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The Hope Today

Extract from The Salmon Rivers of the North Highlands and Outer Hebrides
by Andrew Graham-Stewart. Published 2005

Few salmon systems have been the subject of such confused historical commentary as the Hope. In the 19th century it was very much viewed as a grilse fishery. Indeed Grimble wrote in 1899 that there were “no clean fish before the middle of June”. Ten years later Calderwood was rather more astute, suspecting that the lack of fish before June reflected a lack of angling effort. In fact Hope Lodge’s records for the late 1880s and 1890s indicate that tenants did not fish the River Hope or Loch Hope before mid-summer.

During the 20th century it became accepted wisdom that the furthest west of the spring systems on the north coast was the Borgie. Whilst the latter produces early salmon (from January), the Hope always had, at least until recently, a strong and consistent late spring run. In fact given the numbers it would be a travesty not to call it a spring system.

The headwaters of the Hope system (which drains some 80 square miles) flow off the high slopes of Saval Beg, Meallan Liath and Ben Hee. Three streams combine near Gobernuisbach Lodge (part of Reay Forest) to form the Strathmore River, which tracks north for six miles to Loch Hope. The latter is a long (again six miles) narrow loch, dominated dramatically at its southern end by massive Ben Hope. The loch discharges via the short (a little over a mile) River Hope to the sea near the mouth of Loch Eriboll.

In 1918 The Duke of Sutherland sold Hope Estate to Captain James Milburn; it was a private sale- although the particulars were prepared, the property was never on the open market. In 1925 the Captain’s wife died at Hope Lodge and subsequently he became something of a recluse at Hope, save for the occasional company of his two daughters. In 1951 he sold the estate to Captain Foljambe. In 1983 the property was gifted to his nephew, Michael Foljambe who then, in 1995 and 1996, split it in two and gave the north-east section comprising some 13,000 acres to the Melness crofters and the rest of the estate, including the River Hope and Loch Hope, to his cousins, Hugh, Edward and Sam Boileau - the present owners.

Sutherland Estates netted the estuary for most of the 19th century. Between 1833 and 1843 the Hope estuary nets averaged 190 salmon and 2243 grilse per annum. It was indeed a significant operation, attested by the fine icehouse that remains intact to this day. From the early 1840s bag nets as the sweep were operating. The 1864 Bylaw defined the limits of the Hope/Polla estuary as a “straight line from Gina Point on the west through the outer end of Sgeir a Bhuic island and continued to the east shore”. This effectively stopped the use of bag nets near the mouth of the Hope. In 1866 the sweep nets took 152 salmon and 1555 grilse. In 1877 the take was 100 salmon and 917 grilse. It is worth noting that by the 1860s operations often began as early as February. The Estate ceased netting in 1887. There is no evidence of Captain Milburn engaging in netting, and the rights have certainly not been exercised since 1952.

Rod catch figures for the latter part of Sutherland Estate’s ownership suggest that angling was generally not pursued with much consistency. In this era the sporting tenant of Hope Estate had fishing on four miles of the Strathmore, three boats on the loch and exclusive rights on the River Hope. Clearly, as the average annual salmon/grilse rod catch figures for Hope Lodge confirm, this all changed dramatically from the arrival of Captain Milburn.

Hope Estate average annual salmon/grilse rod catch

Note: up to 1918 the figures include a few fish from the Strathmore

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As the netsmen were also aware (Sutherland estate papers confirm that the estuary nets landed salmon in March in the 1830s and 1840s and even in February in the 1860s), there used to be a notable spring run, although angling pressure in the early months was intermittent. Fish were taken as early as March 9th 1922) with considerable numbers in April and May. Thus in 1927 rods caught 126 springers at Hope Estate between March 30th and May 30th. Fish over 20 lb were not uncommon; five of this class were taken in 1919. At least five salmon over 30 lb (the best two at 32 lb each) were landed between 1918 and 1932.

On Loch Hope salmon have traditionally tended to be a by-catch. Primarily the loch has always been a sea-trout fishery of outstanding quality. According to Grimble (who gave the record fish as 14 lb), in the 1880s Mr T Rutherford used to average 1000 lbs of sea-trout from the loch annually. Up to 1952 catch records were only partially reliable as often they failed to differentiate between brown trout and the sea-going version. Since then the figures are dependable and catches have been impressively consistent.

Hope Estate average annual sea-trout catches:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For traditional loch sea-trout fishing (either wet fly or the dap), Hope is now, with the demise of Loch Maree and Loch Stack in particular, without equal on the Scottish mainland. Whilst the quality of its fishing has hardly changed in 50 years, Loch Hope is (perhaps surprisingly) not overfished.

However, a straightforward explanation may lie in the fact that the number of boats permitted on the loch, 11 in all, has remained constant over the years and is small for the size of the water. There is no mandatory catch and release policy, but Hope Estate’s “minimum returns target” of 50% is consistently exceeded. The fact that there are only two estates involved in the loch fishery (Hope and Strathmore), both owned by conservation-minded families which have been in occupation for over 50 years, makes the management process an unusually simple one, and this could be another contributory factor.

The Clark family sold Strathmore Estate to Colonel Douglas Moncrieff in 1938. He gave it to his daughter Mrs Heather Gow in 1961. Strathmore’s recent average annual catches, for their stretch of the Strathmore River and their boat on Loch Hope, are as follows:

Strathmore Estate average catches for salmon/grilse and sea trout:

Their best year for salmon/grilse was 1986 with 53. The highest sea-trout total of 208 was achieved in 2003. Sutherland Estate correspondence from 1904 refers to the heaviest off the Strathmore River as 25 lb; it also states that there is a “run of fresh salmon in March and April but the best month is July”.

As for the consistency of the catch numbers for the system as a whole, the comparatively limited amount of fish-farm activity, which has taken place to date in adjacent Loch Eriboll, is surely relevant. There have been recent moves to augment this activity and it is hoped that such folly will be successfully resisted.

The September 1978 issue of Trout and Salmon included an intriguing letter from Paul B Riley. He refers to very heavy salmon and continues: “however a patient of mine, an ex poacher, caught a male salmon of 109 lb in the estuary of the River Hope in a hang-net in September 1960. It was weighed at a farm near Tongue and then sent to the Continent with others. He has dealt with a great number of salmon and had thought that the record was 115 lb so did not think much about it. Knowing the man well, I am sure this is a genuine weight and should go on record”.

Usually at least 85% of the salmon/grilse catch has been taken on the river as opposed to the loch. Indeed the river, the lower section of which is tidal, can be a remarkably productive short stretch of water, particularly considering it is essentially a three rod beat. In good flows there is little that will not hold fish; there are several well-placed croys, mainly built by Captain Milburn. It is a strikingly rapid and wide river and in several places a cast of 40 yards or more will not be extreme- Grimble was being quite realistic when he recommended an 18 foot rod in times of spate.

The system has seen marked cyclical swings in grilse numbers. In the 1920s grilse often made up 50% or more of the rod catch. By the 1970s one sea-winter fish represented less than 10% of the annual catch- in 1979 just 1%. Since then the rise in grilse numbers has been inexorable- to over 80% by the turn of the century.

In the records sea-trout are defined as fish over 1 lb 8 oz, although latterly with catch and release some fish below this weight may be included. The average weight was always between 1 lb 12 oz and 2 lb (and this is still thought be the case with the proviso that many weights are estimated), with a good number of bigger fish. The all-time record fish was taken from the Middle Bay beat of the loch in the 1950s by gillie Hugh Sutherland; it weighed just over 17 lb.