What section of the Spey did you fish? I was there this fall but only fished for a few minutes with a single hand rod because that’s all I had time for. I was in Aberlour. Did you tour any distilleries? I can’t wait to go back and hire a ghillie, Scotland is an amazing country, especially if you love whisky and traditional fly fishing.
You’ll find yourself severely restricted fishing a single hander in Scotland, as you probably know. There’s a reason why we call the Double Handed rod the “Spey Rod”. It is not difficult to learn the basics of two handed casting. I do it poorly, but as my ghillie said my sole redeeming quality was I knew what to do when the fly finally got in the water.
Setting aside the traditional dress, the Scots are not as traditional about fishing as appearances suggest. They are master innovators when it comes to things like tube flies, weighted line techniques, and other aspects.
All fishing on rivers in Scotland is private, so gaining access requires research and can be expensive.
On separate visits, I’ve fished:
Wester Elchies – Beautiful beat just upstream of Aberlour and all my fish have come on this beat. Directly upstream of Easter Elchies, which is the home water of the famous Easter Elchies House, the “chateau” featured on the bottle of The Macallan whisky.
Carron – Also beautiful, more difficult to fish. Expensive.
Grantown (on Spey) – A beautiful stretch of water is available by joining the Association and fishing as a guest. I’ve never fished it in good conditions but had 1 fish on here. Probably the most accessible prime-time beat on the Spey, but heavily fished.
I have visited other beats, it’s very enjoyable there and I could easily spend a month fishing up that way.
I’ve visited distilleries all over Scotland including some of the most far-flung like Highland Park on the Orkney Islands.
As a note to the fly tiers, very few people still fish the traditional “fully dressed” salmon flies like the Green Highlander. These are largely seen as beautiful relics of the past. Almost all salmon fishing is now done with modern flies, mainly tube flies. The ability to control depth and drift is pretty much everything.
If ever anyone wants to go, get in touch and I can give specific recommendations on Ghillies and water to try to gain access to.
Grouse
