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• The River Spey, 107 miles (172km) long, is
the fastest flowing river in Britain. Its most famous occupant
is the salmon - known as "King of the Spey" - of which
some 8,000 are caught by anglers every year.
• The salmon breeds in fresh water, though much of its life
is spent at sea. Just how it manages to return to its native stretch
of water after travelling thousands of sea miles remains a mystery.
The female salmon lays up to 15,000 eggs in the riverbed, digging
a hollow in the gravel with powerful twists of its body. The hollow
(or redd) is then covered with gravel until the eggs hatch about
a month later.
• When is a salmon not a salmon? The year-old fish is called
a "parr". Once the salmon develops its distinctive silvery
pigment the name changes to "smolt". Fish returning
to the river to spawn are called "grilse", and after
spawning the adult salmon becomes a "kelt".
• Watching salmon leap clear of the water as they travel
up river is one of the glorious sights of the Spey. The fish have
been known to leap waterfalls up to 11 feet (3.3m) high, reflecting
a take-off speed in the region of 20mph (32kph).
• The salmon has always featured prominently in Scotland.
As early as the 11th century the fish was protected by legislation
and by the 14th century smoked salmon had become a major export
for the country, as it still is. Today the sport of salmon fishing
in Scotland is worth around £150 million annually.
• The ancient Celts considered the salmon to be the wisest
of all creatures. According to Celtic legend, a passing salmon
ate the nine crimson hazelnuts of wisdom shed by the divine hazel
tree. Anyone eating salmon thereafter, it was said, would absorb
some of that wisdom, which may account for the modern-day axiom
that fish is good for the brain.
• Although the Spey is best known for its salmon, it also
contains large stocks of native Brown Trout and Sea Trout runs
that are as good as any in Britain. There is also good fishing
to be had on the beautiful River Avon (pronounced A'an), a major
tributary of the Spey which joins it at Ballindalloch, south-west
of Aberlour.
¨ Fly-fishing techniques vary but few can have been so bizarre
as that of one Colonel Thornton, a keen angler in the 19th century.
The colonel would wade into the river or loch until the water
reached his waist, then his chest, then finally covered his head.
Only then would he commence casting.
• Some anglers are born lucky, others have good luck thrust
upon them. Lady Percy was being rowed across the Spey one day
when a salmon weighing 6.75 kg leapt clear of the water and landed
in her lap. Clasping the squirming fish to her chest until it
finally succumbed to her embrace, the sporting lady brought her
lucky catch safely ashore.
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