Chapter 13 – Lies, Damned Lies, and Catch Returns
IN THE latest instalment of Not Exactly Fishing, Gordon Mack ponders the values of catch returns and makes his own analysis of a week’s fishing this summer in South Uist.
Continue ReadingWild salmon campaigners launch new websites
THREE new websites launched recently by the salmon and sea trout angling lobby are worth bookmarking. While the general objectives of the sites are not identical, there is a common topic which is clear – the ongoing campaign to raise awareness of the risks of untrammeled expansion of inshore salmon farming to wild migratory fish….
Continue ReadingChapter 12 – Paradise Lost
In the latest instalment of Not Exactly Fishing, Gordon Mack recalls how his beloved hill loch retreat, tucked away off the beaten track in the foothills of The Cuillin was unexpectedly burgled.
Continue ReadingLochhead ‘breathtakingly wrong’ say Arran conservationists
IT is comforting to note that I am not alone in identifying the SNP Government in Scotland of being long on rhetoric but coming up short on action when it concerns many aspects of marine conservation. And Richard Lochhead, the fisheries minister stands accused again of being out of touch with reality in the latest…
Continue ReadingYes it’s a record-breaking shark – er, well actually offically it isn’t
TWO record-breaking sharks, caught off south-west Scotland by sea anglers taking part in an official tagging programme, have highlighted the bizarre rules governing official statistics of UK catches. Two of the largest smoothhound ever seen in Scottish waters were captured by Steve Frayling and Guy Stewart of Paisley-based Silverlure Sea Angling Club and weighed in…
Continue ReadingTaransay – fishing dreams of the wildest west
SO, Ben Fogle is keen to buy the ‘castaway’ Hebridean island of Taransay. I hope he’s successful. He is one person likely to ensure it remains what it is, a small jewel of isolation in our increasingly crowded world. I have been fortunate to visit it on several occasions as a result of family ties,…
Continue ReadingChapter 11 – Why I know crime does pay
EVER gone on a fishing trip with the lads and been tempted to run a small sweepstake to liven up proceedings? Not Exactly Fishing reveals how a smart London coarse angler with an inside knowledge of underworld crime, ran off with the profits on a fly-fishing holiday to the wilds of Scotland’s remote Sutherland.
Continue ReadingHas your candidate signed the salmon pledge?
IT IS heartening today to see two organisations calling for our politicians to stand up and be counted – at least as far as supporting the future of our wild fish are concerned. As I suggested here at the beginning of the year, that action to put our politicians on the spot on the future…
Continue Reading2010 a bumper year for Scots salmon anglers
SALMON anglers in Scotland had a bumper year in 2010 according to provisional figures released today. Rod catches of salmon are expected to be well over 100,000 – the highest since consistent records began nearly 60 years ago. More than two-thirds were released back into the water. But the record-breaking total – and the prospects…
Continue ReadingUnder-water beach-casting . . .
SIX weeks in Brazil for anyone with an interest in fishing, seems like too good a chance to miss. The opportunities, like the country itself, stretch far and wide from striped peacock bass and giant catfish in many of the rivers of Amazonia to marlin, tuna, sword and sailfish in the Atlantic coastal waters to…
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