Salmon Fishing In Assynt
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 24 October 2010 14:37
- Written by Bruce Sandison
For me, the upper beat of the River Kirkaig on the Sutherland/Wester Ross border is ‘the salmon river from hell’. It is beyond compare. I don’t think that anybody has the right to call themselves a salmon angler until they have tackled this part of the river. It is pure mountain-goat country, from Falls Pool at the top to Arrow Pool at the end.
It is fished from the Inver Lodge Hotel (tel: 01572 844496) and Falls Pool reached after a hike of about 40 minutes from Inverkirkaig. The pool is accessed via a descent down a steep cliff face to a casting platform. Even when the water is flowing gently over the 60ft high falls, you are drenched in spray. Afterwards, it is back up the cliff, and then, immediately, down again to fish Lower Falls Pool.
Now climb the cliff once more to find the ankle-breaking track that runs along the hillside. This leads to a series of narrow pools where the slightest casting error has your flies tangled irretrievably in a tree on the opposite bank, or snagged in the bracken behind you.
One of the finest pools is Little Falls pool. It is reached from the main track, but, even then, it is a serious stumble down through the undergrowth. Salmon lie close to the far bank. Getting a fly to them is a work of art in itself, given the limited places from which to cast. Hooking one and holding it in within the pool is just as challenging.
My favourite pool is Otter Pool, so hard to find that sometimes I have passed it by. The last time I fished it, on the way down through the trees my companion slipped, inches from a 12ft drop into the pool. He grabbed the branches of a silver birch with one hand, whilst I caught hold of his other hand and pulled him to safety. During the process, his fishing bag came loose. The last we saw of it was when it hit the water and disappeared downstream.
You will not be able to park your car by the side of the Upper Kirkaig. It is just you, the river, and the salmon. However, having spent a few days stumbling along the Kirkaig’s steep-sided banks, the Inver Lodge can also offer guests a less taxing day out on the River Inver, a few miles north from the Kirkaig.
The hotel has fishing on the Upper Inver and the Lower Middle Inver, both beats being more sedate than the Kirkaig, but none the less attractive and just as much fun to fish. There are three principal pools on the Upper Inver, Loch na Garbhe Uidhe, where the flow from Loch Assynt tumbles in, Lochan an-Iasgaich which is wide extension of the main river, and Turn Pool, downstream from Lochan an-Iasgaich.
Lower Middle Inver is separated from the Upper Inver by a long, private stretch, and it has three principal pools, Mackenzie’s Stream, Brachloch Pool and the Ministers Pool. Having said which, the runs between all these pools, given the right water conditions, are can produce fish and deserve a few casts as you pass by.
Lochan an-Iasgaich is a wonderful pool; wide, with a substantial flow rushing in even in low water conditions. It is easily accessible and wading is safe an comfortable. It is possible to ford the river at the neck, but received wisdom advises you not to do so, because of the possibility of disturbing any salmon lying in, or moving up through the well-oxygenated water.
However, I have to confess that I have often waded the neck because reaching the south bank would otherwise involve a tiresome hike upstream to access a footbridge in order to do so. This may account for the fact that, in spite of my best efforts, I have rarely prevented the residents of the pool from going about their lawful business.
But there can be few more scenic places in which not to catch salmon. The pool is overlooked by one of my favourite Scottish mountains, Quinag (808m), and the whole graceful ridge, from Spidean Coinich in the south to Sail Gorm overlooking Unapool and Kyle Strome in the north, dominates the horizon.
Turn Pool, where Allt an Tiaghaich Burn bustles in has been kinder to me. I remember one September evening, as I was weighing up the relative merits of a few more casts or a retreat to a refreshing pint in the hotel, when my fly stopped in midstream. I tightened into a fish, a salmon of about 6lb in weight and spawning-red, so I carefully unhooked the fish and returned it to the stream.
A few moments later a much larger fish took and after a considerable struggle I managed to bring him to the bank. I did not weigh him because he too was returned, but I estimated the salmon to be in the order of 14lb/15lb. I wish I could say that I returned him without a moments hesitation, but that would be telling less than the whole truth.
Still, good behaviour brings its deserved rewards. A few weeks later a side of beautifully smoked salmon arrived unexpectedly at Castle Sandison, courtesy of a friend with whom I had been sharing the Beat. “That’s nice,”said my wife, Ann,“why don’t we send it to Blair. He won’t often get the chance of wild smoked salmon in China, will he?”
Dutifully, I did the deed and posted off my prize to my son. I didn’t actually tell him that I hadn’t caught the fish, but rather hoped that he might just assume that I had.
Bruce Sandison is a writer and journalist and author of nine books, including the definite anglers' guide, 'The Rivers and Lochs of Scotland' which is being revised and updated prior to republishing.
He contributed to 'Trout & Salmon' for 25 years and was angling correspondent for 'The Scotsman' for 20 years. Sandison writes for the magazine 'Fly Fishing and Fly Tying' and provides a weekly angling column in the 'Aberdeen Press & Journal'.
His work, on angling, Scottish history and environmental subjects, has appeared in most UK national papers, including 'The Sunday Times', 'The Telegraph', 'The Daily Mail', 'The Herald', 'Private Eye', 'The Field' and in a number of USA publications.
Sandison has worked extensively on BBC Radio. His series 'Tales of the Loch' ran for 5 years on Radio Scotland and was also broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC World Service. His series, 'The Sporting Gentleman's Gentleman' and his programme 'The River of a Thousand Tears', about Strathnaver, established his reputation as a broadcaster.
Sandison has had extensive coverage on television. He wrote and presented two series for the BBC TV Landward programme and has given a number of interviews over the years on factory-forestry, peat extraction, wild fish conservation and fish farming.
Sandison is founding chairman of 'The Salmon Farm Protest Group', an organisation that campaigns for the removal of fish farms from Scottish coastal and freshwater lochs where disease and pollution from these farms is driving wild salmonid populations to extinction.
Bruce won 'Feature Writer of the Year' in the Highlands and Islands Press Awards in 2000 and in 2002, and was highly commended in 2005. Bruce lives near Tongue in Sutherland with his wife Ann.