Borgie Delight
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 27 July 2006 10:57
- Written by Bruce Sandison
Neil Gunn’s book, Highland River, opens with an account of the capture of a huge salmon. Not by the nose, but by the hands of a small boy walking the banks of Dunbeath Water in Caithness.
It is one of the finest pieces of angling writing that I have read and I suspect that the story was based upon Gunn’s own childhood experience.
Neil Gunn was born in Dunbeath and he was my kind of angler; wandering the moors, exploring the silent places, hills, glens and lochs of the far North. His descriptive writing about the land he loved and the people who inhabited it is an enduring memorial and record of Highland life during the first half of the 20th century.
Our northern streams are, however, spate rivers, nae water nae fish. Some owners try to moderate the flow. The Helmsdale is fed from Loch Badanloch, Loch nan Clar and Loch Rimsdale and Scotland’s less well-known Bannock Burn. These headwater lochs act as a reservoir so that in low water conditions fresh water can be released into the river. The Thurso operates a similar system from Loch More. The Naver benefits from the lochs to the south of Ben Klibreck, Choire and a’Bhealaich.
Nevertheless, by and large, northern salmon fishing success depends upon rain and being in the right place at the right time; a state that we anglers dream of, constantly, but all too infrequently achieve. Our inevitable lot is to be greeted with the cry of: “You should have been here last week!” or to see dark rain clouds gathering just as we are about to leave.
It is possible to reduce the odds by fishing when it is most certain that there will be an adequate flow: the spring months, from early January until the end of April. Every angler will agree that catching one spring salmon is worth catching ten autumn fish, but it is invariably savage entertainment trying to do so, cold, hard work.
Part of the problem, in recent years, is that spring salmon have been largely noticeable by their absence; coastal and estuary netting, high-seas netting and, quite simply, man’s greed, have dangerously depleted migratory fish stocks.
There are indications that this decline, at least in East Coast and South West rivers, has been halted. This is largely due to the efforts of Icelander Orri Vigfusson and his North Atlantic Salmon Fund who have been successful in negotiating the buy out of interceptory netting stations; in particular the monstrous English North East Drift net fishery that preyed upon salmon returning to Scotland’s East Coast rivers.
In the meantime, however, one small Highland stream, the River Borgie, often has outstanding spring sport. From March until the end April more than 50 salmon may be caught; wonderful, steel-strong, bars-of-silver fish, almost too beautiful to contemplate. Their average weight is generally in the order of 8lb/9lb, but quite a few double-figures fish are also taken. Indeed, the Borgie sometimes out-performs its more illustrious Sutherland and Caithness neighbours during the early months of the season.
The Borgie springs to life in the Flow Country south of Ben Loyal; tumbling down Allt Dionach-caraidh burn into Loch Coulside, close by the A836 Lairg /Tongue road. At Inchkinloch the stream enters Loch Loyal and exits four and a half miles later through lochs Craggie and Sliam to form the main river: a seven mile series of 50 pools that eventually empties into the sea through the golden sands of the beach at Torrisdale. July, however, is the ‘prime time’.
This is salmon-stalking country, often with a single-handed rod. Wading is not required and even in low water conditions there are deep holding pools where salmon lie. The most infuriating of these pools is below the swing bridge on Beat 3. I often see fish jumping in this pool but I have never managed to persuade one to ‘take’, no matter what I offer. 
Perhaps the most dramatic of the pools is Falls Pool, also on Beat 3. It acts as a temperature pool, holding the fish in the main river until May. There are two sets of falls overlooked by a fishing hut. They are not easy to fish and it is difficult to disguise evil intent from the fish because the angler, of necessity, is so close to where the salmon lie.
When fishing the rest of the river, to have the best chance of sport, keep away from the bank, below the skyline. Wherever possible, lengthen your line to cover the lies, rather than tramping down the riverside. The water is generally crystal-clear and the slightest error will spook the fish. Watch and wait. Don’t chuck and chance it.
The Borgie is let with a splendid lodge close to the river by Mather Jamie & Partners and early booking is essential. Day tickets are sometimes available on the lower beat, the Association Water, which is great fun to fish and often as productive as the upstream beats, particularly in low water conditions.
Borgie Lodge Hotel is a comfortable and welcoming place to stay, also close to the river, and the hotel can often arrange fishing on other nearby salmon streams; Halladale, Forss and Thurso, and on Loch Hope which is now Scotland’s premier sea-trout water. Dunbeath Water was Neil Gunn’s best-loved Highland River, the little Borgie is mine.
Further information from: Martin Ward, Mather Jamie & Partners, tel: 01509 233433
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 Sandison 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.