FUN ON THE SPEY

After a tough time on the Towy, Ian Botham and Mike Atherton headed north for a bit of salmon fishing on the famous Spey. The core of the series is Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham touring the country meeting up with some of his mates who happen to be keen fishermen and sporting heroes. What we admire greatly about Ian is the integrity of the concept. He’s going for tough, wild fish. there are no compromises, no short cuts and from what we have seen of the filming so far he’s not even deigning to think of any of the skulduggery that we know for a fact has gone on in some other fishing programmes we could mention! Enough said.

So, the first week in August and it was off with Ian up to the Spey, to tackle the beautiful Tulcan water. And what a wonderful piece of water this is. It’s the fly fisher’s dream. Everyone, Botham, the Hardy crew, the film crew…even the sheep on the hillside…we were all drooling.

Ian was joined by Mike Atherton for these two days and what a superb chap he is. Instantly approachable, great sense of fun, huge wit, willingness to learn, generous in his praise of others and, to cap it all, a pretty good fisherman.

A lot of Mike’s pieces to camera were particularly instructive. The point he was continually trying to get over was that to catch fish is nice but it’s not essential. He learned to fish during a mid Nineties tour of South Africa when things were quite difficult for him in his captaincy. He found setting off into the mountain ranges to fish for wild rainbows gave him the peace of mind that he’d been looking for. And that’s how it is now: fishing to him is an escape to beautiful places with good mates for a lot of fun. A fish, truly, you can see is a bonus for him. Did he catch one? Well, you’re just going to have to watch the series and see…

Andy Murray came north of the border, bringing with him some of Hardy’s latest and most exciting kit for the lads to try out. ‘Athers’ was particularly taken with the prototype fifteen foot Angel Doublehander. We watched him use it and unanimously agreed that he was putting between five and ten yards on each and every cast with noticeably less effort. Getting the rod off him at the end of the day proved no easy task!

Nor was it any easier prising the new Gem reel off Beefy. He took to its beautiful new colouring and pretty well said, “That’s mine!” It certainly looked the part and functioned every bit as we’d hoped.

We reckon Lawrence and Glen, the two great ghillies know as much about salmon fishing as anyone else and they were equally impressed with the new kit. You can imagine the scene: a lot of rod wiggling, reel spinning and plenty of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’.

So, all in all, a great time was had by all: great river, wonderful scenery, great hospitality and some great characters. We’re sure you’ll sense this spirit of fun and comradeship when the series comes out. Next stop, by the way, is the Test in a few weeks time and Beefy’s mate? Well, whisper it, but very probably rock legend Eric Clapton. Who is, by the way, one of the very finest dry fly fishermen in the south of the country.