PICTURES: Thurso hailed as 'best river in the world' at opening of 2024 season
The River Thurso was hailed as the best in the world as the 2024 salmon season got under way on Thursday morning with the traditional opening ceremony.
Regular visitor John Graham, who lives in Washington DC, was invited to make the first cast on beat four of the river at Halkirk. “This will be my 46th year," he said. "It's definitely an honour."
Piper Alasdair Miller led a group of almost 30 anglers from the Ulbster Arms Hotel down to beat four where Geordie Doull, senior ghillie with Thurso River Ltd, poured a small quaich of whisky into the water to toast the season.
At 17 inches, the river was described by Mr Doull as "a beautiful fishing height".
Mr Graham (70), originally in Northampton, lives in Washington DC where he and his wife Linda own a software company. They had travelled to the UK to spend Christmas with their daughter who lives in Hampshire.
He described himself as a big advocate of the catch-and-release policies introduced on the River Thurso.
“Right now I'm coming here three times a year but previously it was more like once a year,” Mr Graham said.
“It's the best river in the world, in my opinion, so it's well worth it."
He pointed out: “We don't normally expect to catch anything until late February or early March. We estimate that by the end of the year there will be about 10,000 fish in the river."
A number of years ago a salmon pool was built on beat nine in memory of Mr Graham's brother Ronnie.
"He wasn't a religious man, so when he died we thought building a salmon pool would be the best tribute for him," Mr Graham explained.
The salmon pool was designed by Ben Brock and was built by George Munro and George Sutherland. "It's difficult to build a salmon pool but they did a great job," Mr Graham added.
Mr Doull was pleased to report that the trend in recent years of increasing numbers had continued in 2023, with just over 1000 Atlantic salmon caught on the river's 12 rotational beats. Last season was the best since 2019.
“The weather has been particularly rough here but the river thankfully has settled back to 17 inches, which is a beautiful fishing height," Mr Doull said. "If we had that all season long I'd be a very happy man."
He pointed out that the effects of climate change are being felt.
“We got water in July, and that's what makes the difference – getting water in the river," Mr Doull said.
“June was a low catch because it was hot and sticky and low. But we got thunderstorms in July and it gave us proper spates.
“Once you get Loch More full and running, that enables fish to run the entire system and lets them spread out from the sea.
“At times it was inconsistent and a lot of that is to do with temperature. With global warming we're definitely getting warmer summers, so you'd have a blast of 100 fish in a week or something and the next week you'd be down to 40 – not because the water was particularly much lower, but because you got a heatwave again.
“Atlantic salmon when they come back to fresh water don't feed, so if it gets too hot for them they go into survival mode and they become harder to catch. But when you get that flush of water it reinvigorates them and brings fresh fish from the sea.
“Everyone wants a nice summer but salmon anglers and ghillies, and people associated with the river, want water. Even the people in the hotel want water because then they have guests that have got a spring in their step.”
