The day fishing on my own Loch nan Clachan Geala, catching three trout to 12oz on dry fly as Nigel ignored the Sunday laws and shot a grouse.
I chatted to Ian McGregor about our fishing and invited him to join me tomorrow. He tells me we should have been using wet fly to stand a proper chance and a drogue on the drifting boat!
I had checked my shooting books and had to give Nigel the bad news that shooting all types of creatures was strictly forbidden and illegal on Sundays in Scotland and we would therefore have to concentrate on the fishing. This was not a bad thing anyway because the fishing season was due to end on Tuesday, yet we had more free days at the end of the week. It was a nice sunny day, though a bit chilly to start with. The breeze was growing as the day went on and was a slight annoyance, but it was not too bad. I was first at the water and, having bailed out the boat yesterday evening, was soon able to row it over to the south-eastern bank to moor up and try fishing.
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There was little rising and so, when Nigel joined me from the bank, he had no takes and soon got bored and went off walking. In fact, he stalked grouse for most of the day and actually carried his 20-bore for some of it, downing a grouse and putting up several others which was wrong, but it was his decision. I drifted across the loch once without success and then collected a limestone boulder from the shore and used it as an anchor and tried several positions in the southern channel, managing to catch three fish at long intervals. I was having trouble keeping the flies on the surface and had to do a lot of false casting and fly-dressing to stand a chance. The trout came to the tail fly and dropper.
I fished until nearly dusk and then joined Nigel back at the car for the journey to the Forss Bridge Hotel where I borrowed some cling-foil and a knife and gutted the trout which weighed 1 x 8oz and 2 x 12oz before the hotel staff put them in the freezer. Nigel kept quiet about his grouse which will be his first for tomorrow! Another nice meal this evening and I chatted to Ian McGregor about our fishing and invited him to join me tomorrow. He tells me we should have been using wet fly to stand a proper chance and a drogue on the drifting boat! I therefore hope for some more sport tomorrow after an early-morning shoot.