The Salmon King
As an antidote to the same old stuff they were pedalling at the game fair this year (see previous note) I would recommend Crawford Little's article on Colin Leslie, the retired Tay ghillie, featured in the August issue of Trout and Salmon Magazine.
Fishing magazines are often criticised for running similar material year after year but, when you think about it, the way we fish has not changed radically over time. Neither have the fish. That great new pattern promoted as this year's "wonder fly" may well resemble those that have gone before.
Leslie makes the point in the article with a swipe at Alistair Gowans who created the Ally's Shrimp (if you read that article, incidentally, I can tell you that I am not impressed by wobblers and other fancy attachments.
The T&S article doesn't name Gowans (did they think he might sue?)but Leslie, quite rightly, points out that the Ally's Shrimp is simply a hybrid of the General Practitioner. "I fished those flies before he was born," says Leslie.
I love the article because it gives a flavour of the banter and rivalry between ghillies. Indeed some of the current Tay ghillies were scoffing at Leslie's book title, "Scotland's Salmon King" when I met them in the spring. "Aye ye'll be wantin' to meet the sage o' Cargill," said one of them, stifling a giggle.
What Leslie doesn't point out in the article is that the vast majority of spring salmon caught on his ghillied beat, Cargill, would have fallen to the Kynoch killer - a plastic fish lure harled from the back of the boat.
He is pretty scathing too about the Spey cast. But I think a well executed Spey cast is still worth learning and vital for rivers where no back cast is possible.
Like many other Tay ghillies he swears by high strength Maxima line and I think he has a point as I discussed in my Oykel blog here.
His memories of fishing shrimp - he says he introduced the method to the Tay - brought back memories of my own. When I first went up to the Tay in the late 70s, part of the tackle were jars of dyed prawns and buckets of worms. Those days certainly have gone on the Tay and will not return.
There is some great advice about how to fish a fly and a spinner - he is a strong advocate of the sinking tip, even in summer (but then the Tay is a big deep river). he also worries that anglers can sometimes fish too small and I would agree with that.
Lelsie caught a number of big salmon in the 40 lbs class and one of 56lbs which was such a poor specimen, he said, he fed it to the chickens. This fish, I notice, has not made it into Fred Buller's Domesday Book of Giant Salmon (mentioned here).
I'm not saying that everything about a ghillie's job is perfect but spending your life by the river, catching big salmon, drinking whisky and chatting with interesting people, knowing that you're the expert who they must respect, well there are worse ways to make a living.
I haven't read Scotland's Salmon King (Melrose books) yet but it's on my list.
Fishing magazines are often criticised for running similar material year after year but, when you think about it, the way we fish has not changed radically over time. Neither have the fish. That great new pattern promoted as this year's "wonder fly" may well resemble those that have gone before.
Leslie makes the point in the article with a swipe at Alistair Gowans who created the Ally's Shrimp (if you read that article, incidentally, I can tell you that I am not impressed by wobblers and other fancy attachments.
The T&S article doesn't name Gowans (did they think he might sue?)but Leslie, quite rightly, points out that the Ally's Shrimp is simply a hybrid of the General Practitioner. "I fished those flies before he was born," says Leslie.
I love the article because it gives a flavour of the banter and rivalry between ghillies. Indeed some of the current Tay ghillies were scoffing at Leslie's book title, "Scotland's Salmon King" when I met them in the spring. "Aye ye'll be wantin' to meet the sage o' Cargill," said one of them, stifling a giggle.
What Leslie doesn't point out in the article is that the vast majority of spring salmon caught on his ghillied beat, Cargill, would have fallen to the Kynoch killer - a plastic fish lure harled from the back of the boat.
He is pretty scathing too about the Spey cast. But I think a well executed Spey cast is still worth learning and vital for rivers where no back cast is possible.
Like many other Tay ghillies he swears by high strength Maxima line and I think he has a point as I discussed in my Oykel blog here.
His memories of fishing shrimp - he says he introduced the method to the Tay - brought back memories of my own. When I first went up to the Tay in the late 70s, part of the tackle were jars of dyed prawns and buckets of worms. Those days certainly have gone on the Tay and will not return.
There is some great advice about how to fish a fly and a spinner - he is a strong advocate of the sinking tip, even in summer (but then the Tay is a big deep river). he also worries that anglers can sometimes fish too small and I would agree with that.
Lelsie caught a number of big salmon in the 40 lbs class and one of 56lbs which was such a poor specimen, he said, he fed it to the chickens. This fish, I notice, has not made it into Fred Buller's Domesday Book of Giant Salmon (mentioned here).
I'm not saying that everything about a ghillie's job is perfect but spending your life by the river, catching big salmon, drinking whisky and chatting with interesting people, knowing that you're the expert who they must respect, well there are worse ways to make a living.
I haven't read Scotland's Salmon King (Melrose books) yet but it's on my list.
Labels: Alistair Gowans, Colin Leslie, Crawford Little, Fred Buller, ghillie, Kynoch Killer, River Tay, Trout and Salmon Magazine
posted by Richard Donkin at
11:06 AM
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