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Again I am indebted to Jeremy Godwin of Penrith for his kindness in sending me cuttings on angling from a wide range of newspapers in the north of England and the south of Scotland. Among the latest batch are accounts of two surveys which should be useful reading for all of us, especially those involved in matters affecting our local economy.
A recent Irish survey has put a value of £1000 as the input into the rural economy of every salmon caught by a visitor. The Scottish Borders Enterprise funded a study which showed that the region gains £1200 for each rod-caught salmon, and that angling in general produced over £13 million a year, 95 per cent of that large sum being returned directly into the economy of the Borders. Angling, in the Borders and in Ireland, is thus shown to make a substantial contribution to the betterment of life in each place. What is spent by the visiting angler in accommodation, shopping, fares, hires, angling fees and services is considerable, and this influx of cash stimulates jobs in all sorts of places, not only among those who work in providing angling services.
Of course, some of these jobs are seasonal or part-time, the latter growing distressingly fashionable among some of our economics pundits these days, but full-time jobs are made more secure or, better still, increased in number as confidence grows with increasing business.
Here in the Western Isles we have the added attraction of excellent wild brown trout fishing and equally good sea angling, for both of which there is an increasing demand from anglers from the UK mainland and beyond. Game fishing and sea angling are therefore assets which cry out for intelligent and sensitive development so that, while preserving their uniquely wild nature, they can attract more of the kind of visitors we like to see here.
The Stornoway Trust's plans for the development of the Castle Woods are exciting for anglers, for the area of the Arnish Lochs will eventually be clothed in deciduous woodland to the benefit of the ecology, especially of the lochs which must benefit from the tree cover, leaf fall and ground sweetening. The fish will grow bigger too! "The landscape of Maine at the time of the Pilgrim Fathers" is what an old plan for Lewis development once put it, and Arnish will be this in miniature. There will even be paths for easy access for all of us, angler and non-angler alike, a great blessing to those of us who have yearly left parts of our rearmost clothing on the barbed wire of sheep fences. I may not be around to fish the lochs when the trees are full grown, but if ever a spirit haunted a wood ......
At the end of this month the Western Isles Tourist Board will be publishing a very attractive glossy, in the best sense, brochure for the angling tourist, game or sea, which should considerably increase the number of our visitors who should be impressed with what is going on here to improve the fishing for all of us. With the Western Isles Fisheries Trust now up and running we can all help in supporting any new development which will benefit angling and ultimately our own economy.
Even the non-angling visitors are fascinated by our fishing from a safe distance, that is. My own undistinguished contribution was made many years ago when fishing Fincastle, when I managed to lose three big fish in succession in half an hour, at the end of which the main road was completely blocked by two touring buses and a dozen visitors' cars, their occupants entranced by a massive display of angling incompetence (and heroic self-control). I received many a sympathetic wave as they drove off, but I was left with the impression that I had by my performance badly let down the Western Isles Tourist Board. Do try to do better than this next season when you are showing off your skills to passing tourists so that they can tell tales of derring-do and wild adventure to their home-keeping friends - who may become thereby the visitors of the future.
There is a great desire among anglers in the south to visit us and, after coming once, to keep coming, for all sorts of good reasons, the most common of which is the slightly puzzled, "But everyone is so friendly and helpful". Just before Christmas the editor of our best-known angling magazine phoned me about a series of articles, and lamented over the appalling weather in Peterborough. It was nice to be able to tell him of the TV weather map with "Stornoway Swelters" on it, and boast that the weather was of near-Mediterranean quality. (I suspect that he will be paying his first visit to us next season.) Incidentally, the articles will take the form of a Hebridean fishing diary, month by month, and might well do something to encourage more of what are usually very pleasant people, our angling visitors, to experience some of the blessings which we so often take for granted.
Original article Stornoway Gazette Feb 08 1997.
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