A Day of Scottish Fishing with Surprising Kilt Comment

[Singlemalt]

I am sorry I have not been as active here of late however I did want to tell the Rabble about a quick trip to Scotland I just returned from. Last week I was attending meetings and working from my employers UK office which is in the far north east of England in Northumberland. Knowing how much I love fly fishing in general and salmon fishing in particular my British co-workers kindly set up a day of Salmon angling in Scotland for me.

First the fishing, through a few phone calls and connections with friends it was arranged I could spend a day on the Teviot which is a major tributary of the mighty Tweed. It was on the estate of the Lord Lothian. (I was tempted to knock on the door to say "hello cousin" as my mother was a Kerr). The surrounding county side is almost breathtakingly beautiful. Not wild in the untouched Canadian way. It is clear that the hand of man has been on this country for millenia. It is still rugged and weathered with lots of pockets of forest and habitat for abundant wildlife. Our Gillie (Guide) had two very active and merry little cocker spaniels who spent a very happy day while we were fishing. They were almost constantly putting up pheasants, rabbit and hare from the cover along the river and adjacent hedge rows. Mallards were flighting up and down the river all day. Amongst the many birds I saw an osprey fishing down stream of me, a beautiful bright blue little European Kingfisher and some sort of European version of the Dipper with a distinctive contrasting white breast patch.

The river was in good condition, it seemed to me water levels were about perfect for Salmon though a little stained from recent rain and a lot of autumn leaves flowing down which were a nuisance as your fly hooked them every other swing. No Salmon were caught on our beat (section of river) that day but I did see a reasonable number roll in the pools and a couple run up shallow riffles. It was certainly enough evidence of fish to keep me inspired to cast all day. I did catch two beautiful small brown trout, which I released. They were in lovely fall colours and very active but not much challenge for a 14' Spey (double handed) fly rod.

At lunch we retired to a small old stone cottage in the village, which used to be a schoolhouse. This was my opportunity to meet all the other rods (anglers) with whom I was sharing the beat. The were a delightful bunch of gentlemen all from fairly close by in Northern England or Southern Scotland. It is always easy to slip into comfortable conversation with those who share a passion for the field wherever they are from. During lunch one of the Scottish gentlemen comment that I had a very Scottish name. I told him that indeed I was from a Scottish-Canadian family who were very proud of their roots and kept many of the connections and traditions alive. When he asked me how, I gave the example of my eldest son Alistair's recent wedding. He wore his kilt and his younger brother Callum was best man and wore the same kilt I did at my marriage to their mother nearly 35 years ago.

The Scots gentleman asked me if mine was a "proper kilt"? I told him I felt it was, although it was hand-sewn in Canada, the material was woven by the largest mill in Scotland, in 16oz material, my family tartan and a full 8 yards. His reply; "That is not a proper kilt, my Scottish made kilt contains 22 yards of material." I just smiled and said; "I am really sorry that I did not have an opportunity to see it".