After an early start from Edinburgh, we drove on to the Forss Bridge Hotel near Thurso and settled in to the hotel before going on to the Broubster Estate and my Thormaid plantation.
We found the boat on my loch newly painted and fine for some fly fishing but could not catch any ‘Loch Brownies’ today but picked up some tips from other fishers for the next day
We had breakfast before anybody else in the dining room at 7.00am, following a 6.45am call, and then were soon in the car and away by 7.45am with Nigel again at the wheel. He seems to like driving long distances and thinks nothing of having a stint of ten hours! We toyed with the idea of going straight to Broubster but opted instead to go to the hotel to drop off our stuff. The Hotel had mixed feelings about us as they had gained the impression from Nigel that we intended to be staying there last night.
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It was at about this time that we also realised that we did not have a key with which to get into the Broubster estate and this lead us to rush over to Alan Brookes in his little Thurso shop to see if he had one. In the event he did not but we bought some trout flies from him and then managed to lift the gate of its hinges at Broubster and gain access in that way which was a relief. We found the boat in good condition, newly painted in light blue, and the White Loch outlet lightly stopped with sleepers and the boat-shed disassembled ready for making good and so at least Alan had done something. I took the boat and Nigel the shore and we cast dry fly for trout.
This experience was totally new for me and I moved from a using a sinking to a floating line as I was not able to present the fly very well otherwise. After some time without success, I sat up on the bank and watched the trout rise and so I knew that they were there. Then I directed Nigel to the spot and he cast and had a bite but could not hook or land the fish. Back to the hotel fishless but not disconsolate as it had been such a nice, fine and sunny day and a joy to be on the water in such a remote place. Alan had left a Broubster key for us but was not there for a meeting tonight, but we had a nice dinner after changing and then sat in the reception lounge and chatted to two other 'fishers' (as they insisted on calling themselves).
From this, we found out that we had really been adopting the wrong technique as the way to fish for Loch Brownies is with two or three flies on a combined 5lb trace some 2ft 6in to 3ft apart, with a tail fly sinking, the middle fly on a 4in dropper just below the surface and the top, or 'bob' fly a dry fly with plenty of hackle floating on the surface. The idea is that they resemble a hatch and that those fish too shy to take the floating fly settle for one of the others. They then work the water with a boat drifting, casting and retrieving to find where the trout are. After all this activity and advice, to bed thinking that, with use of the correct technique we could actually catch some fish tomorrow.