are a lot more effective than power!


On Wednesday though the water had dropped below 6ft and was falling and we felt we had more of a chance. I was put in second pool below the bridge and although the water was still very high it was possible to slow the fly down enough to stand a chance. As I got half way down and was covering the stream past a little promontory I had a good solid take just as I was slowly stripping line near the end of the swim. A good fight followed and I started to look for a beaching place, but to no avail. I then tried On Wednesday though the water had dropped below 6ft and was falling and we felt we had more of a chance. I was put in second pool below the bridge and although the water was still very high it was possible to slow the fly down enough to stand a chance. As I got half way down and was covering the stream past a little promontory I had a good solid take just as I was slowly stripping line near the end of the swim. A good fight followed and I started to look for a beaching place, but to no avail. I then tried ringing Robert on my mobile but no signal! The fish was still fighting well and perhaps had been on for 20 minutes when Mike French and Robert hove into view to change pools a welcome sight. The fish soon netted we estimated at 17lbs, what a start to the season. I then offered the pool to Mike who said "no finish it of" I went back to about a pace behind where I had hooked the fish and lengthened out my line and first cast hooked another fish of some 12lb. Both fish had been in the river for a few weeks and we speculated that they had possibly come back down stream on the flood.



This first trip was also notable for the extreme numbers of kelts that we caught many of which were fish quite recently spawned that had run the river late. A mention also for The Banchory Lodge Hotel where we were very comfortable, well looked after and the food was especially good.

Salmon Fishing Breaks

Salmon Fishing on The River Ness

September 21st - 24th 2008

I have just been lucky enough to enjoy 3 days fishing at Ness Castle on the River Ness in Ross-shire. The River Ness is only some 7 miles long and connects Loch Ness to the sea. There are only 4 private beats plus the town water in Inverness itself and the season is relatively short from July to October so it is always a privilege to get a chance to fish it. This is enhanced at Ness Castle by the splendour and comfort of the fishing lodge and "fishing bothy" allied with the excellent food and service that go with it. If all this coupled with wonderful fly water for 5 rods was not enough, the icing on the cake comes with the presence of Gordon Armstrong the world casting champion and David Stewart who has such a depth of knowledge and understanding of the river as your ghillies. When an invitation comes to fish here no is not an option!

One of the thrills of salmon fishing is the glorious uncertainty of it. This was perfectly illustrated on our first morning. Having tackled up a vast array of rods that John Noriss's had lent me for various friends to try who had not got any tackle. I set off to the Ladies Stream with Nick who had never fished before to get him introduced to casting and fishing. A nice surprise was when he grapped the oars and proved a far more adept boatman than myself and admitted to a lifetime spent sailing and racing yachts. The river was in excellent condition running at 1ft 9ins and a great height for the ladies stream. However we were on the left hand bank with a fairly stiff downstream wind so Nick had to start of with learning left handed double speys. After the usual few abortive attempts Nick soon picked up a serviceable cast that was getting a reasonable amount of line out. Some casts went impressively out to the end of the leader and I explained how this meant that the fly was swimming properly for the whole cast and more likely to take a fish. Other casts did not go as well and Nick started wanting to know what was wrong with each cast when it did not extend. We were in the process of analysing such a cast when suddenly the line moved and he said "I think I've got one". I had gone through the rudiments of playing a fish and Nick did a good job and soon got the hang of it and we ended up beaching a 6lb grilse within 40 minutes of him commencing fishing. Gordon arrived and we could not stop laughing at the improbability of it all. Nick could not understand why we found it so amusing so we told him a few tales of friends who had taken seven years or more to catch their first fish to try and put things into perspective. Amazingly Nick went on to catch 2 more fish the following day to prove that it wasn't luck and will take some persuading about how difficult salmon fishing is!

No mention of Ness Castle would be complete with out reference to celebrity chef George Mckay in the kitchen and his excellent team of girls who look after you like kings. After being lucky enough to sample George's food last year, this year we came armed with an impressive collection of wines designed to do the food justice. Thanks to the generosity of my hosts we were able to match a rare roast fillet of scotch beef with a 1998 Beaune, Clos de Roi, Phillipe Dufulour, 1999 Vieux de Telegragh, Brunier with roast grouse, 1997 Mersault Perrieres, Drouhin with Turbot and 2000 Puligny Montrachet, Les Folatieres, Drouhin with a fruit de mers of lobsters, langoustines and crabs.

My 3 day trip was made perfect on the Wednesday afternoon by a lovely 8+lb sea liced cock salmon from the lady's stream netted by David. As it was so fresh I kept my first fish of the season which will then be sent to Neves our fish suppliers in December to have smoked for Christmas Day. If you can it works far better to keep the fish frozen and then have the smoked salmon back fresh than it does freezing smoked salmon.

As always it was a pleasure to fish with Gordon again. There is something about having the world casting champion walking along the bank towards you that renders one incapable of casting properly. The previous casts may have been going out superbly but human nature being what it is, you somehow try that bit harder and the results are awful. To Gordon's credit his enthusiasm and easy going nature soon relax guests and enable them to start improving their casting. I am currently trying to re model my spey casting to try and get both hands equally into each cast as I am starting to get elbow pains from my spey casting relying too much on the top hand. Having Gordon to give advice and the odd demonstration during the three days has helped alot though some more practise is definitely required!

Our week was along way behind last years catch of 40+ fish but somehow was just as enjoyable. We did get to double figures with two fishermen getting their first fish Nick and Paul. Frank my host also caught his largest fish to date an 18lb hen having being introduced by Gordon to stripping a collie dog which induced a thrilling take followed by a lung busting pursuit down the bank. Thanks to all our company and everyone at Ness Castle for a special time.


Salmon Fishing
Vintage Wines

Salmon Fishing on The River Gaula, Shooting Heads Versus Spey Lines

The River Gaula near Storen lies about an hour south of Trondheim in the middle of Norway and has a reputation for big fish which are rumoured to average 17 lb+. We got there by Ryan Air from Liverpool to Torp, Oslo and train to Storen. The train journey was comfortable and fascinating. Norway truly does have vast amounts of water, trees and spectacular scenery.

The Gaula was fast running, crystal clear with a variety of pools, some of them being several hundred yards long of excellent fly water. We fished with Arne Flagestaad on the EHF waters upstream of Storen. Arne kindly met us off the train and organised a local car hire firm for us who were very trusting, did not want to see a license or passport and said just drive! My sort of people. The EHF waters comprised of 12 beats of two rods spread over a distance of some 20 km making it essential that each pair of rods had a car. The beats rotated every 6 hours and you really could fish 24 hours a day if you had the energy! However in reality you get a range of pools suiting different heights of water so that you catch up on your sleep when you have a less favoured pool. This does mean though, that the favoured pools get a lot of hammer. The fish in the River Gaula were wonderful and as large as promised with perhaps 8kgs being the average size, but fish larger than this were commonplace up to 14kgs in the week we were there. Having joined the party a day earlier than expected we met up with the party who were all buzzing with the fish they had been catching and seeing. Before supper Father and I thought that we would go for a look along the river and find the different pools from the maps we had been given. Time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted a dictum from an army friend. We soon found the top 2 pools Lillestrom and Trocken. Lillestrom has a very fast running neck with a lovely tail where a huge fish jumped. At Trocken we parked up and walked through the bushes to the river and there was a salmon being played! The railway line runs alongside the far bank and a train came along and blew its horn at the fisherman who waved in return, a nice touch. After a further 5 minutes the fish was beached and looked about the 9kg mark. Father had stolen a tape measure from mothers needlework drawer to measure our large fish, so I offered our measuring service to the fisherman having congratulated him, however he did not require our help as he promptly clubbed it with a large rock! We then returned for supper to discuss the policies of catch or release on different rivers. We found that on the Gaula historically people kept their fish but in the recent past they were trying to return more fish and I think that they managed around 50% in the week we were there.

Our fishing lodge Stortstuu Winses is run by Anne Marit Winses and her family who have been there for some 14 generations. The main house is a lovely old wooden building with a really good feel to it. On arrival we were greeted by Anne Marit and her husband Matt Hayes of TV fishing fame who both put themselves out to deal with us being a day early by putting us up in their own house, rather than have us use the local hotel. This level of care and hospitality was characteristic of our very enjoyable stay. For those alcoholics amongst you who have heard of Norways infamous drink prices, the lodge was not licensed so we could bring our own drink. Much to Fathers relief we found an excellent wine shop in Storen and stocked up for between £10-£15.00 per bottle a little over 2 times the cost of the same wine in a shop at home. Or about the same price as the bar in the Tufton Arms!

Sad to report, Father and I fished hard for some four and a half days and failed to catch a fish. Not something to worry to hard about you may think but when there is a record week for the river going on around you, with some 85 fish caught and the person sharing your beat is the top rod on the river. It has been the cause of much soul searching! Marco a friendly German electrical engineer from Cologne has been fishing the river for some 13 years for two weeks most years and it was his best year. One could not help but start thinking about what he was doing that we were not.

Firstly he fished with smaller rods of 13 and 14ft versus our 15 and 16ft. He used the guideline shooting head system with a seemingly endless range of lines to fish at different depths instead of our carron lines, in floating, intermediate and full sink with a range of tips bought for the occasion. I observed the following characteristics of his fishing. I never saw him wading, he was very quiet and methodical. His spey casting was neat using both hands equally which generally gave a very good presentation of the fly, with complete leader turnover. He also usually cast the fly much further downstream than us. On the pools of which there were several as the water dropped where the stream was on the far side with a back eddy on the fishing side. He would cast and keep his rod high above his head and prevent the running line touching the back eddy so that fly fished properly down the stream on the far side. He would also often as the fly fished down the pool, flex the rod tip slowly, again with the rod held high.

I also observed several locals on different pools all fishing with guideline shooting heads, as were most of the rest of our party who had been going to Norway for several years. The feeling was that the lines allowed you to cast along way more easily, with a lot less effort as well as giving you more versatility in the depth and presentation of the fly. The disadvantage is as the lines are only just over 40ft long, it means you do have to strip in and hold large amounts of line to cast a decent distance and this does become rather laborious. It would also certainly be very difficult and probably impossible for Father with his macular degeneration. I also felt that on large evenly flowing pools were you did want to cast along way our lines allow you to be more in touch with the fly and to fish it faster with a belly if you so wish.

However I am considering getting one guideline set up for our fishing bag! Firstly so that we can fish certain pools better when we have round two with the Gaula salmon in the future and secondly to learn from the experience and fish more effectively in certain situations in our own country. Pol Dornie on Carron and Laggan on The Spey springs to mind, a pool that we rarely fish due to the large back eddy that sucks ones line down. This could be fished very effectively with one of these lines. I have also resolved to be much more careful on the river bank particularly in times of low water. The water was so clear in Norway and there was so much fishing effort that in these conditions everything had to be right to catch salmon. I cannot wait to go and have another shot at those Gaula monsters but perhaps we will leave the tape measure at home next time!

Nigel Milsom

Fly Fishing Breaks