IN SEARCH OF SHANGRI-LA
There is nothing that can compare to the mystique and allure of a spring salmon, says Marcus Janssen, as he reflects on a truly memorable opening day on the River Tay
The first day of the salmon fishing season on the River Tay brings fish and the finest fayre
Of all the fish in all the world, there are none quite so special, so alluring, and so damned elusive as a Scottish spring salmon. I have fished with a fly for as long as I can remember. Some of my very earliest memories are of fishing trips with my father and brother to trout lakes high in the Drakensberg mountains of Southern Africa, and to the River Earn in Perthshire with my late grandfather.
I’ve been beguiled and besotted with lakes, streams, rivers and oceans and the things you find in them ever since. I’ve travelled far and wide in pursuit of fish of all descriptions, and until 2004, I thought I’d discovered the Holy Grail in New Zealand, home to some of the biggest, most beautiful wild brown trout on the planet. But I was wrong.
In March that year, I caught a salmon on the Spey that very nearly brought me to tears – the very best kind of tears. I knew instantly that the fish I was looking at was one of Mother Nature’s Piscean masterpieces. As I cradled her among the grue below a snow-capped Ben Rinnes, readying her for release, I was left breathless by her utter perfection. I had found salmon Shangri-La.
And ever since that day, every other moment with rod, rifle or shotgun – apart, perhaps from one exception: the River Ericht salmon that completed my Macnab – has paled by comparison. So, when the opportunity arose this year to go one better and catch a salmon on the opening day of the season, I knew that I had no choice but to take it.
The last time I was at Gleneagles Hotel was on August 12, 2017, for the opening day of the grouse shooting season. How my name ended up on the guest list for what turned out to be an unforgettable day’s sport and equally memorable stay at one of the world’s finest hotels, is, to this day, something of a mystery to me. When presented with such rare and unexpected opportunities, I have learnt that one should never ask any questions – just say ‘yes, thank you very, very much’ before they realise their mistake, and then turn up.
And that’s exactly what I did this January when an invitation ended up in my inbox to fish the opening day of the salmon season on the River Tay, once again as a guest of Gleneagles. If it was to be anything like our day on Burnfoot Moor in 2017, I knew that we would be in for a very special treat.
I wasn’t wrong. As we followed legendary head ghillie Bob White and a lone piper down to the river’s edge below the fishing hut at Pitlochrie and Catholes on the middle Tay, I knew that this was a special moment indeed. Following a heartfelt toast to the Atlantic salmon and what this iconic fish means to the people of rural Scotland, we raised our hip-flasks as the skirl of Highland Laddie rang out across the river.
To be presented with an opportunity to be the first person anywhere in the world to land an Atlantic salmon in 2019 is a privilege, regardless of how stacked the odds are against you.
But it is in part because the odds are stacked against you that makes spring fishing so special; to land one is to defy the odds. It is also, perhaps, the knowledge that the rivers of Norway, Iceland, Russia and Canada, the ones that will hog the limelight later in the year, are still in the firm grip of ferocious winters.
For now, Scotland’s rivers take centre stage. It’s the breaking of a new dawn, the promise of a new season filled with
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We raised our hip flasks as the skirl of Highland Laddie rang out across the river
Just as my fly came onto the dangle, the line tightened and my old Abel reel clicked into life
uncertainty and hope – the long dark nights of winter are finally over.
Of course, I knew that the chances of a fish were incredibly slim, but I also knew that the prize was indescribably great. And so, with every cast, I thought of that fish on the Spey and implored the fishing gods to heed my prayers. And shortly before 11am, I thought they had.
It was the third time I had fished my way down a particular run that morning, just the sort of spot a spring fish might momentarily stop for a breather, just long enough, hopefully, to tempt it with a fly, the first it will have seen since leaving the river as a smolt several years ago. And just as my fly came onto the dangle and my mind drifted to memories of glorious Gleneagles lunches, my line tightened, and my old Abel reel clicked into life.
No matter how many times you’ve experienced it before, it is always the same: as if the world is holding its breath and time is momentarily frozen. Alas, on this occasion it wasn’t the tug of a fresh-run spring salmon that had snapped me from my reverie, but a salmon of the 2018 vintage, a kelt that had successfully spawned, probably in November or December, and was yet to make its way back to the sea.
But that, ladies and gentlemen, is fishing. As head ghillie Bob White said to me at lunch, ‘it would be called catching and not fishing if it was easy’. Indeed.
Still, I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t a twinge of disappointment in me as I meandered my way back downstream to the hut at lunchtime, for I knew that as the hours slipped by, so did my chances of a fish. But then I saw the lunch table.
Take it from me, no one, and I mean no one, does lunches in the field like Gleneagles Hotel. And that’s coming from the son of an award-winning restaurateur and died-in-the-wool foodie. Rarely have I found myself torn between the call of the river and the call of the cheeseboard and port, and I’m ashamed to admit the cheeseboard won. I figured that lunches like these, served right on the bank of a world-famous salmon river on opening day, shared with good friends, are about as special as they come.
We may not have caught any springers, but we’ll all remember the first day of the salmon season 2019 for many years to come.
If you want to experience the excitement of fishing the opening day of the Tay next season, contact Gleneagles Hotel. They offer bespoke salmon fishing packages throughout the season, tailored to your exact needs and requirements. They have access to numerous beats on the Tay, as well as their own in-house ghillie and f ly fishing expert who can advise you on tackle requirements and provide invaluable tips. www.gleneagles.com