Colin Macleod’s dream comes true on the magical River Findhorn
THERE IS SOMETHING almost mystical about the Findhorn. Ever since I was an aspiring young salmon-fisher reading about it in these pages, it has seemed to me a river removed; hallowed ground.
Stories from friends who had fished the river helped develop the legend in my head, not least the tale of two friends who had a springer each from the first pool of the morning one dream day in May. But as I grew older and started exploring the fishing world past the Isle of Lewis, for some reason I could never organise a cast on the river.
When the opportunity came for a late-summer day on the Cawdor Estate to produce a film for our Spate YouTube channel, I was excited yet a little apprehensive —could this little river live up to my unrealistic expectations? As we all know, expectation is the enemy of the salmon-fisher.
The Cawdor Estate enjoys seven miles of the River Findhorn as it cuts through the Drynachan Valley, renowned for its excellent catches of salmon and trout, especially sea-trout. The estate has three beats, from top to bottom: Ballachrochin, Daless and Dalbuie. It’s picture-perfect Highland fishing in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. We were to fish primarily on the Daless section at the kind invitation of estate manager Phillip Arkell, a keen fisher.
Contrary to the image you probably have in your head at this moment, Daless has well-formed pools that would be more at home on the middle Oykel than on this river notorious for its pot-filled gorge, but that in itself is one of the best features at Cawdor —it has a little of everything from the almost inaccessible lower section all the way to a wild, exposed moorland stream.
I’m not one for little pots and gullies. My favourite fishing is where I can see a pool in its entirety without feeling too intimidated. By which I mean a nice streamy head flowing into a medium-length pool with a glassy tail; wide enough to warrant a decent cast but not too wide to make you feel like getting across will be a struggle. Well, that’s Daless in a nutshell. I loved its pools; they work a fly in the classic Highland fashion —not too fast, not too slow —just right. Of course, being a Highland river, in the height of grilse season you’re going to want to pull your flies a bit, and you’re going to need water.
Findhorn is a spate river and you pay your money and take your chance with the weat
