Info on fishing the Water of Leith

[mspaddler]

Hi Guys

I'm planning a trip to Edinburgh in April/May primarily to visit my Grandson but as it will be Trout season by then I thought I would take a T rod or two and fish The Water of Leith.   I would be grateful of any information you chaps may have about fishing this river, best areas, access and parking would be very useful.  PM me if you don't want your special spots to be public.

Regards
Brian

[Deleted]

Brian

i am fairly sure that Leckie fishes in that area. May I suggest you do a search of his posts. When I first joined this forum I spent quite a bit of time reading all the posts and seem to recall that Leckie did quite a few about his fishing. I haven't seen him on the forum recently.

David

[mspaddler]

Thanks David I'll do that, I did send him a PM and then saw he hadn't posted on the Forum since the middle of last year.
Brian

[leckie]

Brian,

I only fished a few places on the Water of Leith quite close in fact to the Water of Leith Visitor Centre on Lanark Road. You need to get a permit but the good news is the permit is free. The Water of Leith Conservation Trust has a good website shown below. Hope the link works.

www.waterofleith.org.uk/fishing/

I used to fish at Longstone and used a corner of their car park for parking with the river only yards away. Take waders with you if you can but you might get away with wellies but you won't be able to access all the pools. Biggest problem is dogs jumping in as its a public footpath virtually the whole of its length but otherwise it's a nice little river.

If you are thinking of travelling a bit further afield, the River North Esk is about 7 miles from the city centre and there are a few easy access places to park. No permit is required for this river apart from Dalkeith Country Park. Let me know and I can let you know these places.

The rivers are really low at the moment and SEPA has a good website to keep you up to date with river levels...really handy especially if its been raining during the night or very heavy the day(s) before you want to set off.

Tight lines

Alex

[mspaddler]

Alex
Thanks very much for the information. It looks like we may not get to Edinburgh this Spring after all and my Grandson will be in Heidelberg, Germany for a year from this Summer so maybe 2018 or 2019 before we get to Scotland. Unless I can sneak a couple of days away before we go back to the USA next month.

Brian