Well, it was that time of year again for the annual Red death tour to Durness where a collection of fly casting reprobates travel to Durness to fish the limestone lochs and hopefully be awarded the most exclusive trophy in game angling AKA the vision in gold plastic. This trophy is the cheapest plastic gold trout mounted on an equally shabby unvarnished piece of wood. This is presented to the angler in the group who is fortunate to land the largest specimen during the annual trip to the fabled limestone lochs.
As ever we all set off in a variety of vehicles from various parts of the country there were 5 personnel this year in four separate vehicles. In years past we used to rent a cottage on the Kyle but this is no longer available due to being rented out to a new shepherd so it was back to the tents.
As I left Stonehaven in the morning the weather was amazing blue skies and the temperature reading in the car showing 19. As we pulled into a supermarket in Forres the temperature had reached the heady heights of 23 with some cloud and a gentle breeze. The anticipation for massive hatches and great catches were growing as we advanced Northwards. As usual however Durness has its own weather system 8 degrees and steady galeforce winds with the occasional gust that would have most offshore drilling rigs shut down
Oh well time to pich the tents. I had bought a new tent since I could not find my trusty old Vango in the garage. I was being assisted by my mate Iain with the poles and he said he was struggling to get the pole at the front of the tent to bend into position so I instructed him to try harder which he did. There was a loud snap and that was the demise of the front pole in a three pole set up which was great in the howling gales over the next three days with the tent flapping madly around me during each night.
Any way on to the fishing. Usually in Durness I like to fish a team of buzzers and nymphs on a long leader very slowly, however when we got to the first loch and saw the waves that would not be out of place at sea it was beck to a cast of two traditionals. I had five trout on the first day and one of the other boys had seven or eight almost all of mine were to a size ten claret bumble and Ronnie was having success on a small Kate Mclaren.
This is my best trout of day one and put me in the lead early in the day
My son Steven who is obviously made of sterner stuff or is more enthusiastic decided at nigh that he would head out late on for another cast while us old boys were heading to the tent for the night.
Needless tom say he caught the really nice trout in the picture below and took great delight in telling us that we should have gone out at night.
Day two (did I say it was windy?) Back to fishing from the bank on the largest of the lochs and I decided to fish on my favourite bank which put me straight into the wind but I thought that this bank would be more productive. It turns out that I was right and although I was casting a much shorter line I ended with another 8 trout up to around the pound mark before fighting the wind pushed us back to the tents for dinner and drams. Steven again went out late with Iain and although they did see a very large fish show in Lanlish no more fish were added.
The next morning there was collective agreement that we would head down the road a day early as the wind was getting even worse which would allow us to watch the first Scotland game in the Euros (schoolboy error) and so Steven was duly declared this years winner of the vision in gold plastic as seen in the picture below being presented the trophy by Kenny the previous winner.
We are already planning the next adventure, fishing Durness is a bit like watching Scotland play football, serious excitement leading up to the event occasional success with frequent batterings but we forget the batterings and get excited for the next attempt.
Eddie
