the pool and did not believe in induced taking techniques like hand-lining. He preferred to utilize the stream to present the fly by using mending techniques.
Another foundation of his fishing technique was the desire to at all times control the swim speed of the fly through the stream by keeping the fly line dead straight from his reel to the fly. His intention was to have the fly under control and fishing as soon as it pitched on the water. As a result, many fish fell to his fly early on as it swept through the pool.
It’s also worth noting that Grant rarely, if ever, struck into a salmon, rather allowing the fish to take up the tension in the line to hook itself. He strongly believed that the fly, when fished on a long line, presented slower to the fish than a shorter line, resulting in a firmer hook-hold. In the vast majority of cases, he basically allowed the salmon to hook themselves. He is reported to have said “The surest-hooked fish, all being equal, is with a long line and none of this nonsense about “Hitting a fish on the rise!”
He was also very critical about the effectiveness of greased line fishing, believing that a floating line put the fish down. He argued it was alright if only the fly came within the fish’s optical window, but in his own words “ no fish would like to see a big, black snake floating over its head as the line would look dark to a fish looking up at it against the light”
Known to his family and friend as simply ‘The Battan’, during the course of his working lifetime, Alexander Grant was a ploughman, a draper, a hairdresser, a forester and a tackle maker. During his lifetime he found fame in two walks of life – music and salmon fishing. His fiddle making and playing drew high acclaim around Scotland and in addition to being a top class soloist, he led the Highland Strathspey and Reel Society from its founding in 1903 to his death in 1942.