Just another day in paradise

The chatelaine of Meikleour has not only transformed her husband's home, she's also introduced a host of fisherwomen to the delights of the Tay, discovers David Profumo, as he joins Mrs Reel Life for a day in piscatorial heaven

- David Profumo

WHEN glamorous French businesswoman Claire Mercer Nairne went on her first date with future husband, Sam, she sat down at the wrong table and began talking to a stranger, who eventually said: ‘You are very charming, but who are you?’ The lines were duly uncrossed and, in 2006, she moved into Meikleour, Sam’s ancestral Tayside estate, bringing a wedding dress and a skiing outfit to compensate for the poor central heating in the house. Since then, the fortunes of the place have been transformed.

To open this year’s salmon-fishing season on January 16, Claire kindly asked me to perform the ceremonial first cast (together with actor Burn ‘Game of Thrones’ Gorman) and we celebrated with a magnum of Pol Roger. I was learning that the chatelaine of Meikleour is a force of Nature and seldom does anything by halves. She told me about the ladies’ days she arranges for charities, such as Casting for Recovery and Glasgow’s Angling for Youth Development, and I duly invited myself along.

So it was that, on a flaming June morning (a far cry from the -8˚C of Opening Day), I found myself on parade at the ‘wee hut’ on a bankside resplendent with lupins and rhododendrons, in the company of seven female anglers, two gillies, a casting instructor and Bibi the Pekingese. Claire’s aim with such days is to encourage women ‘of all ages’ to join an angling community that has long been regarded as a preserve for men (‘they complain all the time,’ she laughs) and today’s line-up featured a spectrum of sporting expertise— not least Mrs Reel Life, generally disinclined to wave a piscatorial wand.