Autumn Fishing in Scotland

Many people equate fishing with a summer holiday, but the reality is that the autumn fishing in Scotland is not just as good as the summer, it’s probably better! Many of Scotland’s famous salmon rivers reach their peak in the autumn and even a bit later into the year. The river Tweed is a good example of this, some of the very best fishing of the year can be found on the Tweed in October and into November.

It is true that the choice gets a bit narrower in the Autumn as the rivers begin to close one by one (see the various fishing seasons here), but that’s when a bit of expert help from River & Green can point you in the right direction.

autumn salmon on the river tweed

Autumn fishing in 2020

This years’ autumn fishing has of course been a bit quieter than most due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We lost 90% of our bookings between March and August (usually our peak season) and were hoping to make up for it with our Autumn fishing program. We did manage to make up quite a bit of the deficit with a large amount of last minute bookings for September and October and, although business-wise the damage has been terrible, there have been serious benefits in terms of the fishing………

The result of all these cancellations is that, for those who managed to make it to Scotland, the fishing has been excellent! No one quite knows what the exact cause has been (although everyone has their theories), but the general feeling is that this year’s fishing has been absolutely fabulous with a lot more fish being caught than normal.

The video above (left) was taken last week on Lake of Menteith, and the salmon (bottom left) was 1 of 2 caught on 28/09/20 on Boathouse & canny on the River Tweed, which goes to show the variety of Autumn fishing options available in Scotland. These 2 catches are just a tiny fraction of the successes from this year’s autumn fishing, but we’ll save the rest of the pictures to keep us going through the winter!

Looking forward……

We, like everyone else in the world, would like to be able to fast forward to the end of the pandemic to a time when normal life can resume. Unfortunately no one has that superpower just yet, so we will be making the best of the next month or so of fishing before the darker days of winter set in (when we will be going shooting instead!).

There’s still plenty of time left for fishing, especially on the Tweed. Most beats on the Tweed are strictly fly-fishing only at this time of year and tend to be quite expensive however, the benefits in terms of the quality of the fishing for the committed angler are certainly worth it.

2021 is going to be a bumper year for salmon fishing in Scotland. The pent up demand from people having been stuck at home for 9 months is going to mean availability is at a premium. So, if you can’t make it to Scotland for this last hurrah of the Autumn fishing season, why not get in touch to plan a trip for 2021 before we get fully booked!

Use the enquiry form below or email alex@river-green.com for more details.

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