“River Spey’s Official Opening of the Salmon Fishing Season 2020”
The River Spey is one of Scotland’s finest Salmon rivers and to celebrate the opening of the salmon fishing season the Spey Fishery Board is pleased to announce that Mr Andrew Flitcroft, Editor of Trout and Salmon Magazine, will be our Guest of Honour. The Annual Opening Day Ceremony will take place on Tuesday 11th February at 9:00am at Penny Bridge, Alice Littler Park in Aberlour.
The Ceremony will begin with a Blessing by Rev. Geoffrey McKee and a few words from our Guest of Honour. This will then be followed by the traditional pouring of a bottle of Aberlour 12-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky into the fast-flowing waters of the River Spey, as a gesture to wish the salmon good health and to herald the official opening of the River Spey salmon fishing season for 2020. This will be performed by Stuart Martin, who was the angler who caught the first fish last year and won the Spey Anniversary Quaich. He will be accompanied by our Guest of Honour, Andrew Flitcroft, and also by Allan Sinclair, who will perform on the bagpipes.
Anglers are invited to attend the opening ceremony, before starting on their quest to catch their first Spring Salmon of the season. To help celebrate the start of the new salmon fishing season, drams of Aberlour 12-Year-Old Single Malt Whisky, samples of Walkers Shortbread and hot drinks supplied by Aberlour Bespoke Catering will be offered during the opening ceremony. The Spey Fishery Board is grateful to Aberlour Distillery, Walkers Shortbread and Aberlour Bespoke Catering for their continued generous sponsorship of this event.
The ‘Spey Anniversary Quaich’ will be awarded to the angler who catches the first salmon on the opening day, together with a bottle of Aberlour Distillery Exclusive Whisky and a Walkers Shortbread hamper. The angler who lands the heaviest salmon on opening day will receive a bottle of Aberlour Distillery Exclusive Whisky and a Walkers Shortbread hamper. For the ghillies in attendance, each will receive a bottle of Aberlour Single Malt Whisky and a Walkers Shortbread hamper. The official competition rules can be found on the Spey Fishery Board website at www.speyfisheryboard.com.
2 thoughts on “River Spey\’s Official Opening of the Salmon Fishing Season 2020”
I wish you all the very best for the opening day, and tight lines for the season to follow. This may be the wrong place to submit the following comment, but I would be interested to hear your views. I was intereste to hear that the Dee Trust were to be involved in planting many trees in the upper reaches of the river. I started salmon fishing on the River Derg in Co. Tyrone in N.I. in 1960. It was a great river for salmon, sea trout and brown trout. Some years after I left, the Forestry Commission (I think it was them) planted many trees alongside the river in the upper reaches. This resulted in a drop in the water level in dry conditions, and was blamed by many for leading to the loss of what had been a good brown trout fishery and also having a detrimental effect on the salmon. In my opinion, much of the decline in the salmon stock is caused by the predation of juvenile fish by birds during low water conditions in the upper reaches, and by seals in the estuaries. If there was a plague of rats, everyone would be up in arms! I would be grateful to hear the opinion of those who are more qualified than I am in this matter.
Hi, for part of an Open University course, I’m writing a short essay on the annual tradition of blessing the Spey with a dram. I have done some research, and cannot find when this ceremony originated. Does anyone know?
Kind regards