WELCOME

The Forss is a typical spate river, whose bottom section (approximately three and a half miles from Stemster Bridge to the estuary) became a timeshared rod fishery in 1986. Today, it is controlled by the Board of Management of the Forss House Fishings Association on behalf of, and fully accountable to, some one hundred owners.

There are 240 timeshared rod weeks between the end of February and the end of October, although the first three weeks and last two weeks are not fished. The Association’s water is divided into four two-rod beats, two below the Forss Falls, which can be fished all season, and two above the Falls, which are only fishable when water temperatures enable fish to ascend the Falls, normally by the end of April.

There are twenty-nine named pools, which are capable of producing fish in a variety of water levels. The lowest stretch, Beat One, is a rather deep channel running through a low lying strath to the rocky sea outfall in Crosskirk Bay. Beat Two starts at the beautiful Forss Falls and comprises a series of rock and cobble pools, starting at the Falls Pool. This beat can hold significant numbers of fish when water levels over the Falls restrict passage. On Beats Three and Four, the river meanders through marshland, which has some of the most diverse summer flora of any site in the North of Scotland. The boundary between these two beats is the picturesque mid-18th century hump-backed Forss Bridge, which is a listed structure.