Seton Gordon 1886-1977

[Wildfisher]

Anyone who is interested in Scotland?s wild places could do worse than buy a few books by the Scottish naturalist Seton Gordon. Born and raised in Deeside and of aristocratic stock, the late Mr Gordon published many books from the early 1900?s through to the 60?s.  The writing style is of a bygone age, but is none the worse for that. Get a  glimpse of how Scotland used to be with many historical accounts and local legends. The author was a keen botanist, bird watcher, an international authority on eagles and a keen trout and salmon angler.

His books in certain sections, are, to be honest, perhaps a little repetitive from time to time and many are becoming expensive collectors items. Still, if you are happy to collect editions other  than ?firsts? you can expect to find a few in specialist Scottish second hand book sellers.

Grand  reading on a winter?s night.

[Wildfisher]

Here is a typical extract from one of Seton Gordon?s books ?A Highland Year?, which as the title suggests  is a monthly diary of a typical year in the Highlands.  Here he is fishing for salmon, in July,  on the River Dionard in the far north, probably in the 1930?s.  This gives an insight on how good these rivers were in the early part of the 20th  century, large runs of fish, no salmon farms. The last paragraph is an interesting insight in the ?genetic purity? argument   of different rivers. Seems that stocking with salmon from other systems was quite widespread even back then. I read elsewhere these stockings were from heavy Shin fish. My own copy of this book was printed under wartime austerity conditions, the paper is tissue thin and there are no embellishments at all. Back then  the middle and upper reaches of this river had to be reached on foot, this is no longer the case as new tracks have been built to facilitate the rich lazy salmon anglers who fish these places nowadays. I often wonder if such ?improved?  access is a loss or a gain? This extract is worth reading all the same



Highland Days ? July ? Seton Gordon

The great salmon rivers of Scotland which flow into the North Sea are at their best in spring or early summer, but on West Highland rivers July is the most productive month of the year. On the Dionard river, near the north-west seaboard of Sutherland, the best fishing month is July. I have had happy days fishing the Dionard with my friends Commander and Mrs. Fergusson. One midsummer day I recall when there had been a spate the evening before and the river was in grand order. For a month of fair weather you may fish the Dionard (you won't fish it at all in low water unless you are foolish) without a rise to reward you, for it is a river which is entirely dependent on rain. But if the rain comes at the right moment when fish are awaiting their opportunity to run up from the sea pools, grand sport is assured. Rain did come on this occasion, just at the right moment. There was a strong head of foaming amber-coloured water when I fished Heather Point that afternoon. I quickly landed a clean-run salmon of 7 Ibs. at the head of the pool, and when about half way down, my fly a few minutes later was seized by a heavy fish. For half an hour I played him, and the longer I played him the more I was impressed by his size. I had strong gut and a stout rod, but do what I could I could not bring him to the shingle. After half an hour he was tiring and set off down stream; when he turned on his silvery side I saw that he was a very heavy fish, but shortly afterwards the fly came away and he remained resting, not on his side, but in a natural position in a 'stream' at the tail of the pool, near the bank and in perhaps two feet of water. I put on a monster fly, and tried to 'foul-hook' him with it. Time after time I scraped him with the fly, but the current was too swift for the hook to strike home. So played out was he that he took not the least notice of these attentions, which would have sent a fresh fish streaking like an arrow away to deep water. I then saw approaching Major A. Carmichael and his gillie John George MacKay, who had been fishing higher up the river. I walked over to them, told them what had happened, and asked them to come and see the fish, which had been lying in the same place for a good half hour. John George thought he might gaff the monster. Very cautiously he waded into the river, but as he poised himself for this critical action the salmon, sensing danger, swam slowly and sedately away into deep water. In a letter to me in the autumn of the same year (1943) the Gualann keeper, George Ross, writes as follows:

'I saw the big fish in Heather Point several times during the season and she was twice hooked but broke the cast on each occasion. She was about 37; to 40 Ibs. I saw her twice on the shallows above Heather Point during spawning. I am sure this is the fish Mr. Seton Gordon had a hold of in June.?

The fly with which I was endeavoring to 'foul-hook' the big fish was many sizes too big for fishing a river in summer temperature (The lower the water temperature the bigger the fly' is a salmon-fishing maxim) but, to see what would happen, I went back to that part of the pool where I had hooked the great fish and made a cast. The fly had scarcely touched the water when a salmon almost as large as the fish I had lost sprang after it with a mighty splash. I was so greatly taken aback that I struck too soon, and so lost the opportunity of playing two exceptionally large fish on the same day in the same pool.

There seems to be little doubt that the salmon of the Dionard are considerably heavier than they were, or perhaps I should say there is a small proportion of much heavier fish than any caught in the river ten years ago. It has been suggested that the reason for this is to be found in the increase of weight in the salmon of a neighbouring river, the Laxford. Spawn brought from other rivers has produced a run of heavy Laxford salmon and I am told that in the streams in the neighbourhood heavy fish are now being seen.