COLUMN: I have yet to fish the Tweed and to catch a grayling
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Northern Lines by Keith Williams
Somehow January passed without me managing to put a fly into the water.
Despite the opening day ceremonies on the Tay, Dee and Tweed featuring on news bulletins, I was not tempted to venture out.
Over the last few days, however, I have been sorting through my fishing tackle in preparation for the season ahead. The Oykel has recently got off the mark for the season with a nice salmon, the first time in a while that the Carron did not produce the first fish for the Kyle of Sutherland rivers.
The first trip of the season is usually close to home – not least because I invariably forget a vital piece of equipment and have to return to base to collect it.
A little later on the year I will visit other rivers for a day or two, in addition to my annual trip to the Hebrides.
Next month I hope to take advantage of a kind invitation to fish on the Spey, a river close to my heart. Fifty years ago, it provided me with my first trout and subsequently put salmon and sea trout into my fishing book.
I particularly enjoyed night fishing for sea trout in the Grantown area with my late father, and have taken a notion to revisit some of my old haunts.
Contacting a feisty sea trout in the inky blackness is something that lives long in the memory. That will have to wait until early summer, though.
Perhaps other rivers will be visited, particularly those that I have fished before but have yet to produce a salmon to my rod. It is always nice to add another river to the list of those where success has been found.
If I put my mind to it, I can combine visits to see friends with a trip to rivers close to where they live.
The Tweed is a river that I have never fished and yet I have stayed but a few miles from it on many occasions.
Likewise, fishing trips could be added into my itinerary when I go back to Cornwall to visit family. After all, I spent many days fishing there in my youth.
It does not have to involve salmon fishing, either. I have never caught a grayling, and the previously mentioned Tweed is a noted river for the species. As a bonus, they can be fished for in the winter months well after the close of the salmon and trout season. Sea fishing is also something I hope to indulge in again. The advantage with sea fishing is that you can eat at least some of the catch.
Dr Keith Williams is the director of Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries, which supports conservation initiatives in the Kyle of Sutherland catchment area.
