If you heeded the wisdom of some of our angling experts, fishing on a cloudless day with light winds would be unlikely to bring much in the way of success. However last Friday was just such a day but I decided to take a walk up to some hill lochs near my house anyway. So with relentless sunshine and what little wind there was from the south I set off up the hill expecting just to get a good work out and enjoy the views. “Well I might as well take a rod just for the way of it” I said to myself trying to justify my madness and I did have a new homemade shooting head floating line I wanted to try out.
After a stiff climb and many stops on the way to “admire the view”, I arrived at the first loch disturbing a couple of red throated divers as I descended towards the shoreline. Fishing here would have to be curtailed as their young would not be hatched out yet. Spotting two eggs on the shoreline I made a sharp retreat allowing the adults to return to their nest before the eggs became chilled. I did manage a few casts on the far side of the loch catching two small brown trout on buzzers without spooking the divers again. I headed westward to a small loch called Jamie Cheyne’s Loch which has a reputation for holding large fish. Thankfully there were no red throated divers in sight so I fished the northern shoreline into a slight ripple that formed about half way across the loch in the merest whisper of a breeze. Just enough to straighten my leader I hoped. I tied on a lighter 5lb cast and degrease it. Tying on two suspender buzzers one with a peacock herl body ribbed with medium pearl mylar and the other with a red holograph rib I made a few hesitant casts where the ripple started to form. The sun continued to beat down and what little hope I had of catching anything quickly diminished. My shooting head line was well balanced and I made a long cast into the shallow water at the edge of the loch. There was a swirl at the tail fly and I connected with a large fish that ran into the deeper water and lept clean in the air. Totally unexpected I quickly retrieved my slack line and played it on my reel. It jumped at least another three times and ran across to the far side of the loch until I was half way through my backing. Eventually I netted it took a quick photograph and gently released it in the shallows. I made two further casts and connected with another cracking brownie of at least 2lbs which I released. That one took the buzzer ribbed with red holograph. A third one of around 1.25 lbs took the tail fly. Three fish in the space of 20 minutes in conditions you would expect to blank! What an afternoon! The colours of these fish are amazing don’t you think?
Flyfishing Experience Shetland 