The start of the 2014 salmon fishing season on the River Dee will be celebrated on Saturday February 1^st with an official opening ceremony on the riverbank by Potarch Bridge. Ross Brawn OBE, the legendary motorsport engineer and former Formula One team principal, will be the guest of honour and will formally open the season. Amongst his many achievements, Ross is widely credited with masterminding Michael Schumacher’s seven world titles. Ross is a very keen salmon angler.

Mark Bilsby, River Director of the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board (DDSFB) and the River Dee Trust, said: “The opening of a new salmon angling season is always a time for optimism. Our efforts towards the restoration of north-east Scotland’s most iconic river continue and we are backing a scheme that will open up access for salmon and sea trout to 80 miles of tributaries this year. This represents a very significant boost to the available spawning and juvenile habitat and thus additional capacity for the catchment to produce more returning adult salmon in the future”.