Breakdown
The country sports market in Scotland is diverse. This variety adds to the opportunities for those visiting, adding to Scotland’s reputation as the world class destination that it is. Below are the main sporting opportunities available.
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Angling
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Shooting
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Deer Stalking
1. Angling
Game Angling
Extensive
opportunity to fish for game species on
rivers and stillwaters across the country.
This includes:
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Salmon Fishing – River and Loch
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Sea Trout Fishing - River and Loch
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Brown Trout Wild – River and Loch
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Stillwater Fishing – Stocked stillwaters with mainly Rainbow Trout, but also Brown Trout and selected numbers of other trout species
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Grayling – Rivers
See www.fishscotland.com for more details.
Coarse Angling
Extensive
opportunity to fish for coarse species of
fish on Scotland’s waterways, rivers and
designated lochs. This includes the
increasingly popular sport of fly fishing
for pike.
See www.fishscotland.com and www.sfca.co.uk.
Sea Angling
Widespread
premium coastline and offshore grounds to
fish for a wide variety of salt water
species, including skate, bass,
cod, mackerel, wrasse,
pollock, flounder, plaice,
dogfish and rays are just a
few. Fishing from both boat and the shore
offer great opportunities.
For further information on any of the above angling disciplines and categories see the links provided.
See www.fishscotland.com for more details.
2. Shooting
Many of the
different categories of game and wildfowl
shooting below are sought after as
individual sports. Sometimes in the event of
Rough and Mixed Shooting, a number of
different species will be encountered, and
the list of species includes:.
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Grouse
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Pheasant
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Partridge
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Woodcock & Snipe
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Black Grouse
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Ptarmigan
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Geese
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Duck
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Pigeon
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Hare
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Rabbit
Terms such as ‘Driven’, ‘Over Dogs’ and ‘Walked Up’ refer to the different ways in which the birds and game are flushed from cover.
Many of the above can either be experienced by way of a ‘driven shoot’ or by ‘walking up’. See British Association for Shooting and Conservation for details.
Rough Shooting
This term is
given to a days shooting where the
participant walks with gun over often varied
land and looks to encounter a wide variety
of species living in different habitats
along the way. It can be less formal than
driven shooting and is becoming increasingly
popular.
Wildfowling
This is a form
of shooting that generally encompasses the
shooting of Ducks and Geese on the foreshore
and coastal areas below the high-water mark.
Inland Goose
Shooting
Availability to
pursue geese away from the coastlines. This
is usually experienced in conjunction with a
professional ‘Goose Guide’.
See www.basc.org.uk for more details.
3. Deer Stalking
There
are four species of deer in Scotland -
red, roe, fallow and
sika. Traditional Red Deer Stalking
takes place on the open hill accompanied by
a professional stalker and is usually for
stags, taking place mainly between August
and October.
Red deer hind stalking can also be taken between the end of October and the middle of February and often requires a greater physical ability than stag stalking due to inclement weather conditions. It is largely a management exercise where numbers are often important, but its commercial value is also seen to have potential.
Red deer, stags and hinds, can also be stalked in woodland and forestry blocks. This is much like roe stalking and can be undertaken either moving slowly on foot through an area or from a static position or high seat. This is more comparable with red deer stalking in other countries than open hill stalking, which is more or less unique to Scotland.
Roe Stalking
This mainly
tales place on farm land land but can also
be undertaken on the open hill. It is
normally done early morning and in the
evening. Roe Buck stalking (males) takes
place between 1st Aril and 20th October and
the process is as described for woodland red
deer stalking above. Roe doe stalking
(females) is also available but is not a
significant tourism activity.
Fallow
Stalking
This is
regional as there are relatively few fallow
deer in Scotland and they are to be found in
one or two areas.
Sika Stalking
Sika Deer are
an introduced species and are generally shot
as a control operation as they hybridise
with red deer undermining their genetic
purity. Like red deer they are a herding
animal but are usually found in woodland
areas and concealing habitats and, from a
stalking point of view are therefore more
like roe.
Their distribution is not as widespread as either red or roe deer, but they are expanding from both the north and the west. In some circumstances they are considered to be a sporting resource but in general, their management is a control operation, unsuited to tourism.
See www.basc.org.uk for more details.