At Willowgate Cafe

The Tay Salmon Fisheries company is a name with which any reader of Perth's history will be familiar. No pictorial history of the area would be complete with a few images of the little tub-like fishing boats ('cobbles') being used to haul tons of salmon from nets stretched across the river. Salmon were once so plentiful in the Tay and its tributaries that apparently local by-laws in some towns restricted the frequency with which it could be given to apprentices, for fear that stingy masters would offer them nothing else. Likewise, van-loads of ice-packed fish being dispatched by rail, for all parts of the country is another potent image of the town's past.

Sadly we know that the stocks of salmon on The Tay today are not what they once were. Trawlers with sophisticated sonar systems are able to hoover-up the migrating shoals out at sea more efficiently than the fish are able to travel and breed. Some fishing vessels have even been seen illegally operating in the Tay Estuary over recent years. The Tay Salmon Fisheries may no longer be in the business of employing countless fishermen to run net-fishing operations - but it is still very much in business, owning and managing several beats.

Tay Salmon have also diversified their operations. Along Friarton reaches, where the Tay's two streams that part around Moncrieff Island merge back into one broad river, they have built and stocked a series of fish-ponds. They have also built a nice-little cafe right under the Friarton Bridge itself, at the foot of Kinnoull Hill. It's easy to walk or cycle to the "Willowgate Cafe", by following the Dundee Rd out of Perth, but sticking to the path on the right hand side of the road. Just before Willowgrove, a private road winds down to the riverbank, over a railway bridge to the cafe.

The peace of the gently rolling Tay, and the clatter of trucks on the great overhead bridge may be strange; but as little 'Doris' and I got of our bikes and sat on the outside benches over looking the river - enjoying a frothy hot-chocolate and a fabulous slab of chocolate cake it was the river that captured our attention.

It may well be true that the Tay's fish-stocks are depleted; but on Friday as the river became almost stationary at the turn of the low-tide, the water was alive with fish. Flashes of silver, like tin-foil, darted beneath, while ripples broke out all across the surface and time-and-again fish broke through - rising up to pluck some floating insect from the water's skin. It all happened too fast for photos - but there was a wonderful sense of life brewing within the body of the river.

The little cafe there offers a range of snacks and drinks, and on cold mornings is heated by a log-burning stove that gently steams in the centre of the room; giving the place a lovely warmth, and a hint of wood-smoke. The place is quiet, and the menu quite restricted, but the service is friendly enough. It's real selling point as a cafe, is the fact that in winter, you can sit by a window, next to the fire and watch the Tay roll by; while in summer you can sit outside in the sun to enjoy it. If they ever manage to create a riverside walk, all the way from the town to it, it will be even better - avoiding the high-speed traffic on the Dundee Rd.