A River Runs Through Me: A Life of Salmon Fishing in Scotland

by Andrew Douglas-Home

Overview

An evocative account of one man’s life spent fishing on arguably the world’s best salmon river: a story of family, tradition and the Scottish countryside.

Against the shifting moods and seasons of Scotland’s River Tweed, A River Runs Through Me tells the story of a lifelong relationship with one of its most iconic denizens: the Atlantic salmon.

Through vivid vignettes and family memories, Andrew Douglas-Home spins a homely yet dryly witty narrative, placing this unique fish and river at its heart. Woven into the decades, amid youthful adventure and memorable catches, are stories too of one of Scotland’s oldest families – tales of politics, friendship and stewardship of the natural world.

This poignant and thoughtful book looks back at age-old practices and traditions but also forward to what we must do to secure the future of the Atlantic salmon and their rivers. It is the perfect companion for any angling enthusiast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783966264
Publisher:	Elliott & Thompson
Publication date:	05/25/2023
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Andrew Douglas-Home has lived on the banks of the River Tweed for most of his life. He was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his services to fishing and Scottish culture, recognizing his long work helping to secure the environment of the Tweed River as well as for the role he played with the Abbotsford Trust in preserving Abbotsford House, the home and legacy of Sir Walter Scott. He was a Tweed Commissioner for over 35 years, acting as Chairman of the River Tweed Commission and Tweed Foundation for eight years between 2004 and 2012. He is, of course, a keen fisherman.

Read an Excerpt

As one does at my age, I got talking to an old friend the other day about whether we have seen the best of it. He recalled being sent to fish at Upper Floors on February 1 in the 1950s or 1960s. He caught 10 sparkling bright spring salmon and many more kelts. He killed all the salmon. It is what we did in those days; we never gave it another thought. They were days of plenty, we thought, and if we thought about it at all, we assumed that the plenty would never end. Had you mentioned the words “catch and release”, nobody would have known what on earth you were on about.

Have we indeed seen the best of it? Will those days of plenty ever return for our children and grandchildren to enjoy, as we and our parents’ generation did?

We were gloomy at the prospects for our salmon rivers. Just as our forefathers destroyed so many rivers with the Industrial Revolution, with impassable dams, with pollution and with over-fishing, now we are doing exactly the same with runaway global warming and the massive proliferation of fish farming in the sea. Whenever we humans have to choose between saving our wildlife – in this case our incomparable salmon – and profit, we opt for profit.

Ninety per cent of the rivers known to have salmon populations are now in the four northernmost countries of Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland. Yet so myopic are we that the Scottish Government is even now, despite all the history of salmon destruction, guilty of presiding over almost every river on the west coast of Scotland being in the most endangered category. Why? Because of fish farming and its appalling effects on the wild salmon population: sea-lice proliferate and spread beyond the cages, killing wild fish, and massive numbers of fish also escape, leading to diseases being passed to natural salmon stocks and genetic mixing between the two. It is a matter of the utmost despair that we never learn the lessons of the past.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Spring.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Upper Pavilion.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A Most Deprived Childhood.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ‘Where do you fit in? Which one is your father?’ .. . . . . . . 11 Currarevagh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 My Fishing Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Grandhome.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Eton? I Loved Every Minute.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ‘Come out. You have caught enough.’ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Not Strictly Legal?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 What’s in a Name?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Camasunary, Skye.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 A Breed Apart.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 ‘You had better come over here, boy!’ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Summer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Our Very Own Piece of Heaven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Bouldering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 William. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 A Cricketing Dilemma.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Three in Three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 A Skimmer at Cambus O’ May.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Never on a Sunday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Meeting Orri.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 The Sea Pool.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 The Opposite Test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Fishing Bores.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 The Price of Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 No Way to Treat a Noble Fish.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 What Life Is This?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Dogs, We’ ve Had a Few.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Summer’s End. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Autumn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 A Great Fishing Hotel.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Lunch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Sir Alec. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 A Melancholy Triumph.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Nick’s First, and a Duke.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Red-Letter Days.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 A Good Frost and Puppsie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Don’ t Get Me Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Does It Matter?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 A November Splash?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 A Switlyk and the PC Police.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Lanrick.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Simply Magnificent.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 A Very Fishy Pandemic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Winter.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Uncle George. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 They Never Had a Chance.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Robin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Biter Bit.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 A Champion Ploughman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Editorial Reviews

‘Andrew Douglas-Home and his family are inseparably identified with Tweed, perhaps the most glorious river in Britain, in which its salmon contribute mightily to its beauty. No one is better qualified than the author to write about fishing, wildlife and the wondrous flow of sparkling water across the Borders.’ SIR MAX HASTINGS

From the Publisher