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| Charlie with a nice Spey brownie. |
A lockdown in the Highlands where I live is not as much as a hardship as for so many others.
There has only been one major changes to my daily routine and that’s not being allowed to fish.
Every day I take the dog down to the river Dulnain about a mile from where it joins the Spey. Every day I want to take my rod with me!
Having said that I fully support all the lockdown measures.
Most people who come here to fish travel from other parts of the country and whilst they would always get a warm highland welcome they wouldn’t now.
It seems silly that the ultimate self isolation activity is banned but it’s the traveling that’s the problem as the highlands NHS just couldn’t cope with any major outbreak of covid 19.
The angling trust have produced an excellent plan that they have sent to the government for the resumption of fishing. In the first phase it suggests that fishing could take place where people didn’t have to travel so, for example, you could fish your local river, Loch, or canal.
That make sense and, here, it would mean that many of the association beats could allow the locals to fish. Here in Grantown on Spey we have a thriving association whose members are desperate to get back on the river.
Unfortunately, there may be a longer wait for the private beats and a return to river guiding for the Gillies. They and their families though would would probably want to wait and be safe rather than risk the social contact of anglers from the rest of the UK and abroad.
Our thoughts are with them and their families much more than our personal desire to cast a fly.
