Head ghillie does his bit for Missing Salmon Alliance

Last year’s lockdown’s wrought havoc upon businesses, both indoors and out. 

However, John Macaskill, the head ghillie on Ross-shire’s River Conon’s Upper Fairburn and Coul beats, managed to turn those hardships into opportunity, and raise £1620 in charitable funds for the Missing Salmon Alliance.

The Missing Salmon Alliance is a coalition of likeminded organisations that came together to pull Atlantic Salmon back from the brink of endangerment and extinction.

Their combined expertise and coordinated activities have allowed for an increasingly effective frame work of assessing, managing, and in some cases reversing, Atlantic Salmon decline.

John, who put eight rods up for grabs on the Coul beat, said: ‘We decided to make the first week in July available to local anglers on a raffle ticket style ballot with all monies raised going to a worthwhile cause.’

John Macaskill, the head ghillie on Ross-shire’s River Conon’s Upper Fairburn and Coul

With the raffle tickets priced at £20 each, the eighty-one entrants allowed the head Ghillie to raise a total of £1620.00.

John continued: ‘I must thank all the local people who made this idea such a great success by buying raffle tickets and supporting such a great cause.

‘I feel we are at a critical point where we need to do everything we can to help protect, sustain and potentially increase the numbers of returning Atlantic Salmon numbers to our rivers.’

For more details on fishing on the River Conon, visit http://www.cononfishing.com/ or for the Missing Salmon Alliance visit https://missingsalmonalliance.org/.

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