Salmon and sea trout fishing is a popular leisure pastime on Scotland's rivers.
We manage some of the rights to fish for salmon and sea trout on around 60 rivers across the country.
Our role
We work to promote affordable public access to fishing, managing around 140 river salmon fishing tenancies, on around 60 rivers across Scotland.
Most of our tenancies are let to angling clubs, providing access to reasonably priced salmon fishing rights to local communities. Lists of the angling associations are available here. The locations of their lettings can be found on our spatial hub.
To fish on these rivers, a permit from the respective leaseholder is needed.
How we help
In recognition of the pressures faced by the angling clubs, we have introduced measures to help and support clubs, including:
- for the 2016 season, we gave a 50% rebate for tenants on category 3 rivers
- in 2017 and 2018 we gave a 25% discount on category 3 rivers
- for the 2019 season until the end of the 2021 season, all beats on category 3 rivers saw their rents rebated by 50% and all tenants on category 2 rivers saw their rents rebated by 25%
- for the 2022 season until the end of the 2024 season, all beats on category 3 rivers will see their rents rebated by 35% and all tenants on category 2 rivers will see their rents rebated by 15%
We hope that these measures will continue to help and support angling clubs; we are pleased to have already received feedback from a number of angling association tenants that this action is appreciated.
Conservation
In our leases, we require fishing rights to be operated in line with national conservation legislation - and to adopt other voluntary conservation measures instituted by the relevant local district salmon fishery boards.
We also:
- conserve fisheries by supporting local conservation policies and best practice through lease arrangements, and by limiting the number of rods.
- support Scottish Government conservation aims of wild fishery reform by not operating or letting coastal netting rights.
Additional Information
Category 3 rivers
In category 3 rivers, as assessed by the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government, all salmon that are caught must be released again into the water.
Crown Fishing rights
The rights to fish for salmon and sea trout are part of ancient rights held by the Crown in Scotland. In many areas these rights have been subsequently granted away by the Crown over time. Those that remain are managed by us.
Salmon fishing rights in Scotland are not always bound to the land where the fishing are located. So even where the shore or riverbank is privately owned, the salmon and sea trout fishing rights may lie with the Crown and be managed by us.