Kind thanks to SGA Fishing Group ambassador Charlie Whelan for today's Coronablog.
Most people who come here to fish travel from other parts of the country and whilst they would
always get a warm highland welcome they wouldn’t now.
It seems silly that the ultimate self
isolation activity is banned but it’s the traveling that’s the problem as the highlands NHS just
couldn’t cope with any major outbreak of covid 19.
The angling trust have produced an excellent
plan that they have sent to the government for the resumption of fishing. In the first phase it suggests
that fishing could take place where people didn’t have to travel so, for example, you could fish your
local river, Loch, or canal.
That make sense and, here, it would mean that many of the
association beats could allow the locals to fish. Here in Grantown on Spey we have a thriving
association whose members are desperate to get back on the river.
Unfortunately, there may be a
longer wait for the private beats and a return to river guiding for the Gillies. They and their families
though would would probably want to wait and be safe rather than risk the social contact of anglers from
the rest of the UK and abroad.
Our thoughts are with them and their families much more than our
personal desire to cast a fly.
