Where to... fish for salmon

In the latest in our new series, Dominic Roskrow looks at salmon – where to catch them, where to watch them and where to eat them.

As ways of relaxing go, standing in a river in waders nearly up to your waste while lazily casting a line into the meandering waters takes some beating.

Truth is, people don't relax enough.

Portable computers and mobile phones effectively mean that the work office can be transported wherever you go, and that includes holidays. For many the temptation to retain an umbilical cord to strife and stress even when supposedly off message is too big a temptation to ignore. These sort of people have to be forced to switch off.

Which is why God invented Scotland. In many parts of it phone reception is often restricted or not available at all, particularly when you're slap bang in the middle of one of the country's many great rivers. For this reason alone, an appointment with a salmon is as much therapeutic as it is enjoyable.

Frankly you don't even need to fish, and certainly you don't need to catch anything – just standing in a river holding little more than a stick is a pretty good way to while away a few hours and let the mind have a holiday. If the prospect of landing a hefty salmon adds a frisson to the occasion, even better.

There are few places on earth better than Scotland for fishing for salmon, despite the fact that in recent years the salmon population has been threatened by a variety of human and natural disasters. It seems, though, that events are turning. A sensible breeding policy, a reduction in water pollution, offshore net fishing and the willingness of anglers...

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• By : Dominic Roskrow
• In : Outdoor Scotland
• Issue : 42
• Page : 18
• Words : 802