Guys,
I have been away for 10 days fishing first 3 were on a beat of the Spey but although I caught a few fish I will not dwell on it apart from a picture of my first sea trout of the season. This is because one sporting gentleman hooked and landed a fantastic brown trout of over 5 pounds on a toby in high water and it was despatched with the agreement of the Ghillie and the beat proprietor.
So on to the good stuff. My mate Kenny and my soon to be son in law went up to Durness to fish the limestone lochs. The first day was not conducive to good surface fishing cold winds and bright skies so Kenny decided to fish a slime line and the Shuggie. This resulted in 10 trout up to about a pound and three quarters for Kenny. I stuck to my usual skinny hares lugs and buzzers on the 4 weight and ended up with 7 good trout whilst Stu on his first trip ended up with one brownie and a finnock from the Kyle at night to show for his efforts. 18 decent trout on our first day so things were looking good.
Day 2 dawned overcast and warm, great we thought as we approached our first loch of the day and sure enough in the first 10 minutes a fish approaching 2 pounds was duly landed and photographed before releasing see picture below. Kenny soon had one as well. Even though conditions seemed much better than the previous day that was that even though we did try some other corners of Durness. So it was off to bed to prepare for the journey into the unknown in the Hebrides.
We took a ferry the following day to an unnamed destination in the Hebrides. We wanted to see if there were any lochs that could compare with the limestone and boy were we in for a shock. Day one permits bought for a loch on an island across a causeway attached to the island we were staying on. It was very shallow for the first 200 yards and then shelved off into deeper water and was crystal clear. Kenny and I were now joined by our usual mates, we will call them Adz Ronnie and John, mainly because that is their names. It was wall to wall blue sky when we tackled up and off set Kenny with his slime line and Shuggie again. I had just reached the drop off and started to fish when I heard a reel screaming like nothing I have ever heard trout fishing. I looked to my right and Kenny's rod was bent in an incredible arc. The fish meanwhile just kept on going until the inevitable followed by a number of expletives as the line fell slack. Kenny is a man who caught a near 7 pound trout on the limestone lochs and he was shell-shocked by the power of this fish. Near the end of the day Ronnie got into one that was between 3 and 4 pounds which was duly photographed and congratulations were given for a cracking trout. Later on on our last night we were staying with a freelance Ghillie in his B&B and he described Ronnies fish as average. He also told us that the loch is not well known but those who do fish it use 10 pound leader. During our day there Adz spotted a trout mooching about in the shallows estimated seven or eight pounds.
We fished another couple of lochs during our stay and we all caught fish. I had 5 up 2 pounds on the second day and 12 up to 2 pounds on the 3rd day. Judging by what the ghillie has told us about the sea trout. fishing we were only scratching the surface of the potential and the ghillie had 2 rods out and they had 38 good trout to the boat and he was disappointed as the fish have not really come on yet this year. I cant wait to go back. I have a picture of one of the island trout below
Eddie
