New face at helm of Kyle Fisheries
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Ashe Windham (63), has been elected chairman of the Kyle of Sutherland District Salmon Fisheries Board and its associated charitable arm, the Kyle Fisheries Trust.
He succeeds Richard Sankey who served for three years and has gone on to become chairman of Fisheries Management Scotland.
Brought up in Ireland, Mr Windham served as an officer in the Irish Guards for 11 years and then worked as a stockbroker in London, moving on to head up the internal communications function of FTSE 100 firm Man Group plc.
He presently runs a small private office for a family and is a non-executive director for two financial firms as well as serving as a charity trustee for a number of worthwhile causes.
In addition he is an extra equerry for Prince Charles and helps organise his summer visits to The Castle of Mey.
Fishing is his passion and he caught his first fish, a minuscule trout, when he was just six years old.
“I have been coming to the far north for 45 years, mostly to fish, and we now have a home at the top of Strath Oykel,” he said.
Mr Windham, who has teenage triplets, said he hoped to carry on the good work of his predecessors in improving the habitat for all fish in the trust’s catchment area which includes the rivers Oykel, Carron, Shin, Cassley and Evelix.
The chairman’s role is voluntary and there are elections every three years.
Kyle Fisheries is presently working to combat the effects of climate change, planting deciduous trees in upper tributaries to provide shade for juvenile fish in hot summers, and reprofiling peat banks to stop peat laden run-off, thus providing a better habitat for fish and the endangered freshwater pearl mussel.
