Testimonials - reel them in

Some people I can think of would drain their beat and push off to the Bahamas rather than see the local youth on the water. It’s a shame. Actually it’s not so much a shame as plain silly. But I guess – I hope – owners who come over all queer at the sight of someone in a camouflage jacket are gradually becoming the minority. They will have to be if the latest initiative by Mike Forbes at Kingennie near Broughty Ferry comes to fruition.

Forbes runs 3 trout lochans at Kingennie., where you can hoik out trout up to 20 lbs. Even as we speak Kingennie is hosting a series of special fishing days, managed by instructor Neil Anderson and organised by the Scottish Countryside Alliance Education Trust, to introduce naughty, or rather potentially naughty, boys and girls form the urban badlands to the joys of fishing. As Dr Johnston so sagely remarked – of Lord Mansfield – ‘much may be made of a Scotsman if he be caught young’.

The scheme has been christened – “Get Hooked on Fishing” (GHF) to avoid confusion with the TV programme ‘Hooked on fishing’. There is great faith among fervent supporters of country pursuits that once you get the urbanite on to the hills or onto the river bank they will undergo a Pauline conversion of such ferocity that they will forsake the hot wiring of Mondeos, declare killing things an art form second only to ballet., take up fly tying and never again refer to rude yokels – which lets face it – some country folk are – as useless teuchters.

It is actually much harder than anyone imagines to convert the urbanite to the joys of the hills and straths. It is usually blood y cold, wet and exhausting, or else you get eaten by midges: although bacon butties, three Capstan full strengths and a pint of bullshot (vodkas and consommé) tends to pout a new complexion on matters. So Forbes, a former Scottish National Fly Fishing champion, and his instructors at Kingennie need all the support they can get to make it work, even if my experience of taking pure bread townies into the hills has only been a qualified success. More often than not it has ended in a flat refusal to eat anything that was alive 12 hours earlier. Still that’s me.

If only half of the 72 Kingennie students enjoy themselves, it will have been a success and worth expanding across Scotland, which is the plan. Quite apart from building up a store of good will and understanding, GHF has the added advantage of creating new customers, not just at Kingennie but wherever fishing is available. The GHF course seems to cover everything, including legal rights and wrongs, how to catch fish, and most importantly, how to gut and cook them. Indeed every student is sent home with a fish: which will no doubt go straight into the chip pan in batter. But why not?

The Scotsman Magazine, 31 July 2004

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