Big water hampered fishing last week with 2 roaring spates washing out 2 days. A good week was expected on the back of the previous week but the river stayed unsettled. However against the odds another 30 fish were reported and the highlight being a magnificent 7 for Borrobol rods on beat 6 Thursday with fish up to 23.5lbs. Beat 6 is holding back a good head of fish in the high cool water and has fished well with the river in dropping mode. See spate here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxU6oCX0k1A

Borrobol Ghillie Glen Macdonald shows off their super 23.5 pounder.

The Association water also suffered. 2 fish were lost in the Flat pool but Mr Kent Hakansson Sweden dropped in for a cast as the Thurso was also on a washout day, he scored with a solid 10 pounder fishing a Monkey tube.

Kent with his tide fresh fish on the Flat pool running at around 2.5 feet

Well we all know what the real big topic of the week was! I'm not in a habit of getting too involved in politics but I will make the following observation on the General Election result in Scotland. There is no man/woman alive other than a delusional one who could view the result as anything other than a giant step towards independence. Speeded up ofcourse by people like Owen Paterson today showing his condescending best form and mocking the Scots again by stating "they need to stop dipping into the English piggy bank and can't expect to have free healthcare and holidays to Lanzarote paid for by England"! What?? You may get away with inappropriate comments like this in the pub with mates but not on Sky News, which incidentally was so shocked by the rant that they removed it from the end of the video link! Little wonder the Scots want to break free.

Whatever your stance on the matter, it is safe to say that the SNP can no longer be looked upon as a separatist minority and they need to be taken very seriously. We all know the politics and how it may affect our sport. I get the chance to discuss the pros and cons regularly with many angling clients online and visitors/locals in the Tackle shop and from what I can make out, a small minority still seem brainwashed citing horror stories of imminent Mugabe land grabs and their fishing and jobs being ripped away etc, this of course is utter hogwash! Salmon fishing is a heritable right same as costal netting and therefore cannot be messed with. The most grotesque highland land grab occurred 200 years ago during the Highland Clearances and it isn’t going to happen again anytime soon whatever the land reform forecast.

As long as I am involved in the sector I will be fighting for what's best for this river, believe me I know exactly how important the river is to the local economy so a fishing "free for all" which is also being branded around will never happen and anyone using this line to satisfy their SNP bashing stance needs to wise up, grow up, and start looking forward with less xenophobic grievance. There is nothing wrong with an appraisal from time to time, fishery management is long overdue.

So, lets hope the fish keep running - onwards and upwards on that front!

The Russian and Norwegian seasons are about to kick in also so don’t forget that we are on a buy 3 get 1 free on all flies until the end of the month. If you are fishing tubes, we have a good range of strong doubles and singles plus a big selection of great international flies, have a good look through our website or call me for advice on putting a selection together.

I had a client send me a fly I tied for him over a year ago, it has hammered fish abroad and on the Naver 2 weeks ago when 70 were caught in total for the week. I forget its name but it sure looks good and has a sparkling translucent Polar Bear underwing. The fly pic below is unvarnished and rolling off the vice.

 

 

Well