We, that is my family and I, have just returned from our first holiday in Scotland since Harry's arrival almost a year ago. We stayed in a cabin in the middle of a forest, 5 minutes from the paradise that is Glen Affrick, traditionally beheld as one of the finest of its ilk in the country. Forget the Kunlun Mountains of Lost Horizon - this is Shangri-La..................well I think so anyway. Here there are not just mountains but also waterfalls, The Tomich Lochs and the River Glass to explore, not to mention some fine pubs and inns that offer the weary explorer refreshment and sanctuary from the elements. But I guess you have to visit the place to know of what I write and so to help you along and for your delectation here is a picture or two:-
Anyway - it is on the River Glass that I wish to elaborate, as this is after all a fishing based blog and I haven't got to do a lot of fishing this year or indeed blogging either, so her we go.
I booked the day on the BALMORE beat through FishPal several weeks in advance. Now I am not one for gratuitous advertising, but when others may benefit from my own experiences with something then I think that something worth sharing. All I did was go onto the FishPal website and click a button and hey presto - I had a day on the Glass. Simplicity itself. No sooner had I clicked said button than an e-mail of confirmation was received and also one from the beat owner giving me directions and a beat map. Brilliant.
So, um, there we go then - FOR ALL YOUR SALMON FISHING, GO TO http://www.fishpal.com/ You can pay me later Fishpal people!!
So the morning of the 5th September arrived and........................ahh "Darling we have a puncture....."
You can imagine my reaction. Actually because we were on holiday it wasn't that dramatic, until that is the wheel brace that came with the car broke in two. I was a a tad more animated then. But Victoria, ever calm, called the RAC chap and he put on the thing that is passed off as a spare wheel, I was dropped at the river and Vicky went into Beauly for the day. Two tyres needed replacing in the end - £337.00 !!
The first thing that struck me about the Glass is its size. It is a tributary of the Beauly and a Highland river, so I was expecting a Borgie or Avon sized affair. But no; this is a proper river and even a square cast would have to be 35yds in places to fish any lies on the other side. Having said that, there are plenty of lies within easy casting distance - after all the great misnomer about salmon fishing is that the fish ALL lie on the other side. The anglers opposite catch fish and as this is a commonly held misconception it stands to reason that there must be fish lying on your side of the river! Follow? No - oh well never mind. Suffice to say, big as the river looked, I wasn't too over awed. I am a goodish caster and determined, even before arriving, that I was going to fish the river rather than just cast cast cast.
The second thing that struck me was that ALL the water on the 1.25 mile of the Balmore stretch was fly water and that the water was at a very fishable height. The latter is due largely to the fact that the Glass is part of the Scottish Hydro Electric scheme and as such the levels are controlled by way of damns from power stations along its course. This ensures that even in the driest of conditions there is water by way of compensation flow. It also means that the level can change quite quickly, both up and down and this in itself can be a little strange. There are several tributaries above the river's confluence with the Farrar and its subsequent renaming to the River Beauly and these ensure that after rain perfectly natural spates can occur to.
I am, I am afraid, a believer in the fish's ability to tell the difference between a compensation flow and a spate. They tend to run on the latter. Unfortunately there had not been one of these for some time and only one fish was seen all day. The syndicate members who fish the other bank and most of the rest of the river are struggling and it would appear that at time of my visit the fish simply had not arrived. Never mind.
When all is said and done, and herein lies my point, the Glass is a big but rather lovely river. The facilities at Balmore are great and Michael the owner keeps it all very well. The new hut is very comfortable and access very easy. The fly fishes beautifully down the entire beat and the wading is easy.
Here's another couple of pics.............................GIVE IT A GO
