Guided Fishing Trips on the River Annan and River Tweed
Professional Spey Casting Tuition and Fly Casting Lessons

Guided fishing trips for Salmon, Sea Trout, wild Brown Trout and Grayling.

  

Let us teach you the art of Spey Casting and fly casting in a relaxing and
stress free environment with the Annandale and Borders Fly Fishing School.

Annandale and Borders Fly Fishing has access to over thirty miles of the Annan and several other rivers in south west Scotland including the Nith and the River Tweed. All of the waters we fish are private, including the Dryfholm, a private middle river beat. This beat has a mixture of quite sedate pools and faster flowing glides. The wading is best described as easy over gravel with a couple of deep holes and is perfect for learning to Spey cast. This beat is not available to the public and no day tickets are issued. This is private syndicate water which was has ben lightly fished in previous years.

We specialise in Spey casting and Keith Snow, our principal has taught several hundred people the art of Spey Casting. Learn to cast a single Spey and double Spey cast with an instructor who will give you the highest level of expert instruction and tuition.

We cater for complete beginners and experienced individuals as well as groups. Our courses are available by the hour, half day, full day or as 3 day prescribed courses. We offer the opportunity to learn to fly cast and fish on the delightful rivers of south west Scotland and the Scottish Borders.

We offer fly casting tuition and guided fishing breaks for salmon, trout, grayling and sea trout. Let our guides and instructors take the stress and strain out of fly fishing at night for sea trout. We offer relaxed stress free teaching at your pace. and we regard safety as being paramount. On our courses we will provide all of the tackle you will require including quality rods, reels, lines, flies and waders.

Salmon & Sea Trout Fishing

The salmon season on the river Annan opens on the 25th February and closes on the 15th November. In the early months we begin our Spey Casting Courses whilst the river is relatively quiet. We always have a single handed rod ready to cast at the brown trout during the amazing hatches of March browns.

We have access to almost every beat on the river Annan and depending on the water height can select a beat to suit the conditions. In the event that high water levels make the river unfishable with the fly then we have quality rods and reels for spinning.

Salmon will be in the river from March/April but not in large numbers. August normally heralds the arrival of the first grilse. This is truly excellent sport and represents amazing value for money.

September through to the end of the season will see fish run the river every day. Some of these fish can be very large indeed. 20lb fish are caught every year and 30lb fish are caught most years. Fresh silver fish run right through to the end of the season which closes on the 15t of Nov.

The fishing in October and November is normally fully let by the middle of September so please book early.

We will teach you the art of water craft, how to read the water and how to understand what the river is telling you by the way it moves. Water height and temperature are crucial to salmon fly selection. The ability to Spey Cast a single handed rod is also very useful particularly on tree lined pools. We will teach you. We specialise in teaching beginners and experienced fishers the art of Spey casting.

Every aspect of salmon fly fishing is covered including safety, watercraft and how to fly fish a salmon pool.

You will learn how to perform a single and double Spey cast, overhead and roll casts, Snake Roll and the Snap T.

We would normally recommend a two day course to allow sufficient time to cover the syllabus in full. We can however arrange for one to one tuition for 2 hours, half day or full day, if you are just looking for a basic introduction to fly fishing or want to improve or extend on your existing casting skills. Either way we can help.

We also offer a full professionsl guiding service for Salmon, Sea Trout, Brown Trout and Grayling. Sea Trout fishing at night is one of our specialities. We will meet you long before it gets dark to test your experience and to take you through a safety talk before moving off in the twilight to fish some of the most famous pools on the river. Just wonderful, wonderful sport. We will provide you with everything you require and will ensure your time with us will be memorable for all the right reasons.

Brown Trout & Grayling Fishing

The River Annan offers some truly outstanding wild brown trout fishing. Fly life on the river most months is plentiful, diverse and can be almost guaranteed. The average brownie is around 2lbs. Fish over 4lbs are not rare and fish above 5lbs are caught every year. For trout fishers we offer casting clinics to diagnose casting faults and correct bad casting habits. Learn to single haul and double haul to improve your casting distance. A 9’ #5-6 weight rod will cover almost any eventuality.

December through to March is the perfect time for grayling. Grayling fishing on the Annan has long been regarded as some of the best grayling fishing in the UK, an average grayling is about 2lbs and fish to almost 4lbs have been landed. For grayling fishing we offer both long trotting and tradition flyfishing with bugs, High Sticking, New Zealand dry fly and Czech nymphs. We can also offer the opportunity to long trot for grayling using Avon style rods and centre pin reels.     Full Details

Location

Annandale is very easily accessible from north or south with Motorway links making the journey remarkably quick. Situated just 12 miles north east of Carlisle and only a ten minute journey from the M6/A74. London is only an afternoon's drive away just over 4 hours. Edinburgh and Glasgow are only 90 minutes drive away and is motorway all the way. If you are looking for good fishing in South West Scotland or fishing in Dumfries and Galloway in particular, then Annandale is an ideal location. The area offers some spectacular scenery as well as a plethora of historical sites and places of interest. The home of Robert Burns is just a few miles north. For any non fishing members of your party there is no shortage of activities in the area from sightseeing, golf, hiking, cycling or just shopping.

Keith Snow is the principal of the
Annandale and Borders Fly Fishing School.

Keith is a full time professional fly fishing Instructor and Registered Guide in Scotland. A National Instructor with the Salmon and Trout Association (STANIC), a member of REFFIS, The Register of Experienced Fly Fishing Instructors and Schools and a Registered Guide and an Associate member of AAPGAI The Association of Advance Professional Game Angling Instructors. As a Licensed Coach he is qualified to teach children, qualified in first aid and has public liability insurance.

Certificates

Instructor Training :- Qualified tuition to Instructor level
Trout Fishing :- Casting proficiency (beginners) and Intermediate proficiency certificates.
Salmon Fishing :- Spey casting proficiency certificate

For more details, bookings and availability please e-mail us for a quote.
If you include a contact telephone number we will be happy to give you a call.