Veterans of the river

A cheery disposition – and an eye for a troublemaker – the best gillie is also a born teacher; they need to be, as anyone who’s been on the river will know. The past year saw the retirement of three of the finest gillies from three of Scotland’s greatest rivers: Ian Tennant on the Spey, George McInnes on the Tay and Robert Kotschujew on the Conon. Together these men have amassed an astonishing 99 years of experience on the river as working gillies, helping to net tens of thousands of the world’s finest salmon along the way.

Day in, day out, for nigh on a century, they walked their beats, keeping the ground in top condition – clearing access to banks or cutting back overhanging trees – and maintaining their boats and huts, as well as learning where in their river the salmon like to lie. Yet ask them what’s been the most important aspect of their calling all these years, and it’s not an in-depth understanding of Salmo salar – the Atlantic salmon – that first springs to mind, but rather, Homo sapiens.

“People skills are the main thing,”