Cheers,Pal

IF IT wasn’t for this Beast from the East mularkey, I’d be fishing the Tay today with high hopes of a spring salmon.

A pal of mine had booked three rods on a likely beat back when the rare weather phenomenon was no more than a twinkle in the meteorologist’s eye.

But that’s always been the risk you take booking fishing in Scotland.

Book too far ahead and you’re liable to be overtaken by events, leave it too late and there’s nothing available.

Riparian owners used to suffer too, mostly from the many chancers who would book rods at peak times then cancel at the last minute if they heard the fish weren’t biting.

A right old mess it used to be, with anglers paying fortunes then turning up to find the river unfishable on the one hand, and on the other, owners finding no rods on their beat and therefore no money coming in.

Enter booking agency FishPal, stage right, and many of these problems were solved.

Now, if anglers simply don’t turn up on the day, they’ve still got to pay. That protects the beat owners from these IT’S good to see the Tay producing big springers – especially as I’ve a day there coming up myself.

This beauty, estimated at 16lb, was caught by Perth angler John Dewar on a harled fly at Glendelvine.

Congratulations John, you will shortly be receiving details of your fantastic prize courtesy of top UK tackle makers Daiwa, our Fish of the Week sponsors. speculative types who used to try it on all the time.

But what of the poor angler who books a rod and finds that his day, or week, coincides with a raging flood or the blizzard of the century?

Well, that’s where common sense comes in.

The beat owners know that if they hold an angler to paying a good chunk of change for a day any sensible soul would spend tying flies beside a warm fire, word will soon get out and the queue of sporting clients will quickly grow thin.

And once youve lost your good reputation, it’s murderous difficult to get it back – believe you me.

Far better to follow the example of the ghillie on the Tay beat we’d booked.

My pal phoned him up and they agreed that while technically the river would be fishable, it was a safe bet that we’d freeze and catch nothing but pneumonia.

The guy looked in his book and found some dates later in the month when, hopefully, the Beast will be just an unpleasant memory.

We were delighted and it was a good piece of business for him too, as rods are that bit dearer as you approach the peak of the season.

So now everyone’s happy – except those anglers and owners who used to try to exploit one another.

Money-grabbing river owners get a bad name and anglers who don’t pay up get no fishing.

God bless you FishPal – it’s important work you’re doing.