2020 has been an unusual season with the promising first few weeks being superseded by the Covid 19 Lockdown. In some ways the lockdown has I think been beneficial to the fishing and certainly up here in Shetland the fishing even on the most popular lochs has been the best for years. Every year is different and the highlights have been quite diverse.
Whilst fishing a saltwater hot spot for sea trout last week I managed to lose a fairly silver sea trout of around 3lbs at the net. It gave me an exciting fight as it went off on two explosive runs but as I reached for the net the fly came loose and it was gone! Oh well I thought if we caught them all fishing would become too predictable and not the challenge that it is! The tide was starting to ebb fast so I waded down to a holding pool that has produced well for me in the past. The fish seem to linger there on an ebbing tide before they move out to the open sea. Something picked up my sand eel fly that felt quite different and after a spirited fight I netted a small sea bass!
Shetland lies at around 60 degrees north and in the 40 years I have lived here I have never heard of sea bass being caught before so it was a complete surprise to me and to most of the other Shetland fishermen I know. Perhaps global warming has increased the feeding areas of these fish. I have heard of them being caught in areas such as the Kyles of Durness and Tongue on the northern coast of the Scottish Mainland so here’s hoping that they establish themselves in Shetland.
This more than made up for the loss of a decent sea trout.
Flyfishing Experience Shetland 