It has been a long long wait but we finally managed to get back to fish the River Helmsdale. The timing was perfect with the Scottish Government permitting travel and self catering accommodation to reopen from the end of April. At last we could put the last 15 months of limited movement, worry, uncertainty and Covid restrictions behind us. Anything was better than another long day stuck indoors staring into the face of an iPad and the endless meetings via Zoom calls. Finally, finally, empty spaces, and the stillness of the highlands.

This isn’t a blog post that journeys the story of a return to the river and unsuspecting fish and countless caught salmon. Sadly for us the all the salmon fishing variables were fully aligned, except for one, there hasn’t been a good run of spring fish this year across all of the Northern Scottish salmon rivers, and the River Helmsdale was no different. The result was a hard won 3 salmon for two rods in 6 days of fishing for salmon. We fished hard, we fished long, we knew where to look, but no salmon were there to be seen, moved, or found. Frustratingly all the factors that normally get in the way of catching fish namely, water height, water clarity, water temperature, rising water, falling water, wind direction, bright sunlight, barometric pressure, phases of the moon and the ill-defined ‘change day’ that get in the way of the perfect day but there were no excuses this time. The salmon didn’t know we have been waiting for months, and if they did, they’d have cared even less. The coincidence of spring salmon fishing which involves the perfect interception of moving fish and a likely cast in precisely the right place and time was to prove frustratingly misaligned. The salmon weren’t in the river in any numbers and we moved beat to beat and pool to pool, searching for clues of their presence, but to no avail. The River Helmsdale remained aloof this year, but we were there and that in the end, was what mattered.