Below is a blog I wrote in 2013 but I found interesting given the initial findings of the Missing Salmon Project. Why can I not find salmon fishing on the River Spey? An interesting question and using the River Dee as an analogy, one that’s fairly easy to answer! Prior to the “perceived” collapse of rivers run the 1990s, irrespective of social background, or anything else for that matter, the chances of fishing those classic beats of the River Dee during prime time, at best,

Our fishing courses on the River Spey and River Findhorn. Speyonline casting courses and salmon fishing Holidays offer a level of service un

The two sides of the hatchery debate.

How Tackle and fewer Salmon has changed fishing.

10 years in organising and hosting fishing holidays, running fly casting and fishing courses and being connected to what is the world's most recognisable fly fishing brand, has taken me to a place where I now need to involve a few more people to keep up with demand for our, "first rate service" (not mine, but the words of our clients). I began “Speyonline” at the same time as I joined Hardy as their principal salmon consultant back in 2007 and two years later, after training

I had a lovely day in the company of Ian Neale www.speycaster.net on one of the beats he manages on the River Findhorn yesterday. I have to say, for the trout fisher, looking to break into salmon fishing, this river really has it all. However, don’t be fooled by that statement, its not the smallest of rivers and in most cases, in this part anyway, requires a double handed rod to make the best of it. This said, even here on this beat, some pools are perfectly easy to fish sing

What makes a good fishing holiday? Plenty of fish? Good company? Nice beat? Relaxation? Good service? So, given the numbers of fish we have at the moment and will have in the next years. As a salmon angler, what would you say is the most important of the above ? Plenty of Fish – Given the information we now have courtesy of the internet, everyone knows that 98% of salmon fishing is now very similar, I.e. outside the 2% of generally inaccessible beats, The chances of catching

The middle week of March is often “Ghillies Week” on Tulchan, so the week is given by the estate to the Ghillies to invite their friends for a cast on those fantastic beats. Although the first main run of fish seldom appears here on the Spey until nearer the end of March, there are always a few fish running the river at this time. Interestingly, when I began ghilliying in 1985, many of those early fish would run the river and be caught on the middle and upper Beats, however,

A lovely day with friends on the river yesterday and a conversation with a certain estate factor yesterday, reinforced to me the need for me to get my book written and another film made. With so much changing in the world of salmon fishing I believe I owe it to my friends, the salmon fishing community and wider public to tell the story of what's really happened here of the past 40 years. As a hint to part of the content, I’ve found this lovely little film on Steelhead fishing

Why I take my clients abroad to fish for salmon.

The good old days “I remember when we used to caught 20 before lunch”, “aye and 15 of them were over 20lbs”. All my fishing life I have heard stories like these and thought, the fishing must have been fantastic at that time, I was born 50 years too late! The period they were talking about was the 1950s, 60s and, to a certain extent early 70s. This really was the heyday of Salmon fishing on the River Spey, and indeed most other Scottish Rivers. There were more fish spawning

Ian Tennant (head Ghillie on the Brae Water) and I were discussing how the river had now become a spring river, with little or no grilse. Significantly shortening our potential season. The conversation reminded me of this interesting piece I wrote in 1999. Grilse were described as vermin in the 1990s. The picture above shows a nice catch on the Spey on the 6th Sept 1995. What we would give for some of those fresh grilse now! Commercial angling in the 1990s has become big busi