I have to say I was a wee bit surprised to see a piece about Sea Trout fishing on Loch Shiel by Stan Headley being advertised in the previous issue of T&S, the fishing has improved (according to my sources) but isn't all that great to support hordes of close formation harmony singing Welsh fly fishers in hunt of
Sewin Sea Trout nor some of the lure pullers from central England; or Scotland for that matter.
So reading the article was both a pain and pleasure, a pain it's 'out there' again being mentioned in the angling world and a pleasure as for me it's sort of a letter from home.
I grew up in Acharacle at the Southern end of Loch Shiel in a former 'large croft house' called Ardshealach. My parents had bought Ardshealach when they opted out of the civil service and it was they who extended it and turned it into Ardshealach Lodge in the '80s. Yes, the very same Ardshealach Lodge that appears in the article. It's changed a wee bit in the last 21 years but it's still home to me....
I digress.
When I was a lad Loch Shiel was my playground, 17 plus miles of fishing joy were where I spent every moment I could catching Sea Trout, Brownies and, of course, Salmon. It is a fantastic place and Stan's article has only reminded me of what I haven't experienced in 21 seasons, a day afloat on Loch Shiel. So next year I will be going back.... maybe for one or two days, maybe longer. It is a beautiful place with hidden gems around every corner and I miss it terribly.
It was in 1991 that I effectively finally left Acharacle, having already been at college in Hampshire since the autumn of the previous year, and I needed a summer job. It was a family friend who suggested I might take a seasonal Ghillies job on the River Lochy - which I did and I spent three very happy seasons there before ending up in Aberdeenshire when the folks left Ardshealach Lodge and bought the Colquhonnie Hotel. The last time I cast a fly on Loch Shiel was in '93 whilst I waited for a chap to come and buy my last fishing boat on the loch. It was a sad day, I remember stopping at the viewpoint above Dalilea on my way back to Fort William and wondering if I would ever go back.
The way that article in this months T&S 'touches' my history
again is the chap who Stan has hung around with on many of his recent adventures in that part of the world.... Mark Hirst. Now as it happens Mark was the previous Ghillie on the beat I took over on the River Lochy when he took a bailiffs job on the river instead.
Small world, isn't it
H