Another Estuary Trout

FISHING THE EBB

Trout are amazingly adaptable. They have learned how to survive in freshwater, salt water and in environments with varying degrees of salinity. For whatever reason some trout will remain where the tide ebbs and flows. The reason for this is that the tidal movement creates a flow of food items for the trout to feed on. Locating these areas where this movement is perhaps maximised will go a long way to how successful you are in targeting these fish. If you are fortunate enough to catch a trout in a marine environment, it’s colouration will give you an idea of where it has been predominately been feeding. If the locality is mainly sand the fish will be almost pure chrome in colouration and in areas where there is dense kelp and bladderwrack the fish will take on a more darker colouration to camouflage them from predators.

Like most other parts of the country Shetland “suffered” from a bit of a heatwave in June. Trout fishing in these conditions present a bit of a challenge and the best opportunity for success is to choose a day with a little cloud cover and a light breeze. The 26th June presented itself with none of these attributes but I decided to venture forth armed with polaroids , a baseball cap and plenty of sun blocker. For some reason I chose my 9.5 ft #4 Penn Gold Medal fly rod which I had bought on the recommendation of my longtime fishing friend David Pottinger as a lightweight rod for fishing nymphs and dries. The same rod caught me a 5 pound estuary trout which I described in my blog on “slob trout”. This time as there was an ebbing tide I decided to fish a tan coloured foam daddy on the dropper and an Orange Foam Daddy on the tail. I worked my way down to the point that you can see in the photograph above. Within a few casts I had some interest in the dropper fly which turned out to be a “piltock” which is the Shetland name for a small Coalfish. I tried a little further down with no success and decided to return to the point where I caught the piltock. As I lifted the rod a large fish seized the Orange Daddy on the tail. It took all my fly line off and a good proportion of the backing before it lept clear of the water. It jumped again before it ran off behind me into some seaweed. It completely encircled me before I was able to land it. What an amazing fight! The scales read 2 ounces short of 4 pounds. Definitely the best fight I had with a fish this year and landing it on such a light rod gave me such a thrill.

2022 A Difficult Season ?

Spiggie Beach Shetland

The weather in 2022 was much colder and wetter than usual throughout the spring and summer in Shetland. For me, fishing was not a top priority in 2022 as I found myself struggling with arthritis and many other things in my life prevented me from spending time pursuing trout in the lochs and voes of Shetland. I did however have some good days both with grilse, sea trout and brown trout in Shetland, the Isle of Skye and in other parts of Scotland.

The season started quite well for me with sea trout up to 3.5lbs or so. The one with a piece of its tail missing was caught in early March so it is a little bit on the lean side. The top fly was a dark brown foam daddy which accounted for many sea trout and in August and September, 4 out of the five grilse I caught in 2022 were on foam daddies.

The small grilse on the right of the middle row fell to a dark brown daddy long legs fished completely static in the sea pool. First time I can honestly say I have caught a salmon on a dry fly. It came out of the water like a polaris missile. All I had to do was hold the rod up and it hooked itself!
By the start of September some salmon still had not run. They could be seen jumping at the head of the tide but for reasons best known to themselves had decided not to run up the burn even although there was plenty water for them.
Salmon are so unpredictable. Whilst in the sea they will generally ignore a fly then for some unknown reason they will follow and take a fly. One day in particular I had tried a few casts over some coloured fish with no response whatsoever. Another angler had been trying further down the voe with a spinner and was packing up his rod when I went down to have a chat with him. He had found the same story not one had shown the slightest bit of interest. As we were talking, a coloured grilse of around 4 to 4.5 lbs lept within range of us. I suggested to him that he should have a go but he had taken his rod down and was heading for the car. He knew about my success with foam daddy long legs and admitted to being a little sceptical of how good they were. Half jokingly I said to him “watch this Peter!” I gently cast out my team of two daddies and the fish responded immediately to engulf my tan coloured foam daddy on the top dropper. After a spirited fight I slipped the net under him, released the fly from his jaw, quickly took a photo and carefully returned the fish. I think Peter was astonished that a fish would take such a drab coloured fly on a difficult day. With salmon you just never know when the conditions are going to be right. That’s what makes fishing so exciting.