Can anyone make a recommendation? Probably most interested in trout fishing, rivers or lakes.

Salmon too but I understand that's fairly expensive.

You are going to One of the places in the world with a wide selection of some of the finest whiskey distilleries and you are worried about fishing?

I would advise that you sample their most famous product when and wherever the opportunity arises and the fishing will take care of itself. The people you'd most want to fish with will in all probability be found in those facilities or at the least known to the people in those facilities.

I can't but when I wanted to trout fish in Ireland a few years ago their tourist bureau was quick to respond and help me figure out where, who and how and I had a great time. The Scottish tourism site has a similar section. https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/active/fishing/ I'd drop them a line.

The distilleries are easy to suss out and chart, and I have some favorites lined up. Don't need word of mouth recommendations on those, I know what I like. Fishing guides are a different story, word of mouth recommendations are worth their weight in gold.

Thanks for the suggestion Pugs, I will check that out.

Smokepole, I have no advice other the most excellent information provided Pugs.

The Ilse of Skye is wonderful, if time permits and you have an interest in Neolithic and Norse history a trip to the Orkney Islands would be well worth the time. Also on Orkney is the wonderful Highland Park distillery (hopefully their products fall within your taste preferences).

Best of luck in planning your trip.

If you find yourself in or anywhere near Portree of a Friday or Saturday evening get yourself to the town center. There'll be a pub or two with live music and it will be terrific.

Skye is the home of Talisker, a very fine malt.

I was looking into this before Covid changed the plans. This place looked good and was near the house we were going to rent. https://www.skeabosthotel.com/hotel-services/fishing I have no firsthand experience but this place has more river miles than most others.

I would see if there are any fly shops and get their recommendations. I would line something up to be sure you have a reservation on a beat as they get booked up quickly during the prime season. Once you are there you will get advice from the locals especially if you are not entirely pleased with your original ghillie. Might also check with Orvis and Yellowdog fishing travel to see if they had suggestions.

There are 10 Orvis affiliated shops in Scotland here: https://stores.orvis.co.uk/uk/scotland I would try the Inverness shop first as it is the closest to Skye.

I hav been to the one on Hope street in Edinburgh. They had lot's of gear and the clerk I talked to said he could get me to some salmon in 15 minutes from the shop.

kwg

Yeah, if I ended up on Skye, not sure I would make it much further than Talisker's Distillery.

I haven't fished Skye, but have fished for trout (mostly) and salmon (a little) in many parts of Scotland. This is all fly fishing, but I assume you knew that. The usual procedure (for me) is to consult a guide book (Rivers & Lochs of Scotland: The Angler's Complete Guide. by Bruce Sandison; the latest edition I have was published in 2009), which tells you what's available on a day ticket and where to buy the day ticket at. I just checked Amazon and they have a Kindle version for $6.79. I'd buy that, then Google the places that looked interesting to see if the arrangements for obtaining day tickets have changed since the guidebook was written.. I generally tried to choose waters that I could buy a day ticket at a shop, rather than calling up a club member. You could also just stop in a tackle shop and see what day tickets they have available.

For what it's worth, I prefer fishing rivers and hill lochs over large lochs. Generally, the brown trout aren't very big, but fun to catch.

Salmon fishing is not necessarily horrendously expensive, but generally the low cost means low chance of catching a salmon.

I hope this helps.

Perhaps I should add, I don't think I've ever used a guide in Scotland, so my answer above probably isn’t all that helpful. I have used guides elsewhere in Europe (Ireland, Iceland, Sweden) but never felt the need in Scotland. But if you’re on a tight schedule, a guide would probably be best.

Hannay,

Sounds like you've spent some decent amount of time over there. Perhaps it's my working my way through the Keith Calder series but I'm increasingly interested. Likely for moving water trout but a trip for upland birds, either rough or driven would be intriguing. Do you have any recommendations?

I've never done any bird hunting in Scotland, but you might look at these two sporting agencies (large and small) who should be able to book a complete hunting/fishing/accommodation package:
https://www.sportinglets.co.uk/
http://www.athinasporting.com/

And, this one is more like Uber for shooting ("shooting" in UK English = "bird hunting" in American English); not sure how well it would work for you, but worth taking a look at.
https://www.gunsonpegs.com/
This one aims to put you directly in touch with the estate:
https://countrysportscotland.com/shooting/

I'd definitely worry most about booking the shooting first and then look into the fishing. I think trout fishing in the UK closes October 6th, so you might want to keep that in mind.

No rush at all for me. My wife already has plans for Ireland again next spring so will likely get to do a little fishing there.

Appreciate the info.

Its interesting I stumbled across this. I'm currently planning our family trip from the 4th to the 11th in Scotland. I have a real similar post to this one asking about atlantic salmon guides over on Randy Newbergs forum.

Been playing email tag with some people the last 2 days.

1st trip we fished a public beat on the Blackadder after getting a recommendation from the local fly shop. I got into a couple of browns on dries. 2nd trip, we hired a guide for salmon. We got into salmon on a small stream and then went and fished the River Tay. The River Tay did not fish well when we were there. The other fisherman were like, why in the hell did you leave the other place?!?