Salmon and Trout Fishing
For customers wishing to book salmon fishing, accommodation, or any other sporting lets for the 2010 season, please call for latest availability.
Up dated 17/5/10
We currently have available the following week:
July 25th to 1st August; Lodge and 5 or 10 rods, and Twinners with 4 rods. This week has an average of 14 salmon
The Lodge is let for 12 people, but can comfortably accommodate up to 16.
Twinners can sleep 6.
The Lairg Estate and the River Shin are situated one hours drive north of Inverness. The River Shin is one of Scotland’s best kept secrets. Although the river was dammed in the late 50’s thus effectively denying the returning salmon access to their natural spawning grounds, a comprehensive re-stocking program has been in place ever since, and the returns of salmon and grilse have been consistently stable. The Fishing on the Lairg Estate water starts towards the end of May and closes on the last day of September.
The Lairg Estate water starts at the dam below little Loch Shin, in the new artificial pool appropriately named the Dam pool, and continues down river for approximately three miles until a pool called Grief. There are over thirty named pools on the upper Shin. The Estate water is split into two beats, and each beat has up to four rods fishing at any one time. The beats rotate every day at 1 pm. The Lairg Estate water is all double bank and most of the pools can be fished from either side. The fishing is for fly only. Most of the pools can be fished from the bank without wading, but a few require some wading. We recommend thigh waders and it is advisable to use a wading stick in certain pools.
For prices and availability please go to the CONTACT US page and fill in the form or send us an email and we will contact you with the required information.
Salmon Fishing
The size of the Shin salmon vary greatly depending on time of year. It is not uncommon for rods to come into contact with fish in the 20lb bracket early in the season. As summer progresses, the grilse appear in greater numbers and give wonderful sport.
Rod size is a matter of endless speculation. The water is easily covered with a 12’ rod. Equal fun can be had with a small single handed rod. For the championship caster there is room for the longer rod.
The river is rocky in places and we would suggest that in the early season it is advisable to use a tippet material of at least 15lb. The early fish tend to run hard and have a tendency to leave the pools, so a heaver tippet gives the angler the option to play fish harder and land them faster for the process of catch and release.
Trout Fishing
Brown trout in Loch Shin average ½lb, but very large fish are taken early in the season and around the fish farm cages!
The Estate has several excellent rivers, small lochs, and burns to chose from. Experienced guides can be arranged. Loch Beannach has some exceptional Trout, and in the past few years fish of up to 5lb have been caught. All the fish are wild native brown trout.
Special trout fishing weeks are available on the Lairg Estate’s water on the Shin, during April, May and June. Daily bags of up to 40+ trout are possible.