Hi there!

I really love this forum, I registered myself some days ago, and I'm excited with all the knowledge and love that people is spreading over here. This is my second post, as I've told before, I'm a young Spanish angler, I'm from the nortwest region of Galicia, which is a place with lots of things in common with Britain and Ireland (like the fierce sea and the craggy shores, the nature, the sheeps , and of course the celt roots, the traditional music, or the ancestors). The only sad difference, is the damage of our nature treasure... here many forests burn every summer, massive apartments are built just over the shore line, the old oaks are chopped with no mercy, and also the rivers are so fu***d up with the reservoirs and contamination!

That's why I'm planning to travel to Scotland or Ireland for some months... because I find them very welcoming for a Galician like me, and last but not least, for a fly fisherman like me hehehehe. And I'm looking for a job there, to practice my English (sorry for the mistakes, I try to do my best by now!) and also get in touch with the lifestyle, enjoy the gorgeous nature... and of course, take with me one -or maybe two- travel rod to check out those waters and enjoy there one of my passions!! I'm travelling with my girlfriend, who's interested on fishing as well, and she was living in Ireland for some months the past year too. And we are now looking for some offers on the hotel industry, housekeeping and all those stuff... as they use to offer a place to sleep and meals with the job, so it's a great opportunity to start with. So we are applying to offers both in Scotland and Ireland. Maybe at the end, we will not be able to choose, and we just should travel to the place that offers the better job possibilities for us.

But anyway the question... which place do you mates recommend the better for me? First of all, I would like to fish mainly for brown trout in rivers and fisheries... but I also want to fish for grayling, pikes or char/alpine trout, blue trout and other exotic fish... as they are new species for me, and it would be definitely a challenge. Here in the northwest of Spain we just have brownies, sea trouts, sea bass and some black bass in the reservoirs as interesting/abundant species for the fly angler; back in the days, salmons were coming up in many of our rivers but not now, due to the enviromental damages.

I've read before that fishing for trout in Ireland (is it for pike and greyling as well??) is free in most of the rivers and regions (no license needed). Most of the fisheries could offer free fishing after paying for the day permits as well, isn't it? If this is true, we have a nice reason to the irish ones right here! The easy way...

But in the other hand, I'm also very astounded with the beauty of the scotish highlands and all those thousand alpine lochs... gorgeous! In Scotland I will need to make a rod license (I've found a web to do it online, 25 quid), right? That's not a big problem anyway, but...

...what do you mates recommend me? Thanks in advance for all the advice and reading. Tight lines!

P.S: I dont wanna be the reason for an Irish vs Scotish war right here , but I hope to get some inspiration from you guys... not only about trouts, but also about lifestyle, people, and whatever you find useful to two spaniards who want to escape for some months from the motherland hahaha.

No rod license in Scotland yet ssssshhhhhhh! p.m me if you want information on good hotels in my area, then you can join the local angling club for £40 loads of fishing available. Good base to travel all over Scotland via train bus or car. you can do my job if you want, and i will travel to Ireland to meet the girl of my dreams and fish all the good places.

Why not Wales, possibly more Celtic and with all the fish species that you are looking for.

You will not find grayling in Ireland, but Scotland and Wales both have excellent grayling fishing. You will find pike almost everywhere in Ireland and in many places in Scotland and Wales.

I think I am right in saying that you will not need a licence to fish for pike in Ireland and that most of the fishing is free. You will need to pay a licence and/or local permit for migratory fish and for some brown trout fishing in Ireland.

I love the lifestyle in Ireland, they don't have "stress" in their dictionary but they don't have "urgent" either and had "manana" before you Spanish did. They have this thing called the "craic" which is hard to explain but it is a general enjoyment of a situation or life in general, and I've hardly met an Irishman that I didn't like.

The scenery is not as spectacular as Scotland but very nice in places nonetheless. The quality of the trout fishing is fantastic with some of the Midland lakes being alkaline and producing wild brown trout averaging well over 1kg. In other parts the water is more acidic and the size of the trout much smaller, some deep lakes have arctic char but this is also true of Wales and Scotland.

Scotland is also great fishing, and I didn't think that a rod licence was needed for any fishing in Scotland. Not much salmon and sea trout fishing is free but you will find some free or cheap pike, trout and grayling fishing. There are fewer areas in Scotland with big fast growing trout and more acidic waters with small fish but there is an awful lot of trout fishing in Scotland. Pike and grayling are not found much in the northern half of Scotland.

If it was my choice I would go for Ireland but only by a very small margin and mostly because of the social side rather than the fishing. Bars in Irish villages don't seem to close very early!

By the way your English is pretty good.

__________________
“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Don't go to Scotland, they eat deep fat fried mars bars there. They will make you eat them too.
Seriously, I'm from Ireland myself and where I'm from there are loads of small lakes (lochs) which are loaded with small brown trout, the website below was set up by a couple fellas who live in the area and it shows what on offer.
http://wheretofishinireland.com/73,0...8,index,0.html

__________________
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Can't offer any advice...I'm from England.

However, I would like to say that for a "Young Spanish Angler" your command of written English is very, very good.

__________________
Roy

Come to scotland, Perthshire to be exact. Here you have salmon and sea trout fishing on many rivers, brown trout fishig everywhere, char in many of the bigger lochs and pike in alot of the lochs too.

Heres a link to some pics I posted a while back of a weekend of fishing I did at Loch Rannoch. This contains lots of Brown trout, Char and Pike as well as Perch. Its a very beautiful place too!

http://www.flyforums.co.uk/showthrea...hlight=rannoch

PM me if you want more info about this area

ps Its not true about the deep fried mars bar-I've never seen one and I've lived here all my life-I think its a west coast thing!

__________________
Slayer by name but not by nature Catch & Release wild trout


http://www.dumbdumpers.org/

www.fishbc.com
http://www.bcextremehd.tv/
http://www.pacificangler.ca

Hey folks... thanks for sharing and caring.

My conclusions are that fishing is free (no license) almost everywhere from Ireland to Scotland... excepting the salmon and sea trout fishing (but not really interested on them by now). And Ireland is probably more plentful of fish (lotta pikes but no graylings), but the scenery is not as amazing as in Scotland. Someone recommended Wales as well... never thought of it before, could be interesting too.

I'm sure that the people is brilliant in all of those places... and I loved all those pictures from Loch Rannoch and Ireland as well. And what about the fishing season and the best months? I want to come the next month or something... and spend there at least the spring and part of the summer (in july-aug the beaches from home and the sunny wheather are calling me hard!!). I'm sure that there are fisheries or pike fishing allowed all the year, but what about trout and grayling? Do them start in march or it depends on the region/river?

Well, once again, having more knowledge just causes more indecission as new options and possibilities are rising! But thats always better that the opposite thing, isn't it?

P.S: concerning the language... it's just about survival (and I like it too, learning new languages and cultures is always lovely)! In a world where most of the fishing books, experts, and also countries are English speaking, that's just a necessity!!!

If you come over in February and stay until June you will get some good fishing.

You will find good pike and grayling (in Scotland and Wales) fishing until mid-March followed by the best of the early trout fishing in April and May, then you can get some good bass fishing from the shore in June. Sea fishing is free everywhere in the UK.

At this time of year Ireland is warmer (but not necessarily drier) than Scotland which can be quite cold well into the spring.

For a bit more information about Wales have a look at:

http://www.fishing-visitwales.co.uk/

There is some of the best grayling fishing in Europe on the Welsh Dee together with good wild brown trout, sea trout, salmon and sea fishing.

This is the Welsh Dee in North Wales and Ireland is just 2 hours away.

__________________
“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

Hey sewinbasher, thanks for the information... that picture from the Dee is brilliant, and the info of the Wales fishing website very useful! It's really a nice option to consider...

If i had the choice i'd fish Ireland. I love Scotland too, but the great limestone loughs of Ireland win it for me. I've fished extensively on Lough Corrib, and believe me you won't be short-changed for scenery there. the lake is full of pike to gigantic size (I lost one there once that had to be all of 50lb, believe it or not) and huge trout too. (lots of fish in the 2-3lb class and always the chance of a monster) come early for the duckfly hatch, or wait for the mayfly, where there's a better chance of a big brownie, or even a salmon. Plenty of perch in the lake too. There's also a plethora of smaller loughs and rivers around for you to explore.