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Fisherman dies in river accident

18 July, 2006 by Alistair

Sad, very sad indeed, you might remember I was going to fish the Tummel last weekend.

An angler who died after being swept down a river in Perthshire has been named by police.

Father-of-three Gordon Robertson was on holiday with his wife and children when he was pulled under the water in the River Tummel at Pitlochry.

The body of the 41-year-old, from Midlothian, was later found by a Royal Navy rescue helicopter.

It is thought his chest-high waders filled with water and trapped him under the surface while he was fishing.

An attempt by a passer-by to save Mr Robertson, of Burnside Road, Gorebridge, by throwing a rope into the water was unsuccessful.

It is understood the incident, which happened at about 1100 BST on Monday near the Tummel Valley Holiday Park, was seen by a family friend who was also on the holiday.

A Royal Navy helicopter which had been scrambled to help with the search spotted his body about two hours later.

Mr Robertson lost his footing and witnesses saw him being swept down the river and disappearing below the surface.

The spot he was fishing in was a short distance downstream from a Scottish Water pumping station and management made efforts to lower the water level.

Original Source Fisherman dies in river accident

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6 thoughts on “Fisherman dies in river accident”

  1. James says:
    19 July, 2006 at 11:20 am

    A grim story and no mistake. The Tummel is a hazardous river – rocky bottom, very fast flow and fast rising levels. Not a place to wear chest waders without a life jacket, I think.

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  2. ZACK says:
    20 July, 2006 at 12:39 am

    I feel if a wading stick had been used this tragedy would have been avoided, unless the accident happened
    where the water level rises quickly then a water height indicator should have been planted. Also the article didn’t mention if the chap was using neos or breathable waders as the former are far more dangerous when wading beyond waist height in my experience (fell into the Busby falls on the White cart attempting to nymph Czech style. Bloody dangerous)

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  3. Alex says:
    20 July, 2006 at 10:59 am

    Very sad news indeed. But wading doesn’t need to be dangerous (ok, sometimes you just can’t avoid going up to your tits to reach that four pounder lazily sipping down blue winged olives.) But if you do fall in, there is some great advice on the sexyloops website:

    http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/killerwader.shtml

    Alex

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  4. Alan Atkins says:
    25 July, 2006 at 8:07 am

    Has anyone seen Hugh Faulkus ” Salmo the leaper” video ? Here, a 60 odd year old Hugh jumps into the Border Esk in March in a spate and casually rolls onto his back and floats gently down the river to safety. If you have the balls to do this it looks like it would work. However, after one step too far and a severe dunking in the Avon last week i would advise to be carefull and if you don’t know the river like the back of your hand then don’t wade above your thighs

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  5. PAUL says:
    26 March, 2008 at 9:14 am

    What was the name of the Fly Fisherman
    who hung out with Hughin the 70’s he
    was an Airport Pilot and fished the Tweed
    a lot on video

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  6. Alistair says:
    26 March, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    Arthur Oglesby ?

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