Highland Fishing Areas
Over time, we aim to provide our subscribers with a comprehensive fishing map and directory for the entire Scottish Highlands & Islands.
To accomplish this, we need to divide the mainland into manageable chunks, while keeping them as logical & distinct fishing areas.
Further, we feel that to describe both river and loch fishing by area, this is best done with reference to the river catchments.
For the Scottish mainland, these can be divided into 3 regions based on the coast that each river drains into.
As can be seen from the map, the east-west divide is close to the West Coast, in many places just a few miles inland.
Northern Highlands Coastal Watersheds The second level of spatial classification is to subdivide these 3 regions. For the Northern Highlands this is best done based on the approximate boundaries of the old counties. Although they have little significance to local government these days, they are still known as geographical areas.
Hence the West Coast is divided into West Ross-shire and West Sutherland and the East Coast into East Ross-shire, South and East Sutherland, and the northern part of Inverness-shire holding the Ness system and the Beauly catchment to its north.
To the east of Inverness, we will be adding an area later for Moray to include the Findhorn and Spey catchments.
There are two variations from this methodology to arrive at the final areas. The boundary of the North Sutherland area is extended to the east to include some of the Altnabreac lochs, because access to them is from Forsinard.
As Caithness is distinct from a topography viewpoint and only has 2 major salmon rivers, one draining to the north the other to the east, it is considered as a single area.
Northern Highlands Fishing Areas