Fishing in Scotland. is it as bad as Fred protrays?

[Highlander]

Open your mind, but be warned, fishing in Scotland will never be the same again.

Fred keeps constantly harping on about how bad the fishing is compared to his "adopted" country New Zealand.

Yes we know that the fishing there can be good there but it is can every bit as good Stateside, Canada Argentina & Chile etc

I take the opposite view Scottish fishing can be as good & on occasions even better than abroad. I would put up The Clyde,Tweed & Don as every bit as good on their day as any other world river. What I do not see with "abroad" fishing is the angling pressure. In all of Fred's pictures I have yet to see another angler, conversely look at any "reasonable" Scottish river & you see other anglers up & downstream. It is difficult on our rivers a lot of the better fish have been chapped but that does not mean they are inherently bad. Yes it is hard going but that makes some of us all the better anglers for it.
We as a small country have 100s of miles of clean rivers & loch & just about everyone holds Trout. Likewise lochs yes many are Bandy waters but little gems lurk there among the bandy lochs. Salmon & Sea Trout waters can be stuffed with fish & yes it is difficult to get on them due to the politics of ownership that other countries do not have. About time it changed but unlikely in my lifetime. No I do not see Scotland as an angling paradise but I do see it as "good fishing" for those that care to look for it.

Tight Lines

[Wildfisher]

Yes  :lol:

[corsican dave]

yes!  : that's what i'm telling everyone anyway....

[Wildfisher]

yes!  : that's what i'm telling everyone anyway....

Especially  the rivers and lochs I fish. They are total mince. Don't go near them.  :lol:

[sinbad]

For me being camped at a lonely hillloch in the west, with a couple of fresh trout frying up at sunset is not to be beaten. For whatever reasons that's where I feel content. Just connects and feels great.
I've traveled to dozens of countries and fished and dived most of them but I'm never in a better frame of mind than when I can lose myself for a while in my native hills. 

[Wildfisher]

Fred keeps constantly harping on about how bad the fishing is compared to his "adopted" country New Zealand.

When we were on our last trip in NZ we met a guy from Orkney in the pub on our 2nd last night, he picked up on our Scottish accents at the bar.  He was blown away with the country and told us he regretted not discovering the country 30 years ago when he was young and employable.  I'm afraid he didn't  have much positive  to say about Orkney (including the lochs), which I thought was a shame, but it must be a pretty dismal place to live for most of the year.   Even Stan left.  :lol:

[Wildfisher]

Well I'm just back in from a few hours on the local river lobbing  heavy nymphs.  Freezing cold, howling downstream gale,  hooked and lost one fish. I felt like a gaucho wielding a bolas.   

Scotland eh?    Absolutely bloody awful it was, wish I hadn't bothered now.  :lol:

[corsican dave]

I felt like a gaucho wielding a bolas.   

you should try a #2 zoo cougar an a 10wt  :wink: i'll let you know what the aliens think about it in an hour or so  :

[Wildfisher]

I usually just stick with a good old, fail me never  Kate McLaren   Dave. It's the universal Scottish fly.  Ask Alan. :lol:

[corsican dave]

it's true! fishing in Scotland is as bad as Fred portrays  :lol: