In anyones HO - does Scotland have the largest trout and best fishing - as compared to England/Wales/Ireland

There is no doubt that Scotland has some waters where the brown trout are the biggest in the British Isles. The fishing is different from much of England but how does one determine the "best" fishing?

It all depends on how you want to fish, what pleases you the most is what will determine what you believe to be the "best".

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

I must agree "best" is probably not the correct word.

One fundamental difference is not in the quality of fishing but in the ownership of the fishing rights.

In Scotland the big landlords largely won the battle over land ownership, in Ireland they lost. Much of Irish trout fishing is effectively open to the public, which is not the case in Scotland.

In Scotland and England most of the fishing is in private ownership and access is limited. Interestingly, the further you go away from the Home Counties the more fishing seems to be in the hands of clubs with open membership - a trend especially noticeable in West Wales.

Gordon

If you want wild trout fishing then Scotland has more than anywhere else in the UK. Most of it is either very cheap (< £10) or free. However most of the water is in remote areas. In populated areas good fishing water is at a premium and can be expensive.

In most of these remote lochs the trout are small. A 2lb wild fish is special in 99% of the waters. There are a few very high quality lochs and the ones that are beside the roads are more expensive - places like Loch Watten or Loch Leven. The very largest trout which run to over 30lb are not often caught on fly.

Yes and No .........................birdsnest

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Fear not if I steal from your side, as of yore, from paradise streams to fish Teifi once more.
BN based in Wolverhampton