What makes a great ghillie?

I was fishing on the beautiful Dalguise beat of the River Tay on Friday. We didn’t get any fresh fish, but nevertheless it was a superb day on the river. The water was falling back and running clear, but at about 2ft 6in on the gauge, it was still quite high. I saw a couple of fish which I think were fresh springers, but most of what I saw throughout the day were certainly kelts.

Now, as I say, none of the rods produced a fish. In fact, nobody so much as touched a kelt all day, and yet, every rod there on Friday had a hugely enjoyable day. Certainly, the bright spring weather was a bonus, but I think what really made the day was the atmosphere of friendliness and conviviality that existed in the hut. And, in my experience, that atmosphere can only be engendered through the personality of the ghillie.

In Stan Pelc, Dalguise has one of the very best ghillies in the whole of Scotland. So what makes a great ghillie? As well as the aforementioned natural ability to bring rods together in a spirit of bon amie, I think that there are 4 other key assets;

Knowledge of his water
Paramount, above all other attributes, a good ghillie must know every inch of his beat. He knows where the lies are, he knows where the wading is safe and where its dodgy and he knows at what height to fish which pools. Norman Stone (dec.) of Kinchurdy fame epitomised this attribute. His knowledge of that fabulous beat was absolute.

Authority
A ghillie often has to make potentially controversial decisions; most commonly – who should fish where? The best of their kind will exercise their authority in an almost invisible manner, maintaining the harmony but ensuring that fairness prevails.

Personality
It takes a very special sort of person to be able to “read” clients. The good ghillie knows when to be formal and when to be more relaxed. He knows how to encourage anglers without being unrealistically optimistic. In short, he knows how to be pleasant, fun, interesting and a pleasure to be around.

Discretion
This is probably the least well possessed of my list of key attributes. Ghillies can be the most terrible of gossips. However, the really good ones know that this can be a dangerous flaw and instead they exercise a high degree of integrity – what is said on the river stays on the river! The ghillie with a fine-tuned sense of discretion knows that there is no such thing as a bad fisherman or a bad cast – there may be difficult conditions, tricky winds, awkward back eddies, etc, etc, but never a bad fisherman!