THERE are some secrets in angling that are genuine secrets. They manifest as rumours and half-truths passed between anglers and over time morph into legends and hearsay. Then there are the secrets that hide in plain sight yet are acted upon by seemingly few people. In my opinion (and that of several fishing friends), river trout fishing in Scotland is the latter type of secret. This may sound to some a controversial statement; however, it is my view that, were trout the only salmonid species in Scotland, many of the famous salmon rivers would be heralded as the finest places to fish for trout in the UK and potentially in Europe. As it is, trout in many Scottish rivers play second fiddle to their larger silver cousins, rarely spending much time in the spotlight.
For many years I have travelled up to Scotland to fish for trout in rivers that are often regarded as the domain of salmon. These have included the Spey, Tweed, Don and Deveron, plus other rivers that
